Sushiksha

This week’s topic: Book review: SHANTARAM by Gregory David Roberts.

 Books play a very important role in a person’s life in m­­­­­ore than one way. Some books change people’s lives and some, the way people see their lives, some heal the soul, some give us a good healthy life and some are so beautiful, you’d want to read them again and again, but don’t just so that you can keep the experience of reading it for the first time forever in your mind.

 Shantaram has been one such book for me. A mixture of every quality that a book should have. An amalgam of every quality and essence of life, all fused and infused into 950 pages. The book is more than just a book. It’s an experience to be cherished, and lived as you go through. One of the reviews on the book read, “If this book doesn’t change your perspective of life, you’re either heartless, dead, or both.” Nothing else better describes the book. Even after finishing the book, it leaves you wanting for more and the high of the book stays for days after you’ve finished reading it.

 About

Shantaram is Australian author Gregory David Roberts’ debut novel released in 2003. It is mostly based on real life incidents from his life with subtle hints of non-fiction. It is essentially a kind of an autobiography of a phase of his life In Bombay, India that itself feels like a lifetime. The most awaited sequel of ‘Shantaram’, ‘The Mountain Shadow’, was released in 2015, almost 12 years later and is a beauty of its own.

 Synopsis

 Roberts escaped from prison back in Australia during the 1980s while serving a jail sentence for several counts of armed robberies and extortions which he committed to feed his heroin addiction after his wife divorced him and won the custody of their child. The hunger for freedom and adventure made him escape jail along with another inmate. To hide himself and to escape being caught, he travelled to India and found refuse In the City of Dreams – Bombay (now Mumbai) where he lived for 10 years before being caught and extradited back to his homeland. This book is a journal of the years he spent in Mumbai where he was majorly known and ‘Linbaba’ or ‘Lin’ after a taxi driver named Prabhaker, his first friend in the world’s busiest city fondly called him that.

 Prabhaker takes him to Colaba, where he meets Karla, a German woman and falls in love with her at first sight. “She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen” is the way he describes her. Unfortunately for them, their relationship is always something that never works throughout the story, despite his several attempts to make it work. But Karla does play important roles throughout the story.

 Prabhaker, his first friend takes him around the city, slowly injecting in him the high of the city. A visit to Prabhaker’s house in his village gives him the name ‘Shantaram’ meaning “The man of peace”. Although he is almost never referred to by that name in the entire story, he feels that, that was the moment he felt Mumbai had accepted him and made him one of their own. Thus, making the name very important to him.

 When he comes back to the city, is when the true story begins. Lin is mugged and finds himself living in a slum and getting to see a whole different side and lifestyle of Mumbai. He notices the lack of health care and decides to set up a free clinic within his small ‘jholi’ or hut where he treats poor people with whatever meagre resources he had, gaining him lot of popularity and fame within the slum. During his stay, he faces other challenges like cholera, human trafficking, poverty and drugs. Which he subtly overcomes, at least for that time.

 He meets Abdul Khader Khan, a religious don and mafia head from Mumbai who remains a mysterious character almost throughout the book. Soon Roberts is arrested and thrown into Arthur prison where he is tortured and beaten brutally. The way Roberts describes the incident, sends goosebumps down your spine. It is apt to mention here that, Roberts has a very calm sense of writing. He doesn’t include his thoughts in his writing. He just describes them which makes the reader feel as though her were in the story. Shortly put, he makes you feel the pain, rather than just explain the pain.

 After weeks of torture, Khader bails him out and take takes him under his wing as Roberts hunts the person who landed him in jail. Lin develops a fatherly bond with Khader, discussing philosophy whenever they met. He would handle the drug mafia for him and soon they both grew very close. Close enough for each other to the others’ deeper secrets. Mainly, that Khader funded the Mujahideen in Afghanistan.

 Robert incidentally also discovers the craze of Bollywood and also features in one for a short while: Paanch Paapi which also featured Chunky Pandey and Kimi Katkar. The scene can be found on YouTube at https://youtu.be/RERY7Y6BrWk @32:40.

 Overall, Shantaram is book that will linger in your mind long after you have finished it. The way Lin describes Mumbai and his experiences is truly a bliss. His raw yet beautiful style of writing is unseen and truly unique. His perspective on life, love and death changes your own perspective of these things. You start thinking differently about your life. Such is the power of the book.

 My favorite quote from the book will always remain, “Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears”.

 Should you read this book?

 If you are a person who enjoys stories with all sorts of flavors of genres mixed into one, with each having its own share of influence, Yes! This is the book for you. Mixed with hints of beautiful philosophy and anecdotes on life, it will surely change your take on life and more.

 You can buy a hard copy or Read on Kindle on Amazon here: https://shorturl.at/dIQT1

 Or Download it for free from Z-Library: https://1lib.in/book/1750940/dfe1a4