Shantaram - Book Review

This was long due.

I read Shantaram months back. And since, then I was waiting to write a small review and never found the opportunity. So here it is.

Shantaram is a colorful novel right from the beginning. Every emotion that you look for, from the human heart, is packaged in the 900 odd pages. An ex-junkie and robber enters India after escaping from an Australian prison. That first bit itself raises your expectations of the whole - I could call it thriller too! This guy is the author and his photo reminds me of Liam Neeson. Lin enters hot Bombay - the maximum city. And his experiences in Bombay are not comparable to a travelogue. Rather a handbook for fake passports, drugs, stolen medicine, weapons, money and what not. Amidst all that Lin makes a local best friend - Prabhakar who helps Lin start an enchanting life in Bombay between 1981 and 1987 starting with learning Marathi.

"And I did--I liked everything about her. I liked the Helvetian music of her Swiss-American English, and the way she pushed her hair back slowly with a thumb and forefinger when she was irritated by something. I liked the hard-edged cleverness of her conversation, and the easy, gentle way she touched people she liked when she walked past them or sat beside them. I liked the way she held my eyes until the precise moment when it stopped being comfortable, and then smiled, softening the assail, but never looked away."

He falls in love with Karla - beautiful and enigmatic. Its amazing to see how her character has been sketched. She shows strength, determination, and confidence under various circumstances. "Heroes comes in three types - dead, damaged and dubious" . This is one dialogue I remember from the book that Karla made. Karla is Lin's connection to Bollywood, prostitutes, smugglers, police officers, afghans and iranians.

Further, its just unbelievable to know what all happened with Lin during his life in Bombay. He sets up a clinic in the slum, hooks up with local mafia to fetch medicines, ends up doing money laundering and fake passports. Over the seuqnce of all these events, Lin ends up at the Arthur Road prison. I cannot say that he gets beaten up black and blue. When you read those chapters, you'll feel miserable. Is prison that worse? Nothing like what you see in the movies. Its painful and traumatic. You start thinking - will he die in prison? what will happen next? will someone save him? why is he getting tortured for such a long time? (this, mainly because the prison chapters run for quite long).

Khader, the savior, gets him out and brings him back to business. Then comes another episode - the trip to Afghanistan.

Discussions about life, metaphysics, morality, death - at some places in the book, you kind of get this feeling that its not at all done reading this once. You need to mull over it again and again. Thats when you see the light behind the curtain.

Some of the characters like Qasim Ali, Johnny Cigar, Didier, Lisa, Abdullah are very lively and whenever you read parts involving them, you get a feeling like watching a western movie.

The main theme, as I could understand, in this book, is Lin's pursuit to find out the finer details about green eyed beauty Karla and the muslim don Khader. When you read this book, you definitely get thinking - Wow, I really wonder if I can see a Bombay like this.

what you'd like in this book is perhaps the amount of authenticity that it contains. although some parts have been dramatized to make the flow interesting, it still is an account from Lin's life. there is realism and richness. you also come across a tough world.

and i hope, i have inspired some of you to pick up that book.