Vinegar Sunday

The White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga

Balram Halwai, son of a rickshaw puller is servant, a philosopher, an enterpreneur...and a murderer.All through his childhood, as he works at a teashop,slogging away, he nurses a dream of escape-away from the murky waters of Mother Ganga. His chance comes in the form of rich village landlord who hires him as his chauffeur for his son, daughter-in-law and their two dogs.

Balram sees Delhi for the first the first time from behind the steering wheel of a Honda and its a revelation.Balram's reeducation begins amidst traffic jams, call centers,slums and shopping malls. Caught between the desire to be a loyal servant and desire to do better for himself, he learns of a new morality of a new India. He sees himself as a tiger...one that will escape its prison.

Animal Farm
by George Orwell

When the downtrodden animals of Manor Farm overthrow their master Mr Jones and take over the farm themselves, they imagine it is the beginning of a life of freedom and equality.

But gradually a cunning, ruthless elite among them, masterminded by the pigs Napoleon and Snowball, starts to take control. Soon the other animals discover that they are not all as equal as they thought, and find themselves hopelessly ensnared as one form of tyranny is replaced with another.

Old Women
by Mahasweta Devi

The two stories in this collection- Murti and Mohanpurer Rupkatha- are poignant tales, delicately drawn, yet ruthlessly bringing to the fore the indifference, apathy and socio-economic oppression in which these old women are forced to survive.