Shantaram....

The name 'Shantaram' would put off a person of maharashtrian descent (no offense intended to the Shantarams of the world) due to its old world 'charm' (or the lack of new world charm...if you know what I mean) Having said that, I had been reading up on reviews of a book by the same name by an unknown author "Gregory David Roberts" (Coming to think about it...I like to go for unknown authors rather than the David Dhawan's of the book world...gives my bookshelf a more eclectic blend...and a stack of half read books....coz some of em are booooring) for quite some time....Finally I decided to take the plunge...(For those of you who don't know my reading habits...it takes me lot of thinking and maybe a bout of spontaneous impulse to pick up or order a book) and order this book.

So I got 'Shantaram' by UPS and the first thing that I noticed was "Man is this heavy or What?"..(suitably punished for not paying attention to the world hardcover)..Whats the second thing?...well "Holy Cow this is so Thickkk!!!"....It took me a while to finally pick it up from my shelf at 11 pm....and Guess what?...I still had it in my hands at 2 am.....(For those of you who can finish a book in a night....I don't sail in the same boat as u...bite me!!!...and besides this is the longest book that I have read in my career - barring the Engineering books I supposedly read of course)

Getting back on the saddle of the horse (cool phrase huh?)....Personally I prefer books which can paint the scene in front of the reader and the characters are enlivened into speaking the written word...As guessed from the fact that I am writing a blog about it, this book not only satisfies this requirement, but goes way beyond......rarely does one come across a book which has a good story which is well written and has words which are music to the ears...(whats that?)...phrases that compel the reader to backtrack them and say "Wow!!! Thats so cool or hot or groovy or whatever your buzz word is"...(I have read books wherein I have had to backtrack and say "Huh! whats that supposed to mean?"...Fury - Salman Rushdie being one of them...now you know I am a literary bumpkin)...My favorite would be the theory of evolution of the Universe...Don't wanna give it away...The book also poses a few introspective questions about human existence...It really puts you in the mind of the protagonist...(those imagining about games like Doom when u read this line...get outta hear!!!)...The one that I loved the most is "Whats better? Doing the right things for the wrong reasons? Or doing the wrong things for the right reasons?"...It takes you through the changes that the protagonist goes through and his psyche as it changes...the way he retrospects his own actions...comes up with some amazing comparisons when someone else makes a choice which is similar to his own in a completely disparate situation...I am short on words to say more....(and yet I have consumed so many words)

To write a review of Shantaram and not mention its main character would be criminal...I don't mean the protagonist which in this case is the author himself...I mean the city of Bombay or Mumbai...Being my hometown, I have not come across a better portrayal of the city in any other book as yet...(comments welcome if you have)...The author has quite literally captured the soul of the city...The reader would want to catch the next flight out to experience it in the flesh...(And for the record, I almost went to Leopolds some years ago and my next trip is gonna fulfill that...Go check out Cafe Mondegar as well...nice place)...The story of a foreigner who comes to Mumbai and makes it his home...well almost is biographical in a way...The different parts of this epic are amusing...thought-provoking and realistic...well realistic enough to keep the reader pondering as to what part of the book was fact and what part was fiction?

In addition to being a best seller, this book is soon going to be made into a major motion picture...with Johnny Depp playing the lead role and Helena Bonham Carter as the alluring Karla...though I would have preferred someone like Angelina Jolie to play Karla...(well I wud prefer her to play any role as long as she blazes the screen...what say?)..coz of her strength, sensuousness and again a sense of cynical heartless demeanor...well maybe not (any comments for Karla castings welcome!!!)...

Well what are you doin still reading this?...Go on pick up a copy....a paperback version of course.