Shantaram
"... And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving can become the story of your life."
Shantaram, my latest inspiration and the one of the most profound ones so far.
A friend of mine has this book. I asked to borrow it. He, normally a generous guy, refused. Asked the reason, he said that he was very attached to that book and that he thought I should get my own copy. " Kanjoos," I thought, "how attached can you get to a book written by a self confessed dope addict and gangster?" Turns out, he was right.Intrigued by his attitude, I bought the book, and now I am hopelessly in love with Gregory David Roberts, the author.
They now have a 'Shantaram tour' in Mumbai. That says it all doesnt it? Out of the countless people who have written about Bombay, the list including many prominent Indian writers, they pick an Australian guy's book and show off Bombay from his point of view.And what a point of view it is!! All of us have seen the slums of Bombay, the dirt that has settled on the apartments, the corruption,the people and their seeming callousness. We at best have come up with excuses to justify the state of Bombay. But has anyone of us said"The dishonest bribe is the same in every country,but the honest bribe is in India alone."? Has any one of us fallen in love with the slums? If I have, atleast on print,it is only because Shantaram has taught me how.
Who does not love praise? And what greater praise than these lines? "The simple and astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There's nowhere else in the world where thats quite so true."Given an unlimited leash on space , time and attention span, I would quote the whole book. But, dont worry , Thats not going to happen. Like my wise friend before me, I am going to let you discover the joy that is Shantaram. It is like falling in love, the most common experience , but unique and personal for each one of us.
The experience of several lifetimes crammed into a little more than a decade-this is the impression the book leaves on me. I thought my life was devoid of incident. Now I realize, each minute is a story. If I choose to see it. If I choose to look at the beauty.If i choose to look at the ugliness and make even that beautiful.
posted by Vibha at 8:51 PM
15 Comments:
hmmm... now i am intrigued. will get back after reading the book.
10:31 PM
ok will read the book if u lend it to me. i bought kaavya viswanathan's "how opal mehta got kissed got wild and got a life" this week. will read it asap.
hey i thought girls read "mills n boons" or "harrold robbins" or other mushy yucky books like that. good to know that u r a rebel to the norm. or is it ur first book other than harrold or mills..........he he he
11:13 PM
That influencing eh? I'm gettting a copy too. I like your last paragraph.
10:47 AM
who is this idiot writing stupid ass comments in your inbox vibha?
comment on the bloggggggggg jackass.not what u r reading....we dont give a fuck abt what u r upto or what u think abt girls reading habits.its a good well written blog.if u dont think so .KEEP oFF
2:05 PM
@ jay and grenadine
its a great book.read it and get back
2:07 PM
hey anonymous, thanks for standing up for me :)
miss grenadine, u like only the last paragraph??
7:37 PM
All the best with your bloging. I got the same through your orkut profile.
9:22 PM
send the book over we'll see... despite anon's scary comment and the fact that this isn't exactly related to the post... can you do something about all the pink that stands out sore-thumb-esque on the template?
10:22 AM
impressive but not objective enough...i know u r smitten by d book but every book has a trough...so lets see u bring out a more unbiased opinion.
4:37 PM
ok, anon-the third one- I did write the blog in the flush of post reading enthu, but isnt the first impression the one that matters the most? looking back critically, any book can be trashed.
Morover,I am looking to take a stand here, not write a book review ,and I am strongly in favour of the book, so why cant I be biased?
6:06 PM
"I choose to look at d ugliness n make even that beautiful".......not possible until u r biased!!!
7:21 PM
‘Shantaram’, undoubtedly one of the masterpieces I have read . I read this during my PG entrance preps (when you tend to abstain from even the newspapers). Someone had presented this book to my roommate on his birthday (The maximum my buddy can read other than textbooks is sports page & daily astrology in TOI). I had never heard of the author, title of the book was not catchy, cover page was reminding me of some NCERT book (You know, they compete for the worst cover designs ever) and it was huge (I guess more than 1000 pages). With all these unattractive features this will be the last book you look for when you are cramming for the unjustifiably demanding PG entrances…. Still one fine day (rather a cold, lonely night) I preferred it over the Robbins & Harrison’s and started reading… Believe me; I was struck to it for next 4-5 days… and a hang over for more than a month….
A trivia I like to furnish you guys here “The manuscript of this book was destroyed twice in the prison which washed out 6 years of hard work of writing”. But as admitted by the author in one of interviews, he thanked both the incidents which eventually helped him in improving his writing style. It’s true again!!!.... “Hard work & Persistence always pays…”…. Hmm, try telling this to my friends preparing for PG. They are so much dejected and feeling betrayed that they no more believe in these eternal truths.
Thanx to the blogger who made me nostalgic with the memories of ‘Lin’…Her one line review is the true representative of the book.. “The experience of several lifetimes crammed into a little more than a decade”….I am looking forward to read it again. But the price of the book definitely creates a hole in your pockets. .. It’s worth it anyway….( I wonder if my buddy is still using it for pillow, I can borrow from him again)
2:58 PM
arun-heard of that one-never got round to reading it-will do so.
12:17 AM
Remember, there was this guy who also claimed to be a dope addict and a gangster.
Ended up that he lied about all of it just to make more books sell.
12:33 AM
Hi there,
I've always had a problem with gangsters and murderers who gain instant celebrity status and stardom by writing about their journey to the underbelly of humanity and back. Until recently, Charles Shobraj was sitting pretty demanding $5000 for a coffee interview lasting 30 minutes. (you had to pay for the coffee too) Being able to write should not be seen as redemption from anything. As far as Shantaram is concerned, this man tries to give an adventure-ish fell to the whole darn thing, but long story short, he's nothing but a gangster and a pimp and maybe even a liar. One of these days I'm gonna make it to one of his famous parties in Bombay, and tell him so myself.
10:01 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home