Amnesty - Aravind Adiga

 Dhananjaya Rajaratnam!

Man booker winner Aravind Adiga's fictitious character from Batticaloa, Sri Lanka, who is an illegal alien in Sydney, Australia. First, he got caught to a rip off college in his haste to leave Sri Lanka - Sri Lanka, which has scarred him for life, for no fault of his own. Then he made a further bad decision upon arriving in Australia, which has seen him spend four illegal years in Australia, doing odd jobs.And the Aussies want some one to clean up after them - this has been stressed in no uncertain terms, repeatedly in this novel.

"Nelson, did you hear me? See: we only appear to like rules and regualtions. Wha twe really like is plumbing."

This novel focuses on, one day, at the tail end of his four year illegal stay in Australia. On that day he's been called to question his conscience like no other, as a certain incident requires him to go to the authorities and share certain information that he has. With it, he reveals himself - resulting in deportation to Sri Lanka, which he vowed that he will never go back to.

This book, which questions his mores, the value of human life, and selflessness, is a build up to a peak, when Danny debates with himself - going to and fro in his decision, for he is a deeply scarred man, who never wants to go back to the admittedly beautiful country he was born in. He knows that listening to his conscience will not make him a hero - or even a legal. And a man, is bound to ask, for what then ?

"And isn't this, Danny thought, the observe side of the question that he had asked every day in Sri Lanka. Because individually, no one there ever seems bad, whether Tamil, or Sinhala, or Muslim,. But it does exist - evil. A man puts on a uniform, and becomes the uniform. Danny touched his left forearm: this bump in his forearm was real."

If you accept the mystery of evil, why can't you accept the mystery of a more-or-less just law?"

We all have to fight our own battles by ourselves, and the general view point of the masses will not rid help you heal  your scars. It is in this light, that the upholding of the law is important, and in the final analysis, the only thing to depend upon - if it was just law !

"A circle can have only 360 degrees. The law was a magic circle, and inside its protection, Australians surfed and swam and slept like children. Danny had seen countries in which a circle didn't add up to 360 degrees. In Dubai the law let employees cheat you of your wages. In Sri Lanka the law a burning cigarette on your forearm. This law, as tall and hard as the cliffs that rise up at Pyremont, was fairer, much fairer."

It is no an easy read, as his Man booker award winner, White Tiger was -  a book loved by some - and hated by others ( I liked it ). At least the first half of the book is not an easy reading, as Danny walks all over the places he considers as safe areas, undecided, debating. It suggests the frustration of the protagonist. Yet, the book has a climax, which the patient reader can appreciate, for when one empathically puts one's self on Danny's place, the meandering, restless and chaotic stop-start actions of the man on that day, is only natural.  In that sense I think it is largely successful as a novel.

Rating - ****
Published in 2020.