"The White Tiger" for a rainy Sunday

Incredible! It is almost high summer in Salvador, and today it's been raining cats, dogs, and, as we'd say in Brazilian Portuguese (or maybe Brazilian English), jacknives. For us, baianos, it's a sin, but as we can't do much about it, we stay home, do a few little things and relax. As for me, I am doing little things and reading, of course. This time, "The White Tiger", a recently published book by Indian-born Aravind Adiga, writer and journalist for TIME Magazine in India and Southeast Asia. It's a very interesting story. First of all, the book doesn't talk about India, the exotic place we are all used to hearing of and expecting to be depicted. On the contrary, it is about the rise of a new India, one of the 21st century's powerhouses, bringing along all the good and, especially, bad things, we have in any place. The reader sees India through the eyes of Balram, who was born in the "darkness" of rural India, but struggles to become a rich businessman in thriving Bangalore. He hears on the radio the Prime Minister of China is on his way to India. Then, in seven letters to the minister, he tells all about his personal life and what expects the Chinese politician in this "new" India. Lots of surprises. I'm enjoying it, especially because of the rain...