Nov 21, 2006 10:35 PM
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Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts is a very interesting book and esp if you are from Bombay or Mumbai rather u would identify all the characters too well.
Shantaram is all about a Australian convict called Lindsay who has a daring escape from an Australian prison and makes India his home. once in Bombay he befriends Prabhakar a Maharashtrian taxi driver and travel guide. Lindsay who is soon rechristened lin or linbaba not only befriends Prabhakar but starts to live in Collaba slums. Lin starts to peddle drugs to foreign tourist opens a dispensary in the collaba slums and helps the poor.
Linbaba soon comes in touch with the unchallenged Don of Bombay of late seventy's and early eighties called Kader Khan. and his council men one of them Abdullah the Iranian who becomes Lins most trusted friend and Brother.
There is the famous Collaba joint Leopold which is familiar to any Bombayite who lives in South Bombay. there Lin meets Karla and hopelessly falls in love with her , there are other characters like modena the Italian ulla the German and Maurizio the Spanish.
the Story catches pace only when you have crossed 500 pages of the 900 something pages of the book. events take dramatic turn when Lin is framed ,arrested and thrown into Arthur Road Jail. where Lin has harrowing experience but its very interesting to read the detail of life in Aurthur Road Jail and the unwritten Law inside the walls.
Don Abdul Kader Khan rescues Lin from the prison and treats him like his son. soon Lin assimilates into the Bombay underworld of early 1980's . things take a dramatic turn when his God father Abdul Kader Khan takes Lin to Afghanistan to fight his war against the Russian occupation. the story really gets very very interesting . the war gets bloody and Lin learns many secrets about himself here
Lin returns to Bombay after fighting the war where he looses his god father but after returning to fight the battle for supremacy of the underworld. some of the events are really blood curling.
Linbaba looses many of his friends Prabhakar, KaderKhan,Madjid and Prabhakar
on the whole the book is easily the best seller and has everything to make it a Hollywood or Bollywood Block buster. but I felt the book had a unconvincing climax there were many questioned unanswered like what happened to his friends Abdullah, Khaled, Karla and others plus did he go to fight the war in Srilanka and many more perhaps the other has a sequel on the way.
coming back to the book there are many interesting things in the book esp about the Bombay underworld and the life in Bombay in early 80's The Muslim dominated Mafia used to run the underworld which to some extend is also today but there was never the Hindu V/s Muslim gangster ism which we see today or perhaps which we are made to believe
The underworld Dons then had principles like not dealing in drugs etc they even had slogans like saatch aur himmat (truth and courage) overall I feel its a very interesting book . perhaps the generation before us knows those times better who have actually been there.
There are some flaws in the book too there are times when the author drags his Leopold and Karla stories too far which makes you change pages faster. and why is the picture of red fort on the cover which actually should have been gateway of India. anyways if u have the patience to read then u will come out richer reading Shantaram.
