It was a time to rejoice for the young Indian who won the prestigious 'Man Booker Prize 2008' for his maiden literary work, "The White Tiger". Aravind Adiga, the 33 year old was the youngest of the contenders amongst the six shortlisted for the award. Besides him, an Australian, Steve Toltz was also chosen for his first work in literary arena.

The novel attempts to provide a realistic picture of class struggle in India and the story revolves around a village lad, son of a rickshaw puller who tries his luck to achieve success in the metropolitan city. The novel presents the social stratification that exists in Indian society among the rich and the poor.

Aravind who is currently residing in Mumbai was born in Chennai and brought up at Mangalore and Australia and studied English literature at Columbia University and at Mangdalen College, Oxford. The awardee has been working with the Financial Times, Money, Wall Street Journal and TIME magazine as a journalist, has resorted to do freelance for the time being.

A cheque of 50,000 pounds ($ 87,000) was presented to Adiga at a dinner organized in the Guildhall by Peter Clarke, Chief Executive of Man Group PLC. Michael Portillo, one of the judges commented, "The judges found the decision difficult because the shortlist contained such strong candidates. In the end, The White Tiger prevailed because the judges felt that it shocked and entertained in equal manner."

With the honour bestowed upon him, he now becomes the fourth Indian author since the award's inception in 1969 and join the likes of Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Kiran Desai who won the prize in 1981, 1997 and 2006 respectively. Until now only two of the authors have won the award for their debut work, D B C Pierre in 2003 for his novel Vernon God Little and India's Arundhati Roy in 1997 for The God of Small Things.