WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.640 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. Today we're doing 00:00:02.640 --> 00:00:05.139 something a little different. Usually we look 00:00:05.139 --> 00:00:07.940 at a specific concept or, you know, a historical 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:12.060 event, but today we're looking at a person. Right, 00:00:12.160 --> 00:00:14.500 a person who really embodies this collision of 00:00:14.500 --> 00:00:17.219 two completely different worlds. Yeah, we're 00:00:17.219 --> 00:00:19.179 talking about Eravinda Diga. And it's a name 00:00:19.179 --> 00:00:21.399 that carries a lot of weight in literary circles, 00:00:21.539 --> 00:00:24.019 obviously, but the reason we picked him for a 00:00:24.019 --> 00:00:26.250 Deep Dive isn't just because he wrote... one 00:00:26.250 --> 00:00:28.690 incredibly famous book no it's because of the 00:00:28.690 --> 00:00:32.409 road he took to get there it's just it's not 00:00:32.409 --> 00:00:34.929 the typical path yeah that's the hook for me 00:00:34.929 --> 00:00:37.950 because if you look at the typical sort of literary 00:00:37.950 --> 00:00:40.789 sensation origin story it usually involves an 00:00:40.789 --> 00:00:43.549 mfa program right maybe some poetry published 00:00:43.549 --> 00:00:45.929 in obscure journals a lot of brooding and coffee 00:00:45.929 --> 00:00:51.350 shops exactly adiga's path was well messier or 00:00:51.679 --> 00:00:54.880 Maybe cleaner is the word, but in like a corporate 00:00:54.880 --> 00:00:56.600 sense. That's a good way to put it. This is a 00:00:56.600 --> 00:00:58.820 man who spent his days analyzing the stock market. 00:00:58.899 --> 00:01:01.479 It's unbelievable. He was wading through financial 00:01:01.479 --> 00:01:04.640 reports, tracking global capital flows, interviewing 00:01:04.640 --> 00:01:08.439 CEOs. And then he just turns around and writes 00:01:08.439 --> 00:01:11.659 a novel that wins the Man Booker Prize on his 00:01:11.659 --> 00:01:15.239 very first try. It's the ultimate aha moment. 00:01:15.359 --> 00:01:16.959 I mean, just think about the headspace difference 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:19.599 there. Yeah. In the morning. You're writing for 00:01:19.599 --> 00:01:23.260 Money magazine, trying to explain why a particular 00:01:23.260 --> 00:01:26.459 tech stock is overvalued. And then in the evening, 00:01:26.540 --> 00:01:29.060 you're channeling the voice of a murderer from 00:01:29.060 --> 00:01:31.260 the back streets of Delhi. It creates this fascinating 00:01:31.260 --> 00:01:34.180 tension in his work. You know, you have the rigid 00:01:34.180 --> 00:01:37.840 discipline of facts and numbers colliding with 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:41.810 this wild, untamed freedom of fiction. And that's 00:01:41.810 --> 00:01:43.349 really our mission today. We aren't just doing 00:01:43.349 --> 00:01:45.329 a biography. No, this is an unpacking. Yeah, 00:01:45.370 --> 00:01:47.150 we want to unpack how a financial journalist 00:01:47.150 --> 00:01:50.150 used what he called his return ticket to India 00:01:50.150 --> 00:01:53.549 to expose the gritty underbelly of its class 00:01:53.549 --> 00:01:56.230 system in a way that, frankly, no one else was 00:01:56.230 --> 00:01:58.189 really doing at that time. And we have a lot 00:01:58.189 --> 00:02:00.290 to get through. We've got stacks of biographical 00:02:00.290 --> 00:02:02.609 data. We've got his journalism archives. We've 00:02:02.609 --> 00:02:04.829 got all the critical reception of his novels. 00:02:05.230 --> 00:02:08.509 It's a mountain of material. It is. We're going 00:02:08.509 --> 00:02:11.819 to trace his journey. from South India all the 00:02:11.819 --> 00:02:14.750 way to Australia. then to the Ivy League, and 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:17.949 finally back to the beautiful chaos of New Delhi. 00:02:18.129 --> 00:02:21.009 And we absolutely cannot forget the detour where 00:02:21.009 --> 00:02:23.189 he interviewed Donald Trump. Oh, we are definitely 00:02:23.189 --> 00:02:25.490 spending time on that. That is my favorite nugget 00:02:25.490 --> 00:02:28.150 in this whole research pile. It feels like a 00:02:28.150 --> 00:02:31.330 glitch in the simulation. It really does. But 00:02:31.330 --> 00:02:33.689 beyond the trivia, we need to analyze the white 00:02:33.689 --> 00:02:36.310 tiger, of course, but also his later work. He's 00:02:36.310 --> 00:02:38.830 written about cricket, about real estate, about 00:02:38.830 --> 00:02:41.629 undocumented immigrants in Australia. He's got 00:02:41.629 --> 00:02:44.289 so much to say. about who gets to succeed in 00:02:44.289 --> 00:02:46.650 the modern world. And who gets left behind. So 00:02:46.650 --> 00:02:48.629 let's stop looking at the map and actually start 00:02:48.629 --> 00:02:51.669 the drive. If we want to figure out how a guy 00:02:51.669 --> 00:02:54.150 ends up bridging the gap between Wall Street 00:02:54.150 --> 00:02:57.250 reporting and literary fiction, we can't just 00:02:57.250 --> 00:02:59.330 look at his resume. No, you have to go back to 00:02:59.330 --> 00:03:00.710 the beginning. We have to look at his roots. 00:03:01.110 --> 00:03:03.930 And honestly, his start in life was, well, it 00:03:03.930 --> 00:03:06.169 wasn't exactly the slumdog narrative you might 00:03:06.169 --> 00:03:09.110 expect given his subject matter. No, not at all. 00:03:09.150 --> 00:03:10.949 And that's a crucial distinction to make right 00:03:10.949 --> 00:03:14.030 up front. Aravind Adhika was born on October 00:03:14.030 --> 00:03:17.759 23, 1974. In Madras, which is now Chennai, of 00:03:17.759 --> 00:03:20.300 course. Right. But his family roots are really 00:03:20.300 --> 00:03:22.719 in Mangalore, in the state of Karnataka. OK, 00:03:22.800 --> 00:03:24.599 but let's dig into the family tree for a second, 00:03:24.659 --> 00:03:27.379 because this is where that whole struggling artist 00:03:27.379 --> 00:03:29.759 narrative just completely falls apart. It completely 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.099 evaporates. He comes from a very established, 00:03:32.240 --> 00:03:35.659 very prestigious lineage. His paternal grandfather, 00:03:36.099 --> 00:03:38.860 Kayserian Ariana Adiga, wasn't just, you know, 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:41.599 a local businessman. He was the chairman of Karnataka 00:03:41.599 --> 00:03:43.919 Bank. OK, so let's just pause on that. We're 00:03:43.919 --> 00:03:45.819 talking about serious financial literacy. at 00:03:45.819 --> 00:03:48.020 the dinner table. Oh, for sure. If your grandfather 00:03:48.020 --> 00:03:51.919 runs a bank, you grow up understanding what interest 00:03:51.919 --> 00:03:54.099 rates do to people. You understand capital. You 00:03:54.099 --> 00:03:56.520 understand leverage. It's in the water you drink. 00:03:56.800 --> 00:03:58.599 Precisely. And then on the other side of the 00:03:58.599 --> 00:04:01.240 family, his maternal great -grandfather, Yura 00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:04.300 Marau, was a popular medical practitioner and 00:04:04.300 --> 00:04:07.039 a really significant politician in Madras. So 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.699 on both sides, you have this DNA of public service, 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:14.740 finance, and professional success. Right. He 00:04:14.740 --> 00:04:17.459 grew up in an environment where high achievement 00:04:17.459 --> 00:04:20.019 wasn't just encouraged. It was the baseline. 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:22.660 It was the absolute expectation. It sets the 00:04:22.660 --> 00:04:26.060 stage for incredibly high expectations. He grew 00:04:26.060 --> 00:04:28.100 up in Mangalore, attending Canara High School 00:04:28.100 --> 00:04:30.639 and then St. Aloysius College. So up until about 00:04:30.639 --> 00:04:34.459 1990. He's deeply embedded in the Indian educational 00:04:34.459 --> 00:04:36.620 system. Right. And for those who aren't familiar, 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:39.600 St. Aloysius is a Jesuit institution. So it's 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:42.199 rigorous. It's very rigorous. It values disciplines, 00:04:42.500 --> 00:04:45.480 intellectualism. It's a very serious place. But 00:04:45.480 --> 00:04:49.139 then everything changes. The family emigrates. 00:04:49.199 --> 00:04:52.699 They move down under to Sydney, Australia. And 00:04:52.699 --> 00:04:55.420 this is the first major pivot point in his life. 00:04:55.819 --> 00:04:58.720 He goes from Mangalore, India to Sydney, Australia, 00:04:59.040 --> 00:05:01.500 and he enrolls in a school called James Roos 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:04.300 Agricultural High School. OK, wait, Agricultural 00:05:04.300 --> 00:05:06.399 High School. That sounds like he's out learning 00:05:06.399 --> 00:05:08.819 to drive tractors or shear sheep or something. 00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:10.279 Is that what he was doing? See, that's what the 00:05:10.279 --> 00:05:12.879 name suggests. But James Roos is actually legendary 00:05:12.879 --> 00:05:14.980 in Australia for a completely different reason. 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:17.779 It is consistently the highest performing academic 00:05:17.779 --> 00:05:21.290 school in all of New South Wales. It is an absolute 00:05:21.290 --> 00:05:23.790 academic pressure cooker. So it's not about farming. 00:05:24.089 --> 00:05:26.670 It's about absolutely crushing the equivalent 00:05:26.670 --> 00:05:29.550 of the SATs. Exactly. It's a selective public 00:05:29.550 --> 00:05:32.129 school. It's incredibly, incredibly competitive. 00:05:32.709 --> 00:05:35.310 So just try to imagine this for a second. Yeah. 00:05:35.350 --> 00:05:37.430 You're a teenage immigrant. You've just landed 00:05:37.430 --> 00:05:39.550 in a brand new country, and you are thrown into 00:05:39.550 --> 00:05:41.569 the most intellectually competitive environment 00:05:41.569 --> 00:05:44.829 in the entire state. That experience of being 00:05:44.829 --> 00:05:47.769 the outsider who has to not just keep up but 00:05:47.769 --> 00:05:50.800 outperform the insiders? That had to have shaped 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.779 his work ethic. It must have. The pressure would 00:05:52.779 --> 00:05:55.660 be immense. It sounds exhausting, honestly. But 00:05:55.660 --> 00:05:57.980 clearly he thrived on it. Because the academic 00:05:57.980 --> 00:06:00.480 journey didn't stop in Sydney. He just keeps 00:06:00.480 --> 00:06:03.360 leveling up. From Sydney, he heads to New York 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:06.439 City. To Columbia University. He enters the Ivy 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:09.040 League to study English literature. And he didn't 00:06:09.040 --> 00:06:11.959 just scrape by. He graduated as the salutatorian 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:14.879 of the class of 1997. Salutatorian at Columbia. 00:06:15.290 --> 00:06:17.970 That is a massive, massive achievement. But I 00:06:17.970 --> 00:06:20.009 want to dig into who he was learning from because 00:06:20.009 --> 00:06:22.930 the names here really matter. I saw that he studied 00:06:22.930 --> 00:06:26.089 under Simon Summa. Yes, the historian Simon Stamma. 00:06:26.170 --> 00:06:27.810 No, when I think of historians, I usually think 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:30.509 of, you know, dusty academics just listing dates 00:06:30.509 --> 00:06:33.829 and battles. But Shumma is, he's different, isn't 00:06:33.829 --> 00:06:37.050 he? he's very different simon stama is a narrator 00:06:37.050 --> 00:06:40.089 he's a storyteller first and foremost if you 00:06:40.089 --> 00:06:42.550 read his book citizens which is about the french 00:06:42.550 --> 00:06:45.610 revolution he treats history like a character 00:06:45.610 --> 00:06:48.470 -driven drama right he focuses on the sensory 00:06:48.470 --> 00:06:52.189 details the blood the noise the smells the individual 00:06:52.189 --> 00:06:55.410 voices he makes it feel alive so if you're a 00:06:55.410 --> 00:06:57.250 young writer studying under a guy like shama 00:06:57.250 --> 00:06:59.290 you're learning that history isn't just about 00:06:59.290 --> 00:07:02.470 forces and trends it's about people exactly you 00:07:02.470 --> 00:07:04.920 learn that to make people care about the macro, 00:07:05.040 --> 00:07:06.860 the big picture. You have to obsess over the 00:07:06.860 --> 00:07:09.040 micro. The individual story. The individual story. 00:07:09.240 --> 00:07:11.680 I think you can draw a direct line from Shoma's 00:07:11.680 --> 00:07:15.040 teaching to... Adiga's writing style. When Adiga 00:07:15.040 --> 00:07:17.100 writes The White Tiger, he isn't giving you a 00:07:17.100 --> 00:07:20.399 dry sociological paper on poverty in India. No, 00:07:20.500 --> 00:07:22.560 not at all. He's giving you a voice. He's giving 00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:24.860 you the spit and the grit and the anger. And 00:07:24.860 --> 00:07:27.139 that's the Skama influence, that realization 00:07:27.139 --> 00:07:30.980 that the big picture is best understood through 00:07:30.980 --> 00:07:34.040 the lens of a single, compelling, and maybe even 00:07:34.040 --> 00:07:36.720 unreliable voice. And just when you think the 00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:39.120 resume can't get any more elite, he crosses the 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:42.250 Atlantic again. He goes to Oxford. Magdalene 00:07:42.250 --> 00:07:45.310 College specifically. And there, his tutor was 00:07:45.310 --> 00:07:48.509 Hermione Lee. Who is a legend in her own right. 00:07:48.589 --> 00:07:50.730 I mean, she's the definitive biographer of Virginia 00:07:50.730 --> 00:07:53.089 Woolf and Edith Wharton. Right. So now he's learning 00:07:53.089 --> 00:07:55.490 from the master of biography. He's learning how 00:07:55.490 --> 00:07:58.329 to deconstruct a life, how to look at the psychological 00:07:58.329 --> 00:08:01.389 motivations of the subject, how to find the narrative 00:08:01.389 --> 00:08:04.009 thread in a person's existence. So let's just 00:08:04.009 --> 00:08:07.209 pause and look at this roadmap again. Mangler 00:08:07.209 --> 00:08:10.449 to Sydney. Sydney to Columbia. Columbia to Oxford. 00:08:10.839 --> 00:08:13.720 It is a hyper -elite, thoroughly Western education. 00:08:14.100 --> 00:08:15.920 And I think this is where the critical analysis 00:08:15.920 --> 00:08:18.139 really has to come in. You have a man who has 00:08:18.139 --> 00:08:20.100 been groomed in the halls of the Ivy League in 00:08:20.100 --> 00:08:22.439 Oxford, studying under world -class historians 00:08:22.439 --> 00:08:25.699 and biographers. But, and this is the huge twist 00:08:25.699 --> 00:08:28.519 in the story, he eventually becomes famous for 00:08:28.519 --> 00:08:31.740 writing about the absolute grittiest street -level 00:08:31.740 --> 00:08:34.210 realities of India. It feels like a contradiction, 00:08:34.409 --> 00:08:36.450 doesn't it? It seems like one, but I'd argue 00:08:36.450 --> 00:08:39.450 it's actually his superpower. How so? It creates 00:08:39.450 --> 00:08:42.889 this unique outsider insider perspective. He 00:08:42.889 --> 00:08:45.470 has the intellectual tools of Western academia, 00:08:45.750 --> 00:08:48.649 you know, critical theory, narrative structure, 00:08:48.929 --> 00:08:52.710 historical context. But he applies them to the 00:08:52.710 --> 00:08:56.350 visceral lived reality of his homeland. So he's 00:08:56.350 --> 00:08:59.289 not just observing, he's diagnosing. He's got 00:08:59.289 --> 00:09:02.129 the clinical tools to analyze the patient. That's 00:09:02.129 --> 00:09:04.330 a perfect way to put it. He can see the systems 00:09:04.330 --> 00:09:06.210 at play because he has stepped outside of them. 00:09:06.429 --> 00:09:08.570 If he had never left India, never gone to Sydney 00:09:08.570 --> 00:09:10.549 or New York, he might have been too close to 00:09:10.549 --> 00:09:12.009 the picture to see the frame. Yeah, that makes 00:09:12.009 --> 00:09:14.029 sense. His education gave him the zoom lens. 00:09:14.230 --> 00:09:16.230 He can zoom all the way out to the global economic 00:09:16.230 --> 00:09:18.649 view, thanks to that education. But then he can 00:09:18.649 --> 00:09:20.909 zoom all the way back in to a tea shop on a street 00:09:20.909 --> 00:09:23.379 corner in Delhi. And that ability to zoom out 00:09:23.379 --> 00:09:26.139 was sharpened by his next career move, which 00:09:26.139 --> 00:09:28.379 for me is the most interesting part of his whole 00:09:28.379 --> 00:09:30.620 resume. I agree. We need to talk about the financial 00:09:30.620 --> 00:09:34.039 journalist's face. Because he didn't leave Oxford 00:09:34.039 --> 00:09:36.700 and immediately start writing novels in some 00:09:36.700 --> 00:09:40.120 dusty garret. He got a job. He did. He went right 00:09:40.120 --> 00:09:42.299 into the belly of the beast. He started as an 00:09:42.299 --> 00:09:45.139 intern at the Financial Times. The FT. The pink 00:09:45.139 --> 00:09:48.779 paper. That is serious, serious business news. 00:09:48.919 --> 00:09:51.460 It is. And then he moved on to writing pieces 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:54.100 for Money and Time magazines. And we need to 00:09:54.100 --> 00:09:56.259 be really clear about what his beat was here. 00:09:56.460 --> 00:09:58.940 Yeah. This wasn't arts reporting. He wasn't reviewing 00:09:58.940 --> 00:10:01.879 plays or interviewing poets. No, he was covering 00:10:01.879 --> 00:10:04.100 the stock market and investment. Hard finance. 00:10:04.320 --> 00:10:07.179 He was looking at numbers, at trends, at corporate 00:10:07.179 --> 00:10:10.059 movements, at debt to equity ratios. I feel like 00:10:10.059 --> 00:10:11.940 we breezed past that. But let's stop and think 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:14.179 about what that actually does to your brain as 00:10:14.179 --> 00:10:17.000 a writer. OK. When you are a beat reporter for 00:10:17.000 --> 00:10:19.850 Money magazine. You are not writing poetry. You 00:10:19.850 --> 00:10:21.990 are looking at balance sheets. You are looking 00:10:21.990 --> 00:10:25.549 at leverage. You are tracing exactly how a rupee 00:10:25.549 --> 00:10:28.850 or a dollar moves from a laborer's pocket to 00:10:28.850 --> 00:10:31.570 a CEO's offshore account. That's a brilliant 00:10:31.570 --> 00:10:33.830 point. It creates a very specific kind of discipline. 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:36.669 In fiction, we often talk about world building. 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:39.019 Right. Usually we mean that in the context of 00:10:39.019 --> 00:10:42.480 like fantasy or sci -fi inventing magic systems 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:45.840 or alien planets. But for Adiga, world building 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:48.820 was about economic systems. Right. He didn't 00:10:48.820 --> 00:10:51.700 have to guess how corruption works. No. He knew 00:10:51.700 --> 00:10:53.879 exactly how the bribery structure worked in the 00:10:53.879 --> 00:10:56.600 transportation industry because he likely reported 00:10:56.600 --> 00:10:59.539 on the logistics sector. He knew how real estate 00:10:59.539 --> 00:11:02.279 developers leveraged debt to build skyscrapers. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:04.700 He brings a forensic accountant's eye to the 00:11:04.700 --> 00:11:07.679 novel. That's it. He understands that money is 00:11:07.679 --> 00:11:09.899 the blood of the story. If you follow the money, 00:11:10.039 --> 00:11:13.559 you find the plot every time. Which brings us 00:11:13.559 --> 00:11:16.720 to the moment where his journalism career collided 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:18.759 with pop culture history in a way that feels 00:11:18.759 --> 00:11:21.299 almost scripted. It's 2003. He's a financial 00:11:21.299 --> 00:11:23.779 journalist. And he gets an assignment to interview 00:11:23.779 --> 00:11:25.940 a certain real estate developer in New York City. 00:11:26.139 --> 00:11:28.700 Future U .S. President Donald Trump. Let's just 00:11:28.700 --> 00:11:30.820 sit with that image for a second. You have Erivan 00:11:30.820 --> 00:11:34.490 Adig Oxford, educated. Quiet, literary, probably 00:11:34.490 --> 00:11:37.129 carrying a copy of Flaubert in his bag. Right. 00:11:37.210 --> 00:11:39.090 And he's sitting across from Donald Trump at 00:11:39.090 --> 00:11:40.970 Trump Tower. It is a clash of civilizations, 00:11:41.110 --> 00:11:44.309 isn't it? It really is. I mean, 2003 Trump is 00:11:44.309 --> 00:11:47.769 pre the apprentice Trump. Yeah. Or maybe just 00:11:47.769 --> 00:11:50.129 on the cusp of it. He's the brash New York real 00:11:50.129 --> 00:11:53.009 estate mogul. That's the brand. Yeah. And Arriga 00:11:53.009 --> 00:11:56.330 is there to ask him about what? Interest rates? 00:11:57.529 --> 00:11:59.769 occupancy levels in his buildings? Probably the 00:11:59.769 --> 00:12:02.190 branding of his buildings, his debt structures, 00:12:02.269 --> 00:12:04.870 how he licensed his name. But imagine what Adiga 00:12:04.870 --> 00:12:07.230 is observing. Oh, yeah. He's watching a man who 00:12:07.230 --> 00:12:09.450 constructs his own reality through sheer force 00:12:09.450 --> 00:12:12.210 of will and ego. That's a good point. Do you 00:12:12.210 --> 00:12:14.309 think that interaction influenced the villains 00:12:14.309 --> 00:12:17.049 in his novels later on? I think it has to have. 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:20.190 Because when you read The White Tiger or Last 00:12:20.190 --> 00:12:22.970 Man in Tower, the rich people aren't just rich. 00:12:23.110 --> 00:12:26.059 They have this... This delusional self -confidence, 00:12:26.159 --> 00:12:28.460 this belief that the rules don't apply to them. 00:12:28.580 --> 00:12:30.600 I think it absolutely played a role. Adiga saw 00:12:30.600 --> 00:12:33.039 firsthand how power operates in a room. He saw 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:34.940 that power isn't always about being the smartest 00:12:34.940 --> 00:12:37.299 person. Sometimes it's about being the loudest. 00:12:37.360 --> 00:12:39.559 Yeah. It's about projecting success until it 00:12:39.559 --> 00:12:42.200 becomes real. That is a very specific type of 00:12:42.200 --> 00:12:44.840 psychology that absolutely shows up again and 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:46.899 again in his characters. It's a great cocktail 00:12:46.899 --> 00:12:50.120 party fact that he interviewed Trump. But deep 00:12:50.120 --> 00:12:52.600 down, I think it was field research for understanding 00:12:52.600 --> 00:12:55.659 the modern oligarch. Absolutely. But 2003 wasn't 00:12:55.659 --> 00:12:57.679 just the year of Trump for him. It was also a 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.059 massive turning point geographically. Right. 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.779 He makes the decision to leave the comfort and, 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:04.899 you know, the career track of New York. He moves 00:13:04.899 --> 00:13:07.399 to New Delhi. He accepts the position of South 00:13:07.399 --> 00:13:10.139 Asia correspondent for Time magazine. That is 00:13:10.139 --> 00:13:12.879 a massive job. South Asia correspondent, you 00:13:12.879 --> 00:13:15.279 aren't just covering a city or even a country. 00:13:15.460 --> 00:13:19.259 You are covering a huge, diverse, volatile region. 00:13:19.460 --> 00:13:22.700 Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal. 00:13:22.879 --> 00:13:25.659 It's a massive beat. And he had a really interesting 00:13:25.659 --> 00:13:28.500 reflection on this later. In a 2017 interview, 00:13:28.700 --> 00:13:31.059 he said something like, being a journalist afforded 00:13:31.059 --> 00:13:33.259 me a path to go back to India. Afforded me a 00:13:33.259 --> 00:13:35.799 path. That's interesting phrasing, isn't it? 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:37.899 It is. It implies he needed a reason. He couldn't 00:13:37.899 --> 00:13:39.980 just go back and, you know, hang out. Well, think 00:13:39.980 --> 00:13:42.360 about the pressure of the immigrant family. You've 00:13:42.360 --> 00:13:44.919 gone to Columbia and Oxford. Your family has 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:48.200 invested everything in this elite Western education. 00:13:48.600 --> 00:13:50.440 You can't just move back to your parents' house 00:13:50.440 --> 00:13:53.000 to find yourself. Exactly. You need a career. 00:13:53.139 --> 00:13:55.990 You need a reason. Journalism was the vehicle. 00:13:56.490 --> 00:13:58.450 But I think you're right. It was also a Trojan 00:13:58.450 --> 00:14:01.309 horse. Yeah. It allowed him to reenter India 00:14:01.309 --> 00:14:03.929 not as a tourist and not just as a returning 00:14:03.929 --> 00:14:07.529 son, but as an investigator with a press pass. 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:11.090 And crucially, it forced him to travel. If he 00:14:11.090 --> 00:14:12.929 had become a professor in Delhi, for instance, 00:14:13.169 --> 00:14:16.669 he would have stayed on campus. But as a time 00:14:16.669 --> 00:14:19.129 correspondent. Where are you going? Everywhere. 00:14:19.389 --> 00:14:21.429 You're going to political rallies in Uttar Pradesh. 00:14:21.649 --> 00:14:23.970 You're going to disaster zones after an earthquake. 00:14:24.110 --> 00:14:26.870 You're meeting politicians, warlords, tech CEOs, 00:14:27.090 --> 00:14:29.269 and rickshaw drivers, sometimes all on the same 00:14:29.269 --> 00:14:31.750 day. You are forced to see the seams of the society, 00:14:32.049 --> 00:14:34.590 the places where it's all stitched together and 00:14:34.590 --> 00:14:36.769 where it's fallen apart. He did that for three 00:14:36.769 --> 00:14:40.029 intense years, a high -pressure, high -stakes 00:14:40.029 --> 00:14:44.070 gig. And then he pivoted again. He became a freelancer 00:14:44.070 --> 00:14:45.990 and moved to Mumbai. And that is when the dam 00:14:45.990 --> 00:14:48.250 broke. That's when all that accumulated data, 00:14:48.389 --> 00:14:50.450 all those interviews, all that travel, it started 00:14:50.450 --> 00:14:53.169 to transmute into fiction. Which leads us perfectly 00:14:53.169 --> 00:14:57.769 into the main event. Section 3. The White Higer 00:14:57.769 --> 00:15:00.009 Phenomenon. The debut that changed everything 00:15:00.009 --> 00:15:02.570 for him. So just to set the timelines for everyone. 00:15:02.889 --> 00:15:05.610 He resigns from time. He's living in Mumbai. 00:15:06.330 --> 00:15:08.590 And he starts writing. The book comes out in 00:15:08.590 --> 00:15:11.600 March 2008. And let's talk about the book itself 00:15:11.600 --> 00:15:13.100 for a second for listeners who might not have 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:15.759 read it. The White Tiger is an epistolary novel. 00:15:15.960 --> 00:15:18.220 Right. It's written as a series of letters. From 00:15:18.220 --> 00:15:21.539 this character, Balram Helway, who is a village 00:15:21.539 --> 00:15:24.559 boy who becomes a chauffeur in Delhi. And he's 00:15:24.559 --> 00:15:26.899 writing these letters to the premier of China. 00:15:27.139 --> 00:15:29.460 Which is just an absurd and brilliant premise. 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:32.059 Totally. The premier of China is visiting India 00:15:32.059 --> 00:15:34.679 to learn about entrepreneurship. So Balram decides 00:15:34.679 --> 00:15:37.039 to write to him and tell him the real story of 00:15:37.039 --> 00:15:39.700 how you succeed in modern India. And the story 00:15:39.700 --> 00:15:42.200 isn't work hard and play by the rule. Far from 00:15:42.200 --> 00:15:45.019 it. It's a confession. Ballroom confesses pretty 00:15:45.019 --> 00:15:48.159 early on to murdering his employer to steal his 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:50.759 money and escape poverty. It's a story about 00:15:50.759 --> 00:15:53.500 what he calls the rooster coop. The rooster coop. 00:15:53.659 --> 00:15:55.740 We have to explain that analogy because it is 00:15:55.740 --> 00:15:58.340 the absolute central metaphor of the entire book. 00:15:58.580 --> 00:16:02.389 It is. Adiga, through Balram, describes the Indian 00:16:02.389 --> 00:16:05.409 underclass as roosters in a coop at a market. 00:16:05.710 --> 00:16:08.309 They can smell the blood of the roosters next 00:16:08.309 --> 00:16:10.830 to them being slaughtered. They can see the butcher's 00:16:10.830 --> 00:16:12.789 knife. They know what's coming. They know exactly 00:16:12.789 --> 00:16:15.029 what's coming, but they don't rebel. They don't 00:16:15.029 --> 00:16:17.929 even try to escape. Why? Because the system of 00:16:17.929 --> 00:16:21.230 servitude is so deeply ingrained, so totalizing, 00:16:21.269 --> 00:16:24.049 that they can't imagine a world outside the coop. 00:16:24.289 --> 00:16:28.370 And Balram is the white tiger. This rare creature 00:16:28.370 --> 00:16:30.929 that is born only once in a generation who is 00:16:30.929 --> 00:16:32.730 willing to break out of the coop. Even if it 00:16:32.730 --> 00:16:35.429 means becoming a monster to do it. Exactly. And 00:16:35.429 --> 00:16:38.590 that voice, cynical, funny, brutal, unsparing, 00:16:38.710 --> 00:16:42.429 it just caught fire. The book won the 2008 Man 00:16:42.429 --> 00:16:45.029 Booker Prize. Well, it's the Oscars of literature 00:16:45.029 --> 00:16:46.610 for the Commonwealth countries. It changes your 00:16:46.610 --> 00:16:49.210 life overnight. It's a career maker. It is. And 00:16:49.210 --> 00:16:51.509 he was the fourth Indian -born author to win, 00:16:51.669 --> 00:16:54.149 which put him in some very rarefied company. 00:16:54.409 --> 00:16:56.789 He was following Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, 00:16:56.970 --> 00:16:59.110 and Kiran Desai. That is heavy -hitting company. 00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:02.450 I mean, Rushdie's Midnight's Children, Roy's 00:17:02.450 --> 00:17:05.390 God of Small Things, these are foundational pillars 00:17:05.390 --> 00:17:08.730 of modern Indian English literature. But Adigo's 00:17:08.730 --> 00:17:11.059 doing something really different. Rushdie's work 00:17:11.059 --> 00:17:15.150 is full of magical realism. Roy's is very lyrical, 00:17:15.210 --> 00:17:18.730 almost poetic in its prose. Adigo was punk rock. 00:17:19.009 --> 00:17:21.049 Yeah, that's a good way to put it. He was angry. 00:17:21.230 --> 00:17:24.849 He was fast. He was satirical and vicious. And 00:17:24.849 --> 00:17:27.349 the commercial success was just instant. It was 00:17:27.349 --> 00:17:30.329 huge. The Indian hardcover edition alone sold 00:17:30.329 --> 00:17:33.869 over 200 ,000 copies. That is a staggering number 00:17:33.869 --> 00:17:36.490 for a literary hardcover in any country, let 00:17:36.490 --> 00:17:38.569 alone India at the time. It just speaks to how 00:17:38.569 --> 00:17:41.190 much the book resonated with people. But I want 00:17:41.190 --> 00:17:43.710 to talk at the critical reception. the comparisons 00:17:43.710 --> 00:17:46.250 that were made. USA Today called it one of the 00:17:46.250 --> 00:17:48.829 most powerful books I've read in decades. But 00:17:48.829 --> 00:17:51.609 then they, and a lot of other critics, compared 00:17:51.609 --> 00:17:54.710 it to two very specific American books. Richard 00:17:54.710 --> 00:17:57.309 Wright's Native Son and Ralph Ellison's Invisible 00:17:57.309 --> 00:17:59.410 Man. And those are not names you throw around 00:17:59.410 --> 00:18:02.789 lightly. That's a huge claim. No. So let's break 00:18:02.789 --> 00:18:04.690 that down because it's important. For listeners 00:18:04.690 --> 00:18:06.650 who haven't read Ellison since, you know, high 00:18:06.650 --> 00:18:09.609 school or college, Invisible Man isn't a sci 00:18:09.609 --> 00:18:12.460 -fi book. No, it's not H .G. Wells. Invisible 00:18:12.460 --> 00:18:15.700 Man, published back in 1952, is about a black 00:18:15.700 --> 00:18:18.740 man in America who comes to realize that he is 00:18:18.740 --> 00:18:22.140 invisible simply because white society refuses 00:18:22.140 --> 00:18:25.319 to see him as a full human being. Right. He's 00:18:25.319 --> 00:18:28.180 looked through, not at. And Attica is tapping 00:18:28.180 --> 00:18:30.680 into that exact same vein of social commentary. 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.789 Perfectly. Ballroom, the driver, is invisible 00:18:33.789 --> 00:18:36.109 to his masters. They have conversations about 00:18:36.109 --> 00:18:38.069 their corrupt business deals, their affairs, 00:18:38.170 --> 00:18:40.190 their family secrets, right in front of him in 00:18:40.190 --> 00:18:42.130 the back of the car. Because to them, he isn't 00:18:42.130 --> 00:18:44.450 a person. He's just part of the upholstery. He's 00:18:44.450 --> 00:18:46.230 a function. He's the guy who drives the car. 00:18:46.450 --> 00:18:48.769 What about Native Son? Native Son is about a 00:18:48.769 --> 00:18:51.089 character named Bigger Thomas, a poor black man 00:18:51.089 --> 00:18:54.750 in 1930s Chicago who accidentally kills a white 00:18:54.750 --> 00:18:57.980 woman. It's a brutal book. It is. But the novel's 00:18:57.980 --> 00:19:00.200 core argument is that Bigger Thomas was created 00:19:00.200 --> 00:19:02.819 by his environment. The systemic oppression, 00:19:03.140 --> 00:19:05.579 the lack of opportunity, the constant fear and 00:19:05.579 --> 00:19:09.859 racism, it twisted him into a killer. Adiga is 00:19:09.859 --> 00:19:12.940 making the exact same argument for Balram. Balram 00:19:12.940 --> 00:19:15.900 isn't born a murderer. No, the rooster coop creates 00:19:15.900 --> 00:19:19.700 him. Society gives him only one brutal way out. 00:19:19.900 --> 00:19:22.700 So by comparing Adiga to Wright and Ellison. 00:19:23.529 --> 00:19:25.269 The critics are basically saying that Adiga did 00:19:25.269 --> 00:19:27.470 for class in India what those authors did for 00:19:27.470 --> 00:19:29.730 race in America. Exactly. He gave a literary 00:19:29.730 --> 00:19:32.970 voice to the invisible underclass. He exposed 00:19:32.970 --> 00:19:36.150 the structural violence of the system. He showed 00:19:36.150 --> 00:19:38.710 that the whole India shining narrative. Yeah, 00:19:38.750 --> 00:19:41.390 the idea of India as this booming tech superpower. 00:19:41.609 --> 00:19:43.730 Was built on the backs of millions of invisible 00:19:43.730 --> 00:19:46.170 men and women trapped in that coop. The Washington 00:19:46.170 --> 00:19:48.069 Post called it a blistering description of the 00:19:48.069 --> 00:19:50.069 inner workings of India's corrupt upper class. 00:19:50.210 --> 00:19:52.599 But they also called it funny. And I think that's 00:19:52.599 --> 00:19:54.559 key. Oh, it's crucial. It's not a depressing, 00:19:54.660 --> 00:19:58.240 miserable trudge. Yeah. It's hilarious in a really 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.339 dark way. It's almost like, have you ever watched 00:20:00.339 --> 00:20:02.500 the show Succession? Oh, totally. Love that show. 00:20:02.859 --> 00:20:05.000 It has that same vibe where the characters are 00:20:05.000 --> 00:20:08.299 objectively monstrous, awful people, but you 00:20:08.299 --> 00:20:11.079 can't stop laughing at how absurd their world 00:20:11.079 --> 00:20:14.000 is, how petty their concerns are. That is a perfect 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.759 comparison. It's the absurdity of excess on one 00:20:16.759 --> 00:20:19.700 side versus the absurdity of deprivation on the 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:22.579 other. You laugh so you don't scream. Precisely. 00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:24.779 And that cinematic quality, that sharp, witty 00:20:24.779 --> 00:20:27.859 dialogue is probably why it adapted so well to 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:30.160 the screen. It was made into a feature film for 00:20:30.160 --> 00:20:33.180 Netflix in 2021. Yes. starring Adarsh Gaurav 00:20:33.180 --> 00:20:35.359 and Priyanka Chopra. It was really well done 00:20:35.359 --> 00:20:37.680 and it brought the story to a whole new generation 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:39.519 of people who might not have read the book. It 00:20:39.519 --> 00:20:42.279 did. But as with any massive sudden success, 00:20:42.660 --> 00:20:45.819 there was turbulence. We have to touch on Section 00:20:45.819 --> 00:20:49.460 4, controversy and the business of writing. Because 00:20:49.460 --> 00:20:52.220 with great fame comes, well, legal trouble sometimes. 00:20:52.599 --> 00:20:54.500 The Booker effect isn't all champagne and parties. 00:20:54.640 --> 00:20:57.200 Not at all. Shortly after the win, reports started 00:20:57.200 --> 00:20:59.759 to surface alleging that Adiga had sacked the 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:09.859 agent who had secured his original... And Adiga 00:21:09.859 --> 00:21:12.240 denied this, right? He did. He denied the claim. 00:21:12.680 --> 00:21:15.180 And honestly, these kinds of disputes happen 00:21:15.180 --> 00:21:17.970 all the time in publishing. But the reason it 00:21:17.970 --> 00:21:20.529 made headlines was the timing. Of course. When 00:21:20.529 --> 00:21:23.349 there is suddenly a massive prize purse and huge 00:21:23.349 --> 00:21:26.269 international royalties on the table, relationships 00:21:26.269 --> 00:21:29.490 get tested. The stakes get incredibly high overnight. 00:21:29.809 --> 00:21:32.710 It's a reality check. It reminds us that writing, 00:21:32.849 --> 00:21:35.230 especially at that level, is also a business. 00:21:35.569 --> 00:21:38.430 It's an industry. And Adiga, having been a financial 00:21:38.430 --> 00:21:40.650 journalist, probably understood that better than 00:21:40.650 --> 00:21:43.400 most authors would. I'm sure he did. Yeah. But 00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:45.460 he didn't let the noise or the business side 00:21:45.460 --> 00:21:48.240 of things stop his output. And this is where 00:21:48.240 --> 00:21:49.900 I think the deep dive gets really interesting. 00:21:50.059 --> 00:21:52.799 I agree. Because most people know the white tiger. 00:21:53.059 --> 00:21:55.279 Fewer people know what came next. Let's move 00:21:55.279 --> 00:21:58.759 to section five, the expanded bibliography. Because 00:21:58.759 --> 00:22:01.839 he definitely did not just disappear. No. In 00:22:01.839 --> 00:22:04.400 fact, his second book, Between the Assassinations, 00:22:04.420 --> 00:22:06.859 came out almost immediately after the debut, 00:22:07.099 --> 00:22:09.880 also in 2008. Structurally, it's a fascinating 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:12.059 follow -up. It's a collection of interconnected 00:22:12.059 --> 00:22:14.960 short stories, not a novel. Right. And it's set 00:22:14.960 --> 00:22:17.599 in a fictional coastal town in South India called 00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.519 Kidder. Yes. And it was actually written before 00:22:20.519 --> 00:22:23.710 The White Pager. but published after, which is 00:22:23.710 --> 00:22:25.769 interesting. It really cemented his voice. It 00:22:25.769 --> 00:22:28.150 showed he wasn't a one -hit wonder. He had this 00:22:28.150 --> 00:22:30.509 whole world inside him that he wanted to explore. 00:22:30.750 --> 00:22:33.130 It's like a mosaic of a town, isn't it? It covers 00:22:33.130 --> 00:22:35.630 everyone from the beggars to the busboys to the 00:22:35.630 --> 00:22:39.349 rich housewives. It does. And then came his proper 00:22:39.349 --> 00:22:42.509 follow -up novel, Last Man in Tower, in 2011. 00:22:43.190 --> 00:22:45.349 This is a personal favorite of mine. It's about 00:22:45.349 --> 00:22:48.130 real estate in Mumbai. Which is a complete blood 00:22:48.130 --> 00:22:51.710 sport. It is. The plot is so simple but so effective. 00:22:52.069 --> 00:22:54.730 A developer wants to buy out an old, crumbling 00:22:54.730 --> 00:22:56.950 apartment building to build a luxury high -rise. 00:22:57.170 --> 00:22:59.650 Standard story in Mumbai. Right. Everyone agrees 00:22:59.650 --> 00:23:02.369 to sell and take the money, except for one person. 00:23:02.609 --> 00:23:04.569 A retired school teacher who's lived there his 00:23:04.569 --> 00:23:07.049 whole life. He refuses to move. So it's high 00:23:07.049 --> 00:23:09.269 noon in a crumbling apartment block. Exactly. 00:23:09.490 --> 00:23:12.599 It's a brilliant novel about greed. It asks this 00:23:12.599 --> 00:23:15.259 fundamental question. What happens to a community 00:23:15.259 --> 00:23:17.759 when a huge pile of money is suddenly dropped 00:23:17.759 --> 00:23:19.680 in the middle of it? The neighbors turn on each 00:23:19.680 --> 00:23:22.319 other. Instantly. It's a brilliant dissection 00:23:22.319 --> 00:23:24.380 of the pressures on the middle class. And then 00:23:24.380 --> 00:23:26.720 a few years later, we have Selection Day, which 00:23:26.720 --> 00:23:29.160 was published in 2016. Now, if you know anything 00:23:29.160 --> 00:23:32.099 about India, you know you can't write about its 00:23:32.099 --> 00:23:35.039 society without, at some point, writing about 00:23:35.039 --> 00:23:37.380 cricket. It's unavoidable. And Selection Day. 00:23:38.279 --> 00:23:41.460 Just the title stresses me out. It should. On 00:23:41.460 --> 00:23:43.700 the surface, it's a novel about two brothers 00:23:43.700 --> 00:23:46.779 who are groomed by their obsessive, tyrannical 00:23:46.779 --> 00:23:49.559 father to become cricket stars. So it's the classic 00:23:49.559 --> 00:23:52.700 sports dad trope. But taken to an incredible 00:23:52.700 --> 00:23:56.099 extreme. Adiga uses the obsession with cricket 00:23:56.099 --> 00:23:58.500 in Mumbai to dissect the relationship between 00:23:58.500 --> 00:24:01.720 fathers and sons and the crushing weight of expectation. 00:24:02.140 --> 00:24:04.559 It's more than just a game. Oh, much more. See, 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:06.599 in India, cricket isn't just a sport for the 00:24:06.599 --> 00:24:08.680 working class. It's like a lottery ticket. It's 00:24:08.680 --> 00:24:11.980 the escape hatch. It is one of the few sanctioned, 00:24:11.980 --> 00:24:15.119 celebrated escape routes from poverty. If you 00:24:15.119 --> 00:24:17.039 make the national team, you save your entire 00:24:17.039 --> 00:24:20.730 family for generations. Adiga just masterfully 00:24:20.730 --> 00:24:23.450 explores the psychological toll of being that 00:24:23.450 --> 00:24:26.630 golden ticket child. It's really about the commodification 00:24:26.630 --> 00:24:30.390 of talent. And then his most recent major work, 00:24:30.529 --> 00:24:34.250 Amnesty, published in 2020. This is where I think 00:24:34.250 --> 00:24:36.430 the narrative arc of his entire career really 00:24:36.430 --> 00:24:38.609 comes full circle. It absolutely does. Because 00:24:38.609 --> 00:24:41.549 where is it set? We are back in Australia. Sydney, 00:24:41.670 --> 00:24:44.750 to be precise. The protagonist, Danny, is a Sri 00:24:44.750 --> 00:24:47.309 Lankan immigrant. But here is the catch. He's 00:24:47.309 --> 00:24:50.009 undocumented. He has overstayed a student visa 00:24:50.009 --> 00:24:52.710 and is living illegally. So in The White Tiger, 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:55.730 the protagonist was an outsider because of his 00:24:55.730 --> 00:24:58.250 caste and his class. In Amnesty, the protagonist 00:24:58.250 --> 00:25:00.950 is an outsider because of his legal status. Precisely. 00:25:00.950 --> 00:25:03.789 The new caste system. Danny is cleaning houses 00:25:03.789 --> 00:25:06.029 for cash, living in the shadows. He witnesses 00:25:06.029 --> 00:25:09.369 a murder. And now he has this impossible dilemma. 00:25:09.670 --> 00:25:11.410 If he goes to the police to report the murder. 00:25:11.589 --> 00:25:13.650 He exposes himself and gets deported immediately. 00:25:14.440 --> 00:25:16.579 But if he says nothing, a killer walks free. 00:25:16.720 --> 00:25:20.200 That is a classic Hitchcockian setup, a moral 00:25:20.200 --> 00:25:23.259 thriller. It is pure tension. But again, Adiga 00:25:23.259 --> 00:25:25.420 is using the thriller plot to look at the system. 00:25:25.559 --> 00:25:27.720 He's looking at the gig economy of citizenship. 00:25:27.779 --> 00:25:30.420 He's asking, who gets to be a litigant? Who gets 00:25:30.420 --> 00:25:33.259 to have rights? Who is visible and who is invisible 00:25:33.259 --> 00:25:36.640 in a wealthy Western city? And it was very well 00:25:36.640 --> 00:25:38.579 received. It was shortlisted for the Miles Franklin 00:25:38.579 --> 00:25:42.059 Award, which is the big Australian literary prize. 00:25:42.200 --> 00:25:44.119 So think about that for a second. He's won the 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:46.940 Booker in the UK and Commonwealth Sphere, and 00:25:46.940 --> 00:25:48.819 then he shortlisted for the Miles Franklin in 00:25:48.819 --> 00:25:51.079 the Australian Sphere. He really is a global 00:25:51.079 --> 00:25:54.240 literary citizen. He spans these worlds effortlessly. 00:25:54.299 --> 00:25:56.460 He does, which is a good transition to our last 00:25:56.460 --> 00:25:59.799 section here, Section 6, Journalism, Writings, 00:25:59.799 --> 00:26:02.440 and Style. Yeah, because even while he was writing 00:26:02.440 --> 00:26:04.980 these incredible novels, he kept his hand in 00:26:04.980 --> 00:26:07.819 the journalism game. And the titles of his articles 00:26:07.819 --> 00:26:10.359 alone tell you a lot about his worldview. They 00:26:10.359 --> 00:26:13.039 do. He is not a writer who pulls his punches. 00:26:13.059 --> 00:26:15.680 Just look at this list. An article for Time in 00:26:15.680 --> 00:26:18.579 2008 called The Death of the Indian Dream. Oof. 00:26:19.220 --> 00:26:22.140 That is bleak. Yeah. And provocative. Then you 00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:23.900 have an opinion piece in The Guardian called 00:26:23.900 --> 00:26:26.039 Bachelor Bigotry, and another one in the Sunday 00:26:26.039 --> 00:26:29.079 Times just called Smack. These aren't exactly, 00:26:29.119 --> 00:26:31.900 you know, travel and leisure pieces about the 00:26:31.900 --> 00:26:34.539 beauty of the Taj Mahal. Not at all. The death 00:26:34.539 --> 00:26:37.240 of the Indian dream. That is such a provocative 00:26:37.240 --> 00:26:39.759 statement. It aligns perfectly with the themes 00:26:39.759 --> 00:26:42.859 of The White Tiger. He is actively challenging 00:26:42.859 --> 00:26:45.200 the official narrative. Right. At that time, 00:26:45.299 --> 00:26:48.319 the world was obsessed with India shining. The 00:26:48.319 --> 00:26:51.279 I .T. boom. Yeah. The economic growth. The new 00:26:51.279 --> 00:26:53.819 billionaires. And Adiga was the guy standing 00:26:53.819 --> 00:26:55.579 in the back of the room raising his hand and 00:26:55.579 --> 00:26:57.619 saying, hey, that's great. But have you looked 00:26:57.619 --> 00:26:59.799 at the sewage system? Have you looked at the 00:26:59.799 --> 00:27:01.859 inequality? Have you looked at what is actually 00:27:01.859 --> 00:27:04.279 happening on the ground for 99 percent of the 00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:06.799 population? It's that journalist's instinct again. 00:27:07.559 --> 00:27:10.359 Digging for the truth. Even if it's ugly. Especially 00:27:10.359 --> 00:27:13.259 if it's ugly. He seems to believe that true patriotism 00:27:13.259 --> 00:27:16.240 isn't blindly praising your country. It's holding 00:27:16.240 --> 00:27:18.579 a mirror up to its flaws so it can be better. 00:27:18.720 --> 00:27:21.059 So we have covered a massive amount of ground 00:27:21.059 --> 00:27:23.960 here. From the banking halls of Mangalore, to 00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:26.539 the academic treasure cooker of James Roos, to 00:27:26.539 --> 00:27:28.859 that bizarre interview with Trump, to the Booker 00:27:28.859 --> 00:27:32.099 Prize. Let's try to synthesize this. What are 00:27:32.099 --> 00:27:34.740 the big takeaways? OK, well, first, I think Adiga 00:27:34.740 --> 00:27:37.819 is a product of three continents, Asia, Australia, 00:27:38.000 --> 00:27:41.180 North America, and an incredibly elite education. 00:27:42.259 --> 00:27:45.420 Columbia, Oxford. He is not a local writer. He 00:27:45.420 --> 00:27:48.420 is a global intellectual. Right. He has the tools 00:27:48.420 --> 00:27:51.440 to deconstruct systems because he has seen how 00:27:51.440 --> 00:27:53.920 they work from the very top down. Second takeaway 00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:56.440 for me is that he used financial journalism as 00:27:56.440 --> 00:27:58.900 a Trojan horse. I love that phrase. It allowed 00:27:58.900 --> 00:28:01.759 him to reenter India, to really understand its 00:28:01.759 --> 00:28:04.559 economic disparities, and to gather the raw material 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:07.319 for his fiction. He learned that money is always 00:28:07.319 --> 00:28:10.319 the story. And third, his work consistently and 00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:12.940 deservedly draws comparisons to the heavyweights 00:28:12.940 --> 00:28:15.140 of social literature. We're talking Ellison, 00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:17.380 we're talking Richard Wright. He is writing about 00:28:17.380 --> 00:28:20.039 the big issues, class, oppression, and the fundamental 00:28:20.039 --> 00:28:22.670 struggle for human dignity. He is giving voice 00:28:22.670 --> 00:28:25.109 to the invisible. Which brings us to our final 00:28:25.109 --> 00:28:27.549 provocative thought for the day. Okay. If you 00:28:27.549 --> 00:28:30.470 look at his trajectory, Adiga moved from analyzing 00:28:30.470 --> 00:28:33.970 stock markets as a journalist to analyzing the 00:28:33.970 --> 00:28:36.410 death of the Indian dream in his fiction. Right. 00:28:36.529 --> 00:28:39.289 The focus was very much on India. But then, in 00:28:39.289 --> 00:28:43.710 2020, with Amnesty, he shifted his focus. He's 00:28:43.710 --> 00:28:46.509 now writing about undocumented immigrants in 00:28:46.509 --> 00:28:49.690 Australia. So if his fiction is an extension 00:28:49.690 --> 00:28:52.130 of his journalism, as we've been arguing. Exactly. 00:28:52.650 --> 00:28:55.109 What does that shift tell us about where he's 00:28:55.109 --> 00:28:58.430 looking now? Is he suggesting that the class 00:28:58.430 --> 00:29:00.990 war that he wrote about so powerfully in India 00:29:00.990 --> 00:29:03.730 has now gone global? That's a chilling thought. 00:29:03.890 --> 00:29:06.269 Is he telling us that the next great crisis of 00:29:06.269 --> 00:29:08.829 conscience isn't just about poverty in the developing 00:29:08.829 --> 00:29:12.809 world, but about movement, about migration? about 00:29:12.809 --> 00:29:15.410 who has the right to be where. And that the border 00:29:15.410 --> 00:29:17.809 between the haves and the have -nots is becoming 00:29:17.809 --> 00:29:20.869 a literal physical border between nations. If 00:29:20.869 --> 00:29:23.630 Aravinda Diga is the canary in the coal mine 00:29:23.630 --> 00:29:26.029 for global social issues, we should probably 00:29:26.029 --> 00:29:28.049 be paying very close attention to where he flies 00:29:28.049 --> 00:29:30.170 next. We certainly should. That's all the time 00:29:30.170 --> 00:29:32.089 we have for this deep jive. Thanks for listening, 00:29:32.130 --> 00:29:33.250 and we'll catch you on the next one.