Book: Shantaram

Shantaram. The book I took longest to read. If it were some other book I would have given it up in so much time, but I couldn't. It was because it was Shantaram. The book I read each day to walk vicariously with the author through the lanes and by lanes of Mumbai. I have lived in Mumbai for 4 years and the city just grows on you. I know it and I can vouch for it. If you love that city despite its pace and dirt you will love this book too.




There are various parts of the book that I really love.

On Love : Pg 372 :
I never believed in love at first sight until it happened to me. Then when it did happen, it was as if every atom in my body had been changed, somehow : as if I had become charged with heat and light. I was different , forever, just for the sight of her. And the love that opened in my heart seemed to drag the rest of my life behind it , from that moment onward. I heard her sound in every lovely sound the wind wrapped around me.I saw her face in every in brilliant mirrored flares of memory, everyday.

On Man and Money: Pg 804
You can't reason with a man who has no sense of money and its....its value. Its the one thing all civilised men have in common, don't you agree? If money doesn't mean anything there is no civilisation. There is nothing.

On Life : Pg 871
Every Life , every love , every action and feeling and thought has its reason and significance: its beginning and the part it plays in the end. Sometimes, we do see. Sometimes, we see the past so clearly, and read the legend of its parts with such acuity, that every stitch of time reveals its purpose, and a kind of message is enfolded in it.

There are many such moments in the book but the thing that stands out most are the characters . Lin and Karla , Prabhaker , Ulla and Khader Bhai , each one of them is so flesh and blood that you want the book to never end.