Page 191-203

At the pages 191-203 Balram tells how he starts getting corrput and how he pays 7000 Rupees for gettin beaten up.
It starts when Mr. Ashok is outside doing some walking with the other masters around the complex. The servants are standing at the corners holding their waterbottles and towels.
The blonde girl from the Ukraine doesn'tgo out of Balrams mind and so he asks Vitiligo-Lips to get him a girl like that. Vitiligo-Lips tells Balram that he needs at least 6500 Rupees for that. Balram asks how he could make some extra cash by cheating his master. Vitiligo-Lips tells him things like driving other people around when he is sure his master doesn't need the car at the moment, to siphon petrol from the masters car and sell it or even take the car to a corrupt mechanic, who takes way too much money and give the driver a cut of that amount. Balram starts doing those things, because he needs the money for the girl.
As he has enough money for the girl he tells it Vitiligo-Lips and they drive to the hotel the girl is at. Balram pays 6800 Rupees, because he is a servant.
They go upstairs to the girls room. Balram is quiet disappointed, because he had imagened, that the girl would be prettier. But nevertheless he had already paid and his twenty minutes are running. As he touches her he shrieks and slaps her, because her hair is dyed. The manager who took the money from Balram enters the room. Balram smashes his chin against the door turns around to the girl, because she is screaming and then gets beaten up and kicked out of the hotel. Vitiligo-Lips has already left and so Balram takes the bus for getting home.
Mr. Ashok is sitting on Balrams bed when he arrives. First thing he says to Balram is that he knows where he was and what he where doing there, because Vitiligo-Lips has told him. Balram gets nervous until he notices that Vitiligo-Lips has lied to Mr. Ashok and just told him Balram would be at the temple offering prayers for Mr. Ashoks health. Mr. Ashok tells Balram that he feels pitty for him and that Balram gets a new room to sleep in and that he can go to hospital to get his red marks he has on his palms and behind his ears treatened.
Mr. Ashok tells him that he is sick of the life he leads and that he would like to bea simple men, but he hasn't got the courache for doing that. They go eating together at Balrams the place Balram is used to eat.

Workout

I were wondering why the masters are doing their workout outside of the hotel. They are running around the complex, which might look quiet funny. If you have the money for a servant you can afford a hotel with a fitness center in it as well. For example the Park Plaza in Dehli has rooms from 8,999.00 - 9,999.00 Rupees per day.                                                     Park Plaza Hotel

Gurgaon-Where to find...

Article about Prostitutes in Delhi

Page 146-189

Introductivly Balram tells Mr. Jiabo things  about the Indian culture, like that the most of Indias citicens are servants and just a few are masters, but the servants wouldn't change that even if they could. He says that they are living in some kind of a rooster coop. But if they try to get out of there, their masters would kill them or destroy their family. Balram says that only a perverted person may do things like that.

Back in the former part of the story Balram is scared of going to jail, because of the incident with the child. He thinks about running away or tellingthe truth about the incident. but then the Stork comes to Delhi. As Balram takes notice of that he is really excited and hopes that he gets rescued by the Stork. It happens like that and the Sork tells Balram thathis help isn't needed anymore, because there was nobody who witnessed the accident with the child. That is a great relief for Balram. The Stork and the Mongoose stay for another four days and then go back to Dhanbad. The same day at night Balram takes Pinky Madam to the airport and goes back to the USA without saying good bye to Mr. Ashok.

As Mr. Ashok notices that, he makes Balram responsible for that and almost kills him in his madness. Mr. Ashok gets depressed and Balram suffers with him although he almost has been killed him. After one week the Mongoose comes to support Mr.Ashok.

In that time Balram gets a letter from Kusum. She writes that Kishan, Balrams brother, has married and that she doesn't want to force Balram to get married as well. Balram thiks she wants to blackmail him, to send some money, because he doesn't do that. If Kusum tells the Stork that Balram isn't sending money every month Balram, probably would get fired.
One day Balram takes Mr. Ashok to the shopping mall and after that to a hotel. He comes with a girl out of that hotel. Balram thinks it is a whore. They want to go to PVR Saket, a business complex with lots of shops and a cinema. There is one big market in it where Mr.Ashok goes with his chaperonage. Balram goes to a smaller market. There is a giant pile of books. Balram is interested in that, but all of the books and magazines are in English. He talks to the men who sales the books until he has to drive Mr. Ashok and his girl home. They are pretty drunk and go straight up to his appartment.
Balram dresses as Maharaja again and drives through the streets with music and A/C system turned on.
The next morning Balram hears nothing from Mr. Ashok and so he goes up and rings at the appartments door, but nobody opens. He eavesdrops a conversation between Mr. Ashok and the girl from last night. Balram recognizes that the girl is Mr. Ashoks old lover and not a pick-up. They talk about thingsout of the past.
after a phonecall from Dhanbad, Ashok tells her that he has to go to meet a cabinet minister. She leaves on her own. Mr. Ashok collects money from four different cash machines. After he has delivered the bribe to the minister a fat man, who is the ministers side-kick, comes out with Mr. Ashok and forces him to spend the evening together. The fat man tells Ashok that he has seen how a judge got beaten up in his own court by lawyers, because they didn't liked the order he had given. That makes him think that a civil war is coming up to India. They keep talking and during that the fat man forces Ashok to try a whore he knows, which is from Ukraine. They do it at a hotel and then Balram drives him home, but goes back to the hotel afer that, because he wants to see the Ukrainian girl walking out the hotel. Nothing happens, except that a policeman takes notice of Balram. When he comes up to him, Balram starts the car and drives home.

Servants in India

What I found interesting in that part of the book was that there are so many servants in India. I would have estimated th number of servants up to maybe 30-40%, but it reads in the book that if you are an Indian you areeither a servant or a master. Furthermore it reads, that 99.9% of all the citicens are servants. Ireally wouldn't have expected that. That means that there is a huge gap between rich and poor.

I think that is a fact which shows how democratic India really is, because in a democracy it isn't like that almost everybody has to suffer and some few have a real nice life because of that. What they have in India seems to me more like slavery.

nytimes-delhi
Murder by a servant

Page 128-145

At page 128-145 Balram enters a shoppingmall for the first time, Pinky Madams birthday is celebrated and a innocent child has to die and a innocent driver is supposed to go to jail for that.

It begins with the morning after he has bought his new clothes.

He drives Pinky Madam to the shoppingmall. When she has entered the mall, Balram changes clothes and gets in there too. He is excited. After a short while he goes back to the Honda and changes back. He meets Vitiligo-Lips out on the parking lot. One of the other drivers has got a new one way cell phone from his master. They talk about that.

Pinky Madam keeps getting angry, if the traffic doesn't work as she wishes and so she and Mr. Ashok keep fighting with eachother.

On Pinky Madams birthday Balram takes them to Connaught Place. When they come back they are drunk and want to go home. While Balram is driving, they are petting eachother and Mr. Ashok strokes Pinky Madams tigh. Mr. Ashok catches Balram at watching them. He says to Pinky Madam they would have to stop, because they aren't alone. Pinky Madam gets grumpy after she hears that. She stares ou of the window and decides that she wants to drive the car. Balram stops and she gets behind the steering wheel. She tells Balram he should walk the rest of the way, but then comes back. They are racing through red lights with top speed. A child walks over the street and gets hit by their car. They aren't sure from the first moment whether it was a child or a dog or something else, but when Balram cleans the car the same night, he finds some evidence for that it was  a child. The next evening the Mongoose is back in Delhi with a lawyer. They want Balram to sign a decleration, that he was driving the car and nobody else was with him.

I were impressed, when I read that a servant would go to jail for his master, even if he is innocent. I mean in my eyes it already is stupid to do something illegal, just because your master, employer etc. has told you so. But it is even more stupid to go to jail for something you haven't done. I think he has to be very loyal if he really does so. I would probably go crayz, if somebody forces me to something like that.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2010/20100618/ldh1.htm

Page 118-128

At page 118-128 the Mongoose goes back to Dhanbad, Balram drinks some Whiskey for the first time and Pinky Madam gets mad because his bad behaviour.

So the Mongoose goes back to Dhanbad and Balram appreciates that, because Mr. Ashok as strict with him as the Mongoose always is. But what he dislikes is, that Pinky Madams skirts get even shorter as they were, when the Mongoose was with them. He does so, because now he always gets an errection, when he is driving them somewhere.
When Balram gets his wages from Mr. Ashok, he asks what Balram does with the money. Balram lies to him and says, that he sends most of it home. He buys his first liquor whith the money he has just got.
The next morning he takes his time to get up to his masters. He has headaches and looks ill, because of the Whiskey he had last night. Pinky Madam wants him to make some tea and while he is doing that he scratches his groin. Pinky Madam notices that and starts shouting at him how disgusting she thinks he is and kicks him out.
In the evening Balram has to take them to the mall. While ha is waiting for them he chats with the other drivers. The vitiligo-lips one is there as well. Again he offers Balram to get some illegal stuff fo Balrams master, but Balram refuses that again.
Balram tells you how hard the free time is, a servant has while he has to wait for his master. Many drivers get adicted to alcohol, because they don't know what to do with all that time. But Balram uses his time to think and so he hasn't a problem with it. He changes the worst part of his work o the best.
One night Balram goes to the local market and buys a T-Shirt, black shoes and toothpaste for himself. He brushes his teeth for the first time and wonders why his father hadn't told him to do so. He spits the toothpaste into the sink and wishes he could spit out his past as easily as that toothpaste.


I think it is remarkable that the local market in guagon is still opend at night. You don't have that in most of the western countries. The Saharamall where Pinky Madam and Mr. Ashok like to go in the book has opend from 08:00am - 12:00pm everyday. The Kaufhaus des Westens in Berlin for example usually has opend 9.30am - 20.00pm only monday - saturday. But I don't think that is a problem in India, because the employees don't get much money for it and if they'd say no there are many more people how would like to work there.

http://www.gurgaonshoppingmalls.com/sahara-mall-gurgaon.php

Page 107-117

From page 107 - 117 Balram tells how the Mr. Ashok, Pinky Madam and the mongoose move to a gigantic apartment complex. It is called Buckingham Towers and the apartment they are supposed to live in is just as big as the kitchen in Dhanbad was. Balram lives in the basement of that building in the so called servants quarter. There they have to sleep with several servants in one room, but Balram doesn't wants to. The servant with the disease called Vitiligo had told the other servants that Balram is totally clueless and so they are teasing him all the time. So Balram decides to move in a barely small room in which fits just a bed and a mosquito net. At one morning while Balram cleans the car the brothers want to go to the Congress Party headquarters. He takes them there and while doing so he describes the rush hour in New Delhi. He says it'd take ten years out of a men's life, if he breathes the poluted air everyday. As they arrive, the two brothers get into the building and come back after two hours. Than they drive to the Presidents house.  Again Mr. Ashok and the Mongoose enter the building and are coming back after some time. They are in a bad mood and don't talk to eachother. After some time Mr. Ashok complaints about the political system in india and calls it "a fucking joke", because they had to bribe the minister.

On their way back to the apartment there is a fierce jam and it takes real long to get home. During the jam they see an autorickhaw driver who spats three times in a row right next to their car. Thats probably because the heavy poluted air he is breathing all day long.

As they come home and enter the room Pinky Madam just says that she had eaten already. Balram prepares some vegetables for Mr. Ashok and notices by casting a quick look on him that he is on the verge of tears.

Poluted air

I found it terrifying  that airquality is that bad in Delhi. There are heaps ofheaps of cars driving through the city and nobody cares about what happens to the people or the enviroment. But the government started thinking about this issue since they knew that the Commonwealth Games are in Delhi in October 2010, because they worried about the athlets health. To me this seems to be pretty unfair. Everyones health should have the same value, so if the government can change something about the airyuality they should do it right mow and not wait until there are some athlets coming around.

I found out that New Delhi is on rank five of the cities with the dirtiest air and that the level of airpollution is five times higher than the WHO considers as safe for a human being.(Source:http://shanghaiist.com/2006/12/18/beijing_is_dirt.php)

  

http://www.urbanemissions.info/sim-series-35.html

http://library.thinkquest.org/26026/Environmental_Problems/air_pollution.html



Page 94-107

The narration from page 94 - 107 is devided in two major parts. Incipiently he tells about how much he loves candaliers and that he doesn't know why not everybody has one and how he hids himself in Bangalore after the murder on Mr. Ashok. Then the first part starts.

He talks about the traffic system of Delhi. He says that it isn't a system of logic. Also the way they number their houses is no system of logic, because F 378 comes afer A 231 and things like that. He tells you that he doesn't really like the city, because the work as a driver is much harder if you don't know which way to go.

To insult injury the Mongoose always gets angry when Balram looses their way, so Balram is scared of being fired, but Mr. Ashok doesn't trust the people in New Delhi and takes pity with Balram. Mr. Ashok and the Mongoose have problems with the Great Socialist again because their father ,the Stork, wants to take distance from the Great Socialist. That isn't quite in the sense of the Great Socialist and so he wants to make them do what he wants by letting them pay enormous taxes on their business. In order to solve this problem Mr. Ashok and the Mongoose try to get an interview with a minister in New Delhi, but they need a fixer for getting in contact with one.

In the second part Balram talks to another driver while he is waiting in front of a shopping mall in Gurgaon, wich has turned within 10 years from a farmer district to the modernst suburb in New Delhi. There are plenty other servants waiting in front of that mall for their masters, because they aren't allowed to enter the mall. They are gabbing and reading. There is a pretty famous magazin, wich is called Murderer weekly. It is provided by the government and its content are  fictional cases of murders in order to make the servants aware of how cruel it is to kill somebody.

Balram gets to know one of the other drivers. He tells that the other driver also comes from the Darkness, so Balram has something in common with him. But he doesn't like him too much, because the other driver has a disease called Vitiligo and Balram finds it pretty digusting. Vitiligo makes parts of the skin or even the whole skin turn into white. The driver has it on his lips. Balram says that his stomach churns when he sees him. But nevertheless the other driver has some usefull informations for Balram. He tells Balram that he should have a mosquito net while he is waiting for his master in front of clubs in the evening. Thats pretty important because some Mosquitos are infected with a virus and if one of that bites you, you are probably dead. Then he tells him that the police is totally rotten and that you have to bribe them 100 rupees if they catch you without wearing your saftey belt.

Furthermore he tells Balram that he has contacts to the american embassy and could get him alcohol that is free of tax, women or even boys for his master. But Balram rejects that.

Vitiligo

What I found interesting is the disease that the other driver has. It is the same disease which was responsible for Michael Jacksons skin turn into white. It occurs when the cells which are responsible for the pigmentation die or are unable to function. I was quiet shocked when I read, that you can loose the colour of your eyes or the colour of the inside of   your mouth.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitiligo

Page 79-95

From Page 79-95 Balram talks about democracy, because it is election time. He tells that he owes democracy his birthday, because once there came a man to Balrams school and wrote the name and date of birth of everyone down, but his parents never took note of his birthday and so the men from government said to Balram that this day should be his 18th birthday.
On the one hand he says to Mr. Jiabo that India is better then china, because they have democracy and on the other hand he doesn't really believe in the politicans and democracy in India, because where he lives the servants don't vote for themself, but those who have money and power buy their votes. The upcoming elections seem to be closer as before for the Great Socialist party, because there are 93 criminal cases pending against them, including murder, rape and pimping. Three ministers are already in jail. The landlords use his weakness to increase their political influence by founding a party on their own and try to catch some votes. One week before the elections, the Great socialist and the landlords come to the arrangement, that the stork becomes the president of the Laxmanargh branch of the great socialist party and for that the landlords close their party. Balram tells about one servant that goes mad on the day of the election, because he couldn't vote. He goes to the members of the Great Socialist party and tells them he wants to vote. They kill him for that. 
The Great Socialist wins the election and after that it is buisness as usual.
One day the Great Socialist comes to the storks house, because he wants to have 1.5 Million rupees from them. Otherwise he wouldn't allow them anymore to take cole from the government mines for free anymore.
Next thing which happens is, that Balram gets to know that Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam are supposed to go to New Delhi. One driver will go with them and get 3000 rupees a month instead of the 1700 rupees at Dhanbad. At first it seems like Ram Persad will go with them. The Nepali servant wants 5000 rupees from Balram for telling the Stork Balram would be better to go to New Delhi. But Balram hasn't got the money. The tide turns when Balram finds out that Ram Persad isn't a Hindu, but a Muslim and that the Nepali servant knew about that the whole time. The Landlords don't want to have muslim servants, so he has something to make them do what he wants. That means from now Balram is the servant number one and can go to New Dehli with Mr. Ashok and his brother Mongoose.

What I found interessting was the busses which go to New Delhi. They are fully loaded with people everywhere. They even sit on the buses roof.

You couldn't imagine such things in germany, but I think in India the laws are more flexible.

www.preetindersodhi.com/pictures/the-indian-bus/

Page 63-78

From page 63-78 Balram continues working for the landlords. He gets an new sleepingroom, where he can sleep seperated from Ram Persad. Mr. Ashok also decides, that he wants to visit Laxmangarh, because it is his hometown. So Balram takes Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam there in the Honda city, which is the better car of the two ones they have. On their way to Laxmangarh Pinky Madam and Mr. Ashok argue about going back to New York, so Balram starts to worrie about loosing his job. As they arrive at the lanlords mansion Balrams has some sparetime to see his family. He has a bad conscience, because he hasn't send money to his family for over two month, but they aren't to mad on him. While they are having lunch Kusum, their granny, starts to talk about Balrams wedding and that she already has found a girl for him. Balram tells her that he doesn't want to marry yet and they have a big fight. Balram smashes his meal away in the corner and as Kishan wants to stop him from leaving, he pushes him away. After that Balram just drives his master Mr. Ashok and Pinky Madam back without any excuse.



I found it interesting that the people in India get married by there parents. I thought that India would be more progressiv. It is just the wrong way to choose somebody for your marriage, because you're supposed to spent the rest of your life with that person no matter you might benefit from that.
http://allindiadaughtersprotectionforum.blogspot.com/2009/10/india-has-13rd-of-worlds-child.html
http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node/1763

Page 36-63

From page 36-63 The White Tiger talks about murdering Mr.Ashok, how he moves from Laxmanargh to Dhanbad, where he meets Mr. Ashok the first time and he tells about how his father dies.
In the beginning he talks about his relation to Mr. Ashok. He says that he has much respect for him, because he treats everyone around him with respect.
Balram moves to Dhanbad when his Dad dies. He has Tuberculosis and they bring him to a public hospital, but there is no doctor. All the doctors are in private hospitals to make more money and the superintendent, who should be supervising the doctors gets payed off. That means that no doctor cares about those public hospitals. So since there is no doctor for healing his father he has to die.
His cousin Kishna gets married to a girl and this wedding brings some money for the family. After that eventually Balram, Kishna and Dillip move to Dhanbad. They got work at a tea shop there as well. Balram overhears a conversation in this tea shop in which two guys talk about beeing a driver and how much money you get by that. So Balram tells Kishna that he wants to be a driver.
Kishna gets the money from their granny.
Balram has to pay 300 rupees plus a bonus. An old men teaches Balram how to drive. As his apprenticeship is over he gets a reward from his teacher in form of loosing his virginity with a whore. After that he has no job and walks from door to door asking, if somebody needs a driver. After to weeks he almost gives in, but than he gets to Storks house, who is one of the four Landlords from Laxmanargh. He still knows Balram from the old days in Laxmanargh and they just need a driver right at that moment. His son is Mr. Ashok and Balram starts to work for them.

What I found pretty interesting was that he could learn driving from another driver. That seems to be pretty simple, but I checked it out and you have to pass an oral test for getting a learners license. With that you can practice driving together with a permanent license holder for six months. Also an red "L" for learner has to be painted on the front and back of the car. You have to pay 60 Rupees (1€) of fees and fill out some formulars. Then you get tested in driving by an expert and if you pass that test you got your driving license.

So it is definetly plausible how Balram gets his driving license in the book.

http://auto.indiamart.com/user-manual/driving-license.html

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/businessline/banking/crcrrate/mmeur.htm

Page 1-36

In the first chapter the narrator talks about his youth, how he was growing up and which things were of great influence for his life.
He writes at night to the chinese Premier called Wen Jiabo.
His name is Balram Halwai. His mother died when he was a young boy. The funeral was at the ganges and she has been burned. His father wants to make him succesful and herefore he sends him to school everyday, instead of getting him to work. This seems to pay off when a schoolinspector comes to Balrams school and recognizes what kind of intelligent boy Balram is. The schoolinspector promises him to get him a scholarship for going to a better school without a corrupt director. After that it turns out like his cousin-sister gets married to a guy. That means Balrams family has to pay the wedding and get gifts for the guy. The family takes a big loan from the Stork, on of the four big landlords in that city. In order to pay there depts, Balram has to start working and stop going to school.


I was impressed of the picture, that came to my mind when the author wrote about the Ganges. He tells that there is feces, straw, soggy parts of human bodies, buffalo carrion, and seven different kinds of industrial acids in there.
There is a Link to Youtube if you're interested.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wb_yDBmRgmU