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Reading Shantaram

I finished listening to Shantaram on audiobook after several weekends of being absorbed in the story. This book had been on my to-read list for a long time and I am glad I chose the audio version of it. It is an extraordinary story teeming with colorful characters and rich detail. As an Indian who is a stranger to Mumbai and Maharashtra in that I have never spent years of my life there. I have to rely on what I know second hand. As a fan Rohinton Mistry's A Fine Balance, where in my mind I imagined the action taking place in Mumbai, this book was a chance for me to know the city through another author even if an Australian. 

The author, Gregory David Roberts comes across as someone who is able to see the soul of India through all that ails it. And in connecting with that soul, he finds some answers to his life's hard questions. India does not save him but it keeps his soul alive and striving. Most of his experiences would be unrelatable to the average person who lives a far more pedestrian life but what he learns from his experiences are things his readers would understand as well. The void of a father's love in a man's life, the inability to commit to anyone or anything wholeheartedly, escaping from the past and consequences of actions and a pattern of missed opportunities are some of the themes that drive the events in the protagonist's life.

I was a bit surprised to read the criticism of the book by Indian writers and the perception that the author was recounting his white man's burden story. That was not my impression - he tells the story from his own perspective which is his right as the author. He is not expounding on India or pretending his has found nirvana - he is describing his own experience with the country and the people as he tries to fight his demons rather unsuccessfully. There are very few broad-brush comments made about the country or its people without some deep personal engagement and involvement to warrant it. This is one of the infinite stories that can be told about India, the material is endless - and as far as telling a story goes, this one was very well told. It is this work for towering literary genius maybe not but those are few and far between.

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