Booker prize.

WhenI heard that Arundhathi Roy [anIndian woman] had won the supposedly highly coveted Booker prize I invaded the neighbourhood Lending library relentlessly like Mahmud of Ghazni to get my hand on that precious copy which was being continuosly borrowed by one member or the other.Finally when I won my trophy and read it I felt that my efforts were in vain! Her language is good but the plot ,the atrocities committed by the people belonging to the higher caste on those belonging to the lower caste which I read daily on the news papers made me weary.

I did'nt learn my lesson and my colonial mindset again went into raptures when subsequently another Indian authoress I think it was a writer named Kiran Mehta won a Bookerand after her Aravind Adiga.It was just like those days when suddenly the world discovered that India was filled with beauties and there was a long line of beauty queens [barring a few no self respecting Indian will consider them as beauties]selected [or nominated] one after the other in the world beautycontests.

Returning to the topic 'Booker prize' both the books awarded with that prize have nothing to boast of except that like their predecessor ,they have taken a mighty swipe at Indian society and have exposed our meanest habits.
To give credit where it is due -Arundathi has given good descriptions of events and the landscape in pleasing language ,whilst Adiga 's white tiger is -'ugh'[the expression I am forced to use] and was glad that I bought only a pirated copy from a pavement seller and thus had the satisfaction of not spending too much money on reading harsh and bare facts which we are all well aware of .

Whereas Amitav Ghosh who keeps losing the Booker race [ how could he win ,he takes a dig at the British often] writes interesting stories that are well woven facts and fiction in enjoyable language.

It seems that any Indian writing in English is assured of a Booker if that writer exposes to the world the dirty and seedy side of Indian society.

I too write about the flaws in our society and customs in my blogs but that is all within the family and I would'nt relish getting a prize for exposing the skeleton in the cupboard , that to from our former colonial masters !It would make me hang my head in shame.

Once upon a time I used to greatly look forward to reading books that won the Booker prize thinking that the English would honour people with prizes who write like Shakespeare or Keats stating sublime truths like 'To be or not to be' or 'A thing of beauty is a joy for ever' or for using aesthetic language, but I have been sorely disappointed and have decided never to touch a book especially those written by Indian authors that has won a Booker even with a barge pole!