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It begins with an Australian felon, who’s serving a sentence for armed robbery in Australia, escaping prison and arriving in Bombay. It starts innocently enough as Lin spends time at Leopold caf`E9 on Colaba Causeway and gets to know the new city and the local lingo. He befriends the tourist guide Prabekar and the vivacious Karla. He also befriends a motley group of foreigners and Indians. The character of Prabekar is memorable and his vernacular speech both hilarious and authentic. So is the character of Karla, the vivacious green-eyed beauty, who he befriends after a magical first meeting on the streets of Bombay. Along the way he shifts out of his hotel and moves into a slum at Cuffe Parade, where he becomes the slum doctor and does yeoman service when a cholera epidemic hits the area. There is also a hilarious scene where he ends up hugging a bear. He also gets involved with the underworld and tries his hand at currency operations, making books (passports) and other seedy stuff. But even in his life in the slum, which he throws himself wholeheartedly into, there is little self-pity and he loves the sense of community. He portrays life in the slums as having many redeeming virtues if not exactly glamorous. The book takes a dramatic turn and explodes into life when he suddenly finds himself first at the Colaba Police Station and then in the Arthur Road prison for reasons he cannot quite fathom. He does not know why he is there and barely escapes with his life having lost half his weight. After recovering he sets out to supply guns for the Mujahideen in Afghanistan, where there is a denouement with his hero Abdul Khader Khan and the purpose of his recruitment by the underworld are explained. On his return to Bombay, he gets more deeply involved with the underworld and ties up loose ends with his Bombay friends. Part travelogue, part adventure, spanning over 900 pages, the twists and turns in Lin’s life in Bombay are truly astounding. Through it all, Lin’s affection for his adopted city only deepens. In a sense he is an anti-Naipaul and he sees goodness even in slums and redeeming features in almost every aspect of Bombay life. One thing, however, never quite clearly explained is as to why he comes to Bombay after escaping from prison in Australia. One of the strongest points of the book is the juxtaposition of scenes with friends in Leopold caf`E9 and his work for the underworld and the seemingly endless tide of crime. A large book, but once one begins reading it, one knows that one is going to keep at it till the end. What I initially found a distraction was the title of the book Shantaram. It sounded strange for a book in English written by an Australian about Bombay. But Shantaram is the name given to him when he goes to Prabekar’s village for being the quiet one though one wonders whether even in that sense it is appropriate. The book is larger than
life and a fine adventure story with more than a fair share of violence.
It is also a book about loss as Lin loses a fair amount of his friends
and colleagues along the way and makes new friends. But what for me was
the real strength of the book was the characterisation of the loquacious
Prabekar, the cool and calculating Karla with her theories about
everything and the mafia don Abdul Khader Khan who is preoccupied with
philosophy. There is no doubt in my mind that it would make a
blockbuster Hindi film though with more than a fair share of violence.
— H.A.D |
THE
curiously titled Shantaram is an adventure story par excellence.
It could be called an Eastern as the locales for the story are Bombay
and the mountains of Afghanistan. It is a tough guy story, which just
gets tougher as it goes along. But it is also a love story. The love for
a city, for reasons which are never quite fully explained and the love
for a woman.