Book Review of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

chillibreeze writer — Sudhir Raikar

Analgesic, Anti-toxicant and Anti-depressant – that’s the only way to describe this outwardly runaway work of therapeutic value. That the author, Gregory David Roberts, was once a drug-addict fugitive makes the therapy as enduring as his experience. The gratifying dose of medication injects such raving inspiration into the reader that he sees nothing but splendor in the celebration of life.

It’s almost a worthless exercise to fix a genre for such work where each experience - refuge and revenge; despair and hope; love and solitude; virtue and vice and loyalty and betrayal - goes beyond mere dictionary connotations to reveal a truth that appears more complete in its partiality.

Having escaped from an Australian prison armed with fugitive disillusionment, the protagonist comes to Mumbai and things happen in quick succession. The undemanding charms of a street-smart tourist guide, Prabhaker, lead him to a life in a Mumbai slum while a popular joint frequented by foreigners of varying nationalities and motives introduces him to the underworld and its belligerent lords.

And thus begins a string of contrasts in each of his exasperating roles in the pulsating city – a determined slum doctor saving lives amidst filth and disease, an underworld mediator thriving on the profits of crime and forgery, a sensitive lover pining for his love in solitude and a loyal confidant ready to die for his Godfather’s life-mission as well as the individual disasters of his vulnerable friends.

In doing so, he finds and clings to a sense of purpose in everything that the safe haven of Mumbai offers – purity of life in the wretchedness of the slum, soul-searching mysticism in the twisted morality of the underworld and a cosmic hope in the heart-wrenching tragedies of new-found friends and situations spread across the continents of Asia, Africa and Australia. The small, sprightly guide Prabhaker and his rustic clan; the iron-willed Afghan don Khader Khan and his august followers; Karla his enchantress lover ever shrouded in mystery; the enterprising and God-fearing slum inhabitants; hardened prisoners serving detention in Mumbai’s atrocious jails; gawdy brothels; and the bizarre systems of pubs, hotels, police stations, hospitals, railways stations and pavements. Every story is a rainbow of human emotions offering sparkling lessons in philosophy, religion and psychology, sans the aridness of curriculum-trapped disciplines.

Roberts shows amazing finesse in capturing the parochial beliefs and universal commonality of his characters. He also unveils the true character of Mumbai – unseen from the roving eyes of touring visitors as well as the weathered outlook of busy inhabitants - as a city that swears only by the
doctrine of necessity.

The racy account, however, seems stretched towards the end, much like a forced attempt to suit best-seller expectations of magnificent landscapes, do-or-die missions and larger-than-life anonymities. But more importantly, Roberts avoids the temptation of romanticizing his semi-fictional escapades. Instead, he surrenders to the divinity of his experience of playing his part in the divine scheme without pride or prejudice. And as he rightly says, each one of us only add our “little consequences to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world” Couldn’t have been said better!

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Out of 5 “chilies”, our editorial team gave this article...

—About our writer:

Sudhir Raikar, 36, is a cost accountant by qualification but a lost accountant for all pratical purposes. With nothing else to lose but his temper, he has everything to gain from life. Currently tresspassing in the world of information technology for his living, he is a resident of
Mumbai with his family of father, wife & son.

Book Review of Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

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