Nov 01, 2008 10:44 AM
2967 Views
It took me one and half month to finish this voluminous autobiographical book..a hard core book from the background of Crime and punishment, passion and loyalty, betrayal and redemption. Its a story of a person who has escaped from Australian prison where he had begun serving a 19-year sentence.Massive beatings, lost relations were only left there when he came to bombay and instantly felt a great attraction towards the city. Circumstances brought him to the same world of drugs..But coincidentally he met with few good human being like Prabhakar, a street guide but a man with integrity and broad smile. He visited his native place where Prabhakar’s mother gives him a new name’Shantaram’..”man of God’s peace, ”otherwise he is known as Lin baba, who is only gora(A white man) speaks Marathi(Local language of Bombay).Lin has no future plans and no place to live because of his expired visa, so he has to shift to a sprawling slum..there he served as a doctor.
Things moved rapidly and he becomes a active member of mafia. There he met Karla and his heart set for her.He is loyal to Abdel Khadar Khan ..in him he finds his father figure.. he is imprisoned again in the Arther jail..tortured badly..a goosefleshing description..story goes in 933 pages.Finally so many dead comes to life(most of them were hiding from the police and for other reasons) and many died in gang war.933 pages of crime and grotesque facts..hard to stomach.Lately when I reached to its 800 page it needed courage to continue the book.
I wish this book could have less pages. After reading this book I found that a novel should never be that voluminous.. length sometimes kills curiosity. You have to go in details many times. But still hats off to its author, who has penned his life time experience so lively. It touches your soft heart and introduces to a gruesome crime world.
