Shantaram - Gregory David Roberts

Partner was off to Dubai.. took the opportunity to do shopping for the house.. new curtains couple of cushion covers, some photo frames ah the joy one gets out of unrestricted shopping! I made up my mind to chill out at home after work, so did the most modest dinners and curled up with a book i bought in one of my shopping expeditions, a book called Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts.



To cut a long story (936 pages!) short, Shantaram is the name given to Mr. Lindsay, or Linbaba, the larger-than-life hero. It means "man of God's peace," which is what the Indian people know of Lin. What they do not know is that prior to his arrival in Bombay he escaped from an Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence. He served two years and leaped over the wall. He was imprisoned for a string of armed robberies performed to support his heroin addiction, which started when his marriage fell apart and he lost custody of his daughter.

Just when u think that’s a lot to achieve in one life the hero lands in Bombay with little money, an assumed name, false papers, an untellable past, and no plans for the future. Fortunately, he meets Prabaker right away, a sweet, smiling man who is a street guide. He takes to Lin immediately, eventually introducing him to his home village, where they end up living for six months. When they return to Bombay, they take up residence in a sprawling illegal slum of 25,000 people and Linbaba becomes the resident "doctor." With a prison knowledge of first aid and whatever medicines he can cadge from doing trades with the local Mafia, he sets up a practice and is regarded as heaven-sent by these poor people who have nothing but illness, rat bites, dysentery, and anemia. He also meets Karla, an enigmatic Swiss-American woman, with whom he falls in love. I must admit I found the Karla women quiet suspicious right from the beginning ..sigh!

The book talks about the seedy side of Colaba’s bylanes and the dark world of drugs, dons and slums. It is an uncut version of the poverty and sleaze in Mumbai. What struck me abt the book was the genuine love the narrator had for india especially when he was living in the slums..which to me is indian poverty at its worst! The genuineness of the narrator also struck a cord and I found myself marveling his point of view which to me was very ‘indian’.

I must admit i felt cheated in the end when the plot unravels with Khader bhai, Abdulla and the web of characters masterfully woven together show there true purpose...but then isn’t that what life is all about! Many times the good unwittingly done to you, u realize was selfishly done to benefit some one else… you just happen to be lucky or unlucky as in Shantaram's case.

To sum up in John Gillespie’s words “Shantaram is a journey on two levels. Literally it is a journey to the heart of India, the land where in the author's words "the heart is king". Personally it is a journey of the heart through experience, from "Mr. Lindsay" of passport stolen to the affectionately nicknamed "Linbaba", and finally to the name "Shantaram" (man of God's peace)—the name given to the author by his adopted Indian family.”
Hmm I really liked the book, any one else agreeing? Do write about what u thought of it..