Shantaram

Shantaram is an autobiography written by Gregory David Roberts. It presents his life in the 80’s as an ex-con who just escaped from a top security jail in Australia, as an ex heroin addict, he had been sentenced for armed bank robberies.

He was a tall man, not very handsome, in his early 30’s.

When he escaped he went to India. There he used a fake passport by the name of “Lindsay”, witch on of his best friend in India transformed into “Lin” or “Linbaba”. His name is Prabaker. He is a little man, in his 20’s, Guide of Bombay. He is very short and has a huge smile on his face. You have never seen someone that has such a passion for life as he does. They meet at the airport and follow a great relationship. During the first months, Prabu shows him around Mumbai, and teaches him fluent Hindi. He meets this beautiful Swiss-American woman he falls in love with. She had beautiful long black hair and shiny green eyes. She fled the states when she was a teen, because she killed a man that used to abuse her. She tells him to meet her at a Bar called Leopolds. There he meets one of his greatest friends, Didier, a French homosexual gangster. He is in his 40’s Lin’s. When he was a teenager, he was dating this older man, and one day, he took all of his money and escaped to India.

Lin’s first job was connecting tourists to black market money exchangers, for better rates, and to drugs. He did this on his own and it worked quite well, him only having to work twice or thrice per week. Then one day, his friend Prabu invites him to go to his village, where they spend 6months and he learns fluent Marathi. Prabu’s parents baptized Lin “Shantaram”. When they return to Bombay, Lin moves to the slum where Prabu lives, into this tiny hut where he sleeps on the floor and has 1 bucket of water per day. Lin had experience in the doctor sections, so he offered Qasim Ali Hussein, the slumlord, an old man with white hair and a long beard, his knowledge. He healed people every day, closing...