Shantaram

This book is a narration by Gregory David Roberts. Initially when I was reading this book, I believed [as I was told] that it is a semi autobiographical book. But then later on I came to know that its more of fiction, & is based on true events & people.

Lin supposedly was an escaped convict from Australia who came to live in Bombay & this book is about his life since then. How he spent nearly 10 years in India [mainly Mumbai], getting accustomed to living in slums, curing the slum people in his little clinic, fighting cholera & firestorms in slum, his visit to an Indian village, learning hindi & marathi to the extent of being fluent, his involvement with the underworld, his tryst in Arthor Road jail, his affairs, his Indian friends, his thoughts, his drug additction. Infact he even narrates being a part of some bollywood movie as some extra. And then experiencing the Afganistan mujahideen fight, from where he barely manages to escape back with his life.

His narration gives a fair picture of life in Mumbai, its various facets. Slums are as much part of Mumbai as is the sophisticated affluent world. Then there is underworld, with its inextricable maze in Mumbai and the horrible life in the Mumbai Jails.

Lin is quite impressed with Indian Culture & Values. And overall the story describes the indomitable nature of the human spirit. Facing this & that in every day life, different emotions, different circumstances, yet the drive to face yet another day, to Live On....

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Its a good narration & never gets boring. Probably because I was under the impression that its semi autobiographical while I was reading so I all the more found it interesting. Nevertheless it has different emotions, different personalities/characters & lot of happenings, so it makes a good read. However I was kind of dissappointed with the ending. I mean with the kind of strong personalities he had described, their subsequent endings were kind of dull. Like he deciding to go to SriLanka, which was kind of abrupt & didnt make much of a sense. And for Karla, an impressive & curious personality, again the ending was kinda dull & uncertain.

One of my favorite quotes from this book.."I don’t know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us or our endless ability to endure it."

I wonder...