Linram’s Interesting Shantasay

Book review of Shantaram, Author Gregory David Roberts, Published by Abacus, Price INR 497/-

The first thing first, finally and finally, a book based on India that presents the country in true spirit. I think we all are tired of clichéd accounts of mere visitors to the country who leave for home with a ‘book’ of stereotypes. This is a fresh waft of air.

Gregory David Roberts, the author spent several interesting years in India and as mentioned by him fell in love with the country within first twenty minutes. Through out the book he carries that love, loving the country for what it is. The book is based on his awe inspiring years in India after breaking through an Australian prison.

The central character, Gregory lives his life in Mumbai under an assumed name Lindsay and goes on to be called ‘Linbaba’ by his guide turned friend Prabhaker and several neighbors from the slum in South Mumbai, where he spent more than two years, after his visa expires and he is mugged of whatever money he has. He is ‘Lin’ to his friends at the watering hole ‘Leopold’s’ and ‘Shantaram’ to the folks in Prabhaker’s village in Maharastra, where he spends several months.

Lin’s stay in Mumbai takes him from becoming a savior-doctor at the slum, part time drug pusher, an inmate at Arthur Road Jail, to an inner member of the mafia circle. He appears to be in love with every thing in the city. The city itself, Prabhaker, various neighbors at the slum, fellow mafia fighter Abdullah, mafia don Khader Khan and above all the enigmatic Karla, whom he truly, deeply, madly adores.

He also has a battery of fellow philosophers that include the mafia don, his flame Karla, Frenchman and wall paper at Leopold’s Didier, Johnny Cigar and Qasim Ali at the slum. The book is full of very intense sequences of conversation between Lin and them, interesting most of the times but a tad drag at some. But as the story progresses one realizes the relevance of them in the plot.

He does not spend all his time in India though, as he travels under fake identity to Afghanistan via Pakistan, coaxed by Khader Khan to fight his holy war against Russians and other tribal war lords. This adventure almost kills him physically and totally emotionally as several secrets about the people he adores get revealed to him. But the life goes on as he is reminded in the last few pages of being Shantaram, the indomitable son of soil.

The story although 936 pages long, that too in very small point size, has its twists, turns, surprises, and moments of elation, sorrow, moist eyes, gore, romanticism and philosophy.