Howzzat!

  The White Tiger By Aravind Adiga         2008 was a year reminiscent to most Indian book lovers.  Chennai born Aravind Adiga and Delhi bred Amitav Ghosh were the Indian names among those shortlisted for the 2008 Man Booker Prize for Fiction. It was the then 34 year old Adiga who walked away with the £50,000 award for his ambitious debut novel ‘ the White Tiger’ , a book whose complex take on the whimsical  notions of Indian modernity were marvelled yet criticized by literary figures and readers alike.      Adiga’s protagonist Balram Halwai , a self-confessed scoundrel cum “successful” entrepreneur, writes a letter to the visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in which he narrates his rags-to-riches story, a tale devoid of all traits bearing resemblance to honesty, loyalty or kindness and where greed unashamedly greets you in its entirety.      Balram, son of a rickshaw puller, is drawn out of...

There are quite a handful of movies that bored me the first time I watched them. Later on, I kept thinking about them, reminiscing their scenes  which made me realize how bad a movie buff I've been. Here is a pick of such movies (in no particular order) that have enthralled me every time I watch them(pity not the first time..) Apur Sansar (1959)                       -Satyajit Ray         Satyajit Ray’s genius unfolds in each scene like poetry. The final part of “the Apu Trilogy” shows us a struggling, aspiring writer Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) tricked by fate into loving and losing a charm of a wife like Aparna (a rather young Sharmila Tagore) to childbirth after which he abandons both his manuscript and his son, Kajal . Apu’s subsequent acceptance of his son and therefore his life ends the movie on a poignant note.               ...