<em>The White Tiger's</em> Impact
My most recent humanities moment would have to be a book I recently finished based on my brother's recommendation. Named <em>The White Tiger</em>, the book was recently adapted into a Netflix film, which follows the story of an ambitious and cunning rich family's driver in India and how he manages to overcome his impoverished lifestyle and rise to the top as an entrepreneur. The reason why this book resonated with me so much is because it perfectly encapsulates the reality of India's ranked social and political system and how it can play a role in every individual's life. The author, Aravind Adiga, does such an amazing job breaking down the characteristics of society through a metaphoric and satirical tone. Upon finishing the book, I enthusiastically discussed it with my brother and our family. My parents were born and raised in Jaipur, India. The realities of Indian society explained through the book came as a surprise to my brother and I, but were quite the norm for my parents. They found it amusing how my brother and I could not believe the atrocious events that took place in the book whereas they'd witnessed these events every day growing up. It definitely put into perspective the vastly different lifestyles that people like my brother and I, who were raised abroad with expensive international educations and privileges, have from people like my parents. This book is a current favorite and I definitely recommend it. If you're considering simply watching the film on Netflix so you can get away without the extra reading, I'd highly advise against that. After all, we all know the book is always better than the film.
Aravind Adiga
<em>The White Tiger</em>
June 2021
Vyapti Wadhwaney, 18, Student
white-tiger-impact
Abu’s Afsanas
Oral history—one of the oldest humanities.
My Abu (‘father’ in Urdu) is my favorite storyteller ... I grew up with stories of his childhood in India and later in his life: he and his best friend, Shafi, climbing neem trees in Puna; them trying to get back at a bully, but having their elaborate plan—with one of them crouching behind the bully while the other pushed him over—completely backfire (getting beat-up for a second time!); them tapping people’s heads from atop a wall as the clueless souls walked by not knowing what just happened; traveling by boat from India to Zanzibar, where my uncle was stationed on the hill opposite from the Sultan’s palace; stories of my grandfather, a famous detective who headed up the investigation of the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi; my father coming to ‘America’ in 1959 as a Fulbright scholar to study engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and witnessing the burgeoning Civil Rights movement ... These were the stories that shaped me, my worldview, and piqued my interest in studying history ... And I haven’t even gotten into my mother’s stories of growing up in Peru! (N.B.: ‘Afsanas’ are short stories in Urdu.)
Abu
Oral history—one of the oldest humanities
Over the course of our lifetimes
<a href="http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/humanities-in-class-guide-thinking-learning-in-humanities/">Omar H. Ali</a>, 46, Historian
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