Book Review: Shantaram

A Big Fat Good Book

I have been keen to buy the book given that one has seen so many slums in Bombay (and elsewhere), heard so much about the underworld but never has one had the opportunity to read an insiders account of these things. However two things scared me. The first was that most of the reviews it got from the socialite press (Shobha De and her ilk) were very favourable - I was scared that I might sending good money after bad things- and secondly the size. A thousand pages just seemed like a little too much even for unemployed me. (The last time I read a thousand pages book, it was The Magic Mountain and just when I heave a sigh of relief at having finished it the author said that for those who had managed to finish the book once they should re-read the book again. Madman!)

I finally narrowed down to two options one was to go and read the book entirely in Crossword and the second was to find someone who could lend me the book. I finally took option two and borrowed the book from Mitali.

I now plan to add the book to my ever diminishing library (all those of ye who have borrowed my books please return them). It’s a great book and one that is hard to put down once you start reading it.

I won’t go into the plot (you can all just go and read the back-cover the next time you are in a book shop) but rather will delve in to what I found interesting the book and things that many reviewers have ignored for some reason or the other.

I have always wondered as to how slum dwellers manage in those tiny tiny sheds surrounded by muck and grime. It seems impossible that one can spend a week in one of those things forget a lifetime. So how do they keep their sanity? What is it that prevents them from mugging me as I walk with a 10,000 rupee mobile phone in a 2000 buck jeans and a 2000 buck sneaker. After all that’s about the money that they might make after a year of hard labour. But all I could do was speculate since no one I knew had a clue of what goes on inside these places. People like them are not known to people like us. We love India and unka bharat mahaan.

As I read the book it seemed rather ironical that I was finally getting to learn about the mechanics of a slum and life in a slum through the eyes of a foreigner. Gregory Roberts, to his credit does not either romanticise or seem agahst with the living conditions. He explains rather matter of factly what keeps life here ticking and how it ticks. Often as I passed by a slum I have wondered how come the children are smiling and the people do not seem angry with all the wealth around them. I wondered how people managed to live in those unruly assortments of plastic and tin sheets. How come they were not at each others throats all the time given their cramped lifestyle and appalling environment. Through Roberts one learns that it is not so unruly and despite its unruly appearance there is a system in place adn rules by which life is led in a slum. Roberts gives a deatailed acoount as to how and why these people live out a life which has little hope of improvement with a smile on their life.

Roberts also dwells on his own kind, the foreigners who have made India their home. Ever since I came to Bombay in 1994 I have wondered what exactly is with this place Leopolds. There are always so many foreigners hanging out there and they all seem to be more at home than the Indians there. Roberts delves deep into the cult of Leopold and it is quite fascinating to discover that many of those foreign tourists are not tourists but residents of the country, who have their own unique stories and live and work here illegally but with a tacit understanding with the cops and relevant bureaucracy. I suppose the next time that I go to Leopolds I will be looking at the foreigners there very differently, thanks to Roberts.


Roberts also give the reader an insiders look into the jobbers of Bombay streets - the touts, pimps, tourist guides, drug peddlars. We all know that they exist and we interat with them sometimes barking at them for trying to fleece us as we step out of airports and train-stations, but at least I have never wondered where do these people stay what brought them to these jobs and how do they think of this nation this city. For the first time through Shantaram's eyes one gets to see what their lives are about and realise that they are no less or no more devious than us. Life on the street is uncertain and while they might make a fat killing today the next few weeks could be completely without pay.

For all his love of for Bombay and India, he does not shy away from talking about the lawlessness, the corruption, the arbitrariness, the inewuity, the nexus amongst the rich and the powerful. What is nice is that he does it as just another part of his jjourney. All of us know that for all our talk of the coming century belonging to India, a model can get shot at party with 100 people present and no one sees a thing. Politicians can be caught taking money on tape and still retain their jobs. Shantaram is a timely reminder that not much has changed in two decades since Roberts was in India.

As to his experience with the underworld what I found fascinating was that it seems to have been more multinational than MNCs in India with people from various countries playing an active part. But perhpas the part that I found most intriguing was the conversations that the author and the underworld don engage in. The true nature of good and evil. Is life about doing the wrong things for the right reason or the right things for the wrong reasons.

And once you have read the book you somehow can just imagine Johnny Depp essaying this role and I guess I am waiting for the movie now.