I always like to read books about the country I'm traveling in. My Aunt Ronny suggested that I read THE WHITE TIGER, which was also Lonely Planet's top choice for Indian fiction. I picked the book up at a shop in the book quarter of Kolkata and read it in just a couple of days. Aravind Adiga, the author, has a great writing style and an extremely acute eye for societal observations; I guess it helps that he's Indian.
To me, the greatest line in the book came on the second page and it's something I thought about throughout my time in India. Here's what he wrote:
"...our nation, though it has no drinking water, electricity, sewage system, public transportation, sense of hygiene, discipline, courtesy, or punctuality, does have entrepreneurs."
For me, this is India in a nutshell. There are so many problem in India, but everyone is trying to make a dollar for themselves. And to me, this was the biggest problem of all...
