Indian literature has all this while been usually been centered around identity, migration, roots. It's not surprising, since the concept of identity is unusually poignant when being placed in a foreign land. There is Jhumpa Lahiri, Hari Kunzru, Kiran Desai etc. who all deal with similar issues. These issues are important and close to the heart, but then again, in the 21st Century globalising world, there is more to what they have all written about. Which is why I believe Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger won this year's Man Booker.

I know I'm late but it was O Levels! You don't expect me to read a whole book during O Levels do you?

The White Tiger talks brilliantly about the widening hyper wide divide between rich and poor in the India that has come to ambitions for world superpower. It illustrates the life of Balram, who comes from The Darkness (how aptly put) and how he has broken out of his poverty and gone into The Light. Except his story does not follow convention. People do not break out of poverty in India, it is their caste, their life, their destiny. The reason why they were born to this state is because of all the sins they committed in their past life. Or so they say.

It is the first Man Booker I've ever finished reading. It is an easy read, I read it through in one sitting. Social consciousness is never enough to deal with this issue. But then how can we?