The White Tiger

“ The creature that’s born only once in a generation in the jungle.”

“ Black stripes and sunlit white fur flashed through the slits in the dark bamboo. He was walking in the same line again and again, from one end of the bamboo bars to the other, then turning around and repeating it over, at exactly the same pace, like a thing under a spell.”

- Aravind Adiga

Anyone who has ever seen a white tiger in its cage, knows that it is hard to disrupt the gaze and walk away. The graceful curves and the perfectly cadenced & enchanting gait leave the spectator spellbound. The elegance and grandeur in the demeanor of this creature has rendered it a matchless uniqueness. It fosters great power and vigor complemented with infinite patience and judgment. He has the serenity to pace back and forth in his cage, in silence, glancing now and then at his awestruck spectators. He digresses himself by attempting to live a generic and modest life like all the other animals in confinement. But deep down he is certain that he is not a sheep in the herd. Time and again, he lets out a thundering roar which betrays the truth and asserts his edge over others. He is, indeed, irrespective of the globalization of the jungle, The King of the Jungle. He is The White Tiger.

Dreams, great and extraordinary ones, are seldom born, as seldom as the white tiger himself. They are in many aspects synonymous with the white tiger. Since their conception, they are confined to the back of our minds, swaying back and forth, lingering in silence until realization dawns. Dreams, abeyant and unrealized, in the coop of our minds share the agony of the debilitated white tiger. Bound by horizons of reality, norms of the society and the flaws of the human nature, our dreams share the plight of the powerful creature bound by the bamboo bars. They try to befit in the prosaic lives of the run-of-the-mill populace, but they founder. We become the tongue-tied spectators who stare with pitiful eyes and wonder what it would be like if the captives of our mind were set free. But most of us lack the mettle to let our dreams even let out the roar of pride. After an eternity of agonizing existence, they just perish in their turmoil with reality.

The White Tiger in the bamboo bars in different in only one way. Man, blessed with the sharpest weapon, its brain, has made good use of it and is therefore capable of restricting this creature in confinement. His judgment has conveyed him the fact that any attempts to break free from these confinements would lead to dire consequences. And since he is entrapped by forces way beyond his bounds, in reality he has no choice. However the greatest impediment the white tiger within us has to confront is us and our scare of failure. If only we could let go of this fright and make an honest endeavour, the white tiger cooped up in our mind can breathe in a free world and take the shape of reality. We would no longer be one of the rats in a swarm following the bagpiper. Thus the white tiger within us, indeed has a choice. Whether to make the choice or not is our call !