Shantaram - man of peace

Just finished reading this book called Shantaram. Its a fictionalised account of an Aussie convict who breaks out of prison and comes to India. He starts a new life in India, gets new friends, a new job. He lives in the slums of Bombay for a while and starts a clinic to help people out there. He falls in love with a German woman called Karla. And in the process of helping her lands up in prison.... gets into the mafia after that and even goes to Afghanistan to fight the war with the mujhahideens.

The characters are beautifully painted. His friend Prabhakar is one such and you fall instantly in love with him. He gives the protoganist his Indianised name - LinBaba. He goes onto live in Prabhakar's village for 6 months and is adopted by Prabhu's mother; who gives him the name "Shantaram" which means man of peace.

Karla is his love interest whose witty one liners and comments are thought provoking. Abdullah is also one of his friends who is painted as one of those cool dude gangsters. Abdul Khader Khan is like his mentor and his father figure. Didier is another guy I found really interesting. He is French, Jewish, gay "not necessarily in that order"... but the guy is too wierd and funny.

The book has a very philosophical angle to it every time Lin thinks about his past or the discussions he has with Abdul Khader Khan. Although I didn;t agree with all the theories put out in the book, it definitely gets you thinking about life its purpose, where we are from and why we are here, so on and so forth.

One of the best things I liked about the book is the outsider's view of India. Karla says something like the only you can know the real India is when you surrender to it. I just found it so true. I mean you can be an observer of India and everything looks so chaotic. The way we lead our lives, the relationships we enjoy, the way we construct our buildings even. But India is not about that. Its not about sitting in the stands and wonder whats happening. Its about getting down in the ballpark and playing along. Thats the only way you can ever know what India is about, why we are so emotional or attached, understand our culture, history, problems.

All in all, I loved the book. Definitely worth a read.