Shantaram … A sanscript name meaning MAN OF GODS PEACE.
I was visiting my cousin Christian Carlson Macdonald at the beach who is a fashion photographer and he was reading this book SHANTARAM. I was so excited that I kept asking him where he was in the book. Even the man in the bookstore was so enthusiastic about the book that he convinced Christian to read it. This is one of my favorite book so I highly recommend this crazy, profound and beautiful adventure of one man’s struggle and the transformations in his life. And Gregory David Roberts second book comes out this October 2015 titled ” The Mountain Shadow”.
In 1978, Roberts was sentenced to a 19-year imprisonment in Australia after being convicted of a series of armed robberies of building society branches, credit unions, and shops. In July 1980, he escaped from Victoria’s Pentridge Prison in broad daylight, thereby becoming one of Australia’s most wanted men for the next ten years.
The protagonist Lindsay (according to the book, Roberts’ fake name) arrives in Mumbai carrying a false passport in the name of Lindsay Ford. Mumbai was supposed to be only a stopover on a journey that was to take him from New Zealand to Germany, but he decides to stay in the city. Lindsay soon meets a local man named Prabaker whom he hires as a guide. Prabaker soon becomes his friend and names him Lin (Linbaba). Both men visit Prabaker’s native village, Sunder, where Prabaker’s mother decided to give Lin a new Maharashtrian name, like her own. Because she judged his nature to be blessed with peaceful happiness, she decided to call him Shantaram, meaning Man of God’s Peace. On their way back to Mumbai, Lin and Prabaker are robbed. With all his possessions gone, Lin is forced to live in the slums, which shelters him from the authorities. After a massive fire on the day of his arrival in the slum, he sets up a free health clinic as a way to contribute to the community. He learns about the local culture and customs in this crammed environment, gets to know and love the people he encounters, and even becomes fluent in Marathi, the local language. He also witnesses and battles outbreaks of cholera and firestorms, becomes involved in trading with the lepers, and experiences how ethnic and marital conflicts are resolved in this densely crowded and diverse community. verse community.
