Shantaram

Lin learns the story of Prabu’s parents. Prabu’s mother, Rukhmabei, married at age 16. She had originally been disappointed, but Kishan’s smile changed her mind. They were pregnant within two months. She had children, then three miscarriages, followed by a hysterectomy at age 26.

Bandits began demanding tributes from the village. They killed and raped several people, including one of Kishan’s cousins in another village. In Rukhmabei’s fury, she convinced the villagers to resist, rather than capitulate. After sending women and children to another village, the men fought. Prabu was 15. He brought street-fighting friends, including a boy named Raju, who had a gun. Raju killed the leader, and the bandits fled. The villagers told the police the bandits accidentally shot their own man. Lin hears about the battle often.

One morning, Lin wakes to a water buffalo licking his face. One of Prabu’s sisters milks it into a glass, which he reluctantly drinks. They wash and have breakfast before the men work in the fields. The women clean and wash. This repeats itself for weeks. Sometimes people are miserable, but they sing every day. In six months, Lin never hears a raised voice or sees angry violence.

After three months, there is heavy rain. Everyone dances and sings after eight months of relative dryness. When the actual monsoon starts, it lasts for days. Lin sees the river rising and runs to warn the villagers. They laugh at his fear and take him to the river. Each year, they take bets on how high the river will rise. Someone always guesses correctly, and they are never in real danger. Rukhmabei gives Lin a new name: Shantaram Kishan Kharre, which means “[m]an of peace, or man of God’s peace” (136).

Prabu tries to convince Lin to see a specific sex worker when they return to Mumbai. He reveals he already paid a cash deposit. Lin agrees to look at the woman, if only to get the deposit back.

At the Apsara Hotel, a 50-year-old woman answers the door. She lifts her sari to show him her flabby stomach, which excites Prabu. Lin leaves Prabu with her and works on his Marathi dictionary, which has 600 words. Prabu comes into the hotel room nine minutes later, exhausted and happy.

On the way back from a karaoke bar, a car blocks them. Several men get out and rob them. Prabu blames himself as Lin remembers being beaten by four officers in prison. At the hotel, they sell Lin’s watch to pay the bill and buy a train ticket back into the heart of Mumbai.

Prabu introduces Lin to two friends: Johnny Cigar and Raju. Johnny is a powerful man in the slum. Raju helps Mr. Qasim Ali Hussein, the leader of the slum. Lin likes them both, and they arrange for him to take a hut in the slum. Lin hates the thought of living there but has no choice. Lin and Prabu then verify their plans to meet Karla and see a group of monks called the Standing Babas in a few days.

The Standing Babas made a vow to never sit or lie down again, which causes horrible pain. They sleep in standing harnesses. Their legs swell for the first five years of their ordeal before thinning to bones. The Babas make hashish, remain stoned at all times, and share the drugs with the customers who watch from a corridor.

Karla is exhilarated. She can’t decide whether their pain is more terrible or beautiful. Someone screams as a man with a sword appears and advances on Lin. A man named Abdullah Taheri trips the man, and Lin picks up the sword when he drops it. The attacker surrenders.

Karla offers to help Lin with money, but he declines. She could help with his visa, but he doesn’t ask since it would lead to other questions. After they say goodbye, Lin walks to the slum. His hut is the size of his former cell. He meets his neighbors: Anand, Rafiq, and Jeetendra and his wife, Radha.

A fire breaks out that night. Qasim, the head of the slums, directs beaters—including Lin—against the fire while others move anything in its path that could burn. Demolition teams destroy huts to protect others that are farther away. There are 12 deaths and over 100 injured. Prabu says it is usually worse. A baby girl survives, but her parents are dead. When Lin sees that her legs are burned, he tells them to bring her to his hut, where he has a first aid kit. Lin puts cream on her legs before tending to people all night.

The others eventually force Lin to eat and sleep. In the morning, a line of at least 30 people awaits him outside. Lin becomes a slum hero thanks to his high school first aid training. He feels that fate brought him here as he works. He remembers the attack by the man with the sword. Prabu had stepped in front of Karla when the man attacked. Prabu’s instinct was to protect. Lin’s reaction was to fight. He thinks Prabu’s action was braver, and Lin realizes that he loves him.