Page 134 - DENG503_INDIAN_WRITINGS_IN_LITERATURE

Indian Writings in Literature

Notes a new replacement driver. He asks for a moment off and goes together with his nephew to the
zoo. Seeing the white tiger Balram is so overwhelmed that he faints.
“The moment you recognize the beautiful in the world, you stop being a slave.” Afterwards he
wants Dharam to write to his Grandma about the day. He also explains what a person in the zoo
has been saying: Fainting is a sign for saying goodbye to the grandmother as the fainting person
is beware of the fact that he would die. Just one day after that Mr. Ashok wants to be brought to
all the banks again. When the red bag was well filled Balram drives to a part of the city which is
out of civilization. No one is there but the two of them. Balram stops and tells his master a wheel
has to be broken. The road is all empty, so everything is perfect for Balram.
Balram asks his master for help and gets him out of the car this way. Mr. Ashok kneels down.
Balram gives him a last hint saying, “It’s been giving problems ever since that night we went to
the hotel in Jangpura.” . Without any hesitation Balram hits his master Mr. Ashok with the broken
bottle and kills him by breaking his neck like it’s done with chickens. Balram breaks out of the
Rooster Coop. Leaving the dead body behind he drives to the railway station but before he leaves
he thinks of his nephew he has left alone. Nevertheless it’s a big risk for him he decides to go back
and catches up Dharam.
The Seventh Night: After committing the murder Balram plans how he can get to Bangalore. He
decides to travel by train, zigzagging the country together with his nephew Dharam who considers
the journey as holidays.
In one train he recognizes a police poster with a photo of himself. While talking to an illiterate
man he gets the proof that the photo looks like a stereotypical Indian. He makes up the false story
that the man on the poster has caught two terrorists. The other man remarks that the searched
man looks like him. The first four weeks in Bangalore Balram needs to calm his nerves and to
forget about the murder. Dharam and he stay together at a hotel which offers good food. Balram
also remarks that Bangalore is full of strangers and outsiders.
Balram notices that everyone drinks coffee and of course he wants to try out but he doesn’t know
how to drink it at first. After watching other people he gets to know everyone drinks it differently.
As well Balram has doubts whether Bangalore is the right city to live in. Still he rents a flat and he
wonders how to fit into the city. Like he has heard the voice of Delhi he tries to notice the voice of
Bangalore.
According to this he discovers the most important business aspect which is outsourcing. He
realizes the people are working at night because their masters live in America, so he asks himself
how – especially the girls – come home again. There isn’t a train system like in other cities,
therefore he develops the idea of a taxi service. First he hasn’t got a chance to start with his
business because every company already had an organisation like that. But then he tries to think
about what Mr Ashok would do. Finally he goes to the police and bribes the inspector with more
than ten thousand rupees. Even the wanted poster of Balram is in the station, but he has success.
That is why two days later a company calls because they want to have a taxi service.
Little by little this “start- up” grows into a big business. Balram owns twenty- six vehicles and
sixteen drivers. From now on Balram is the master instead of the servant. He even calls himself
Ashok Sharma and offers an own website in English. Instead of treating his drivers badly like
every other master in the town he looks after them nicely.
He is of the opinion that he has learned his real education from the road and the pavement. By
listening to some men on the streets he obtains courage that one day there will be a revolution in
India which will destroy the “Rooster Coop”. He observes that only four men in history have led
a successful revolution: Alexander the Great, Abraham Lincoln, Mao and maybe Hitler.

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