Book Review - Shantaram

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Almost everyone I know has read this book. And their reviews have been unanimously positive. Suffice to say that was enough to get me to read this pseudo-autobiographical account of an escaped Australian convict who called India (and specifically Bombay) his home.

Our protagonist (for lack of a better word), Lin, is on the run from the local authorities back home in the land down under and is just arriving at the Bombay International Airport in the early 80s as the story begins. From there begins his humorous, at times bizarre, uncanny and ultimately spiritual journey through Bombay, India and beyond.

Lin's journey, as penned in the book, spans five parts with forty-two chapters across the slums of Bombay, a village in Maharashtra, shady hotels in Africa, the mountains of Afghanistan and finally comes full circle to an enlightened end at the slums. The experiences he narrates are often interlaced with philosophical teachings as well personal observational conclusions which at times do sound kinda as though he's some sort of Guru. But if you remove the prejudicial thought from your mind, the experiences do provide some truly pearls of wisdom.

The author bases the anecdotes and stories based on personal experiences and his knowledge of the land is undeniably first hand. One of the elements of the book that really made me re-read certain chapters was the brilliantly detailed description of the geography of my home town of Bombay (Mumbai if you want to sound politically correct!)

Another aspect of the book that made it entertaining (and also run over 900 pages) was the author's attempt to vividly describe every single character, minor or major, on every page. Barring a few descriptions that were completely uncalled for, this approach does provide a great visual interpretation of the characters you are reading.

At 933 pages, this is no simple read and took me a good amount of time to complete (but then I'm a slow reader!). But the long reading journey will reward you with the experience of an absolutely unprecedented journey into the life of Linbaba aka Shantaram. And who knows, his journey may inspire you to embark on one of your own!




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Gandhi's 52 in 2014 Challenge - Week 5

Firstly, I've got to apologise for the miss on last week's update on the task. Returning from the holiday in Vietnam we were so exhausted that logging my weekly progress was the last thing on my mind! Hopefully this doesn't repeat in the future.

Additionally it would appear that the holiday was a little too good since I ended up gaining a significant amount of weight on the trip and am considerably behind my target (Damn!!!). The holiday also has me off my weekly walking and kilometres target. Bottom line, on the health and fitness front I am really in the RED! To track these misses I am now tracking the tasks with the colour RED and will do so till I am able to make amends and come back on the required weekly target.

Achievements wise I did make some progress on a few tasks. Despite all the negative impact the holiday had on my health objectives, it did provide me with multiple photo-walks and as a result I have over 2000 pictures that I will be sorting and processing. The flickr set for that photo walk should be up by the end of the coming week. The holiday also helped me score some journal entries, one each day! My total journal entries till date are quite impressive and the ones from the trip also have great polaroid pictures accompanying the hand-written entries.

Last week I also celebrated my birthday (February 5th) and since I was turning the big 30, the wife helped me with one of the items on my 52 in 2014 list, viz. the Mac Mini. Woohoo!!! So with that I have my first official item crossed off the list which also means that I have been able to kick start my task to give my self $10 for every completed task.

Although I haven't seen any of the movies on the list, I did indulge in some new series and will be updating that list soon to reflect the additions.

The first month of the challenge officially ended last weekend but let me recap the progress in this week's post. Overall I am in the RED on the health and fitness front, but seem to be making decent progress on all other fronts. Guess I know what needs to be the priority for the next few weeks.

Until next week!

Link to the list

Gandhi's 52 in 2014 Challenge - Week 3

Another week, another update on my 52 in 2014 challenge. This week onwards instead of adding the list in the post, I'll simply provide the link to the page (within this blog as well) where I keep the list updated. Saving space you see!

The post is a tad earlier than usual (well just a day earlier really!) cause I'm flying out to Vietnam with the wife for a week long holiday! As you'll see from the updates below, obviously the excitement of the impending holiday has been a small factor in some of the slips this week.

Kinda lagging on a lot of tasks this week. Was able to only for a walk once in the entire week so am going to have to catch up on the target in the next few weeks. Unfortunately am also on holiday next week so that means I'll have to catch up on a whole lot of walks!!! Ah well, it shall have to be done.

Also was unable to complete my 5 journal entries for the week (only managed 2). Aaargh, and this despite the fact that I had SO much to vent about and talk this week. Next week's holiday should provide for some truly memorable and picturesque journal entries though.

On a bright side, the weight loss task saw a positive turn this week with the excess baggage dropping another 0.6 kgs (it's not much, but it's still something!)

Also had another great evening out with friends (second one this month) mid-week (Thursday to be precise) with drinks, food and sheesha at Istanbul Cafe. Although it's also a new restaurant that I've tried, I'm not really chalking it up against my task to dine at 12 new restaurants. 

Completed re-watching all 8 seasons of That 70s show this week as well. Bittersweet feeling when you watch the final episode of any series you've enjoyed watching. Although I must admit the final season was a tad lacklustre and was all over the place with plot lines and stories. I can see why it didn't get renewed for a ninth season.

Also watched another critically acclaimed flick - There Will Be Blood. A tad different than most movies I usually watch, but then that's what this challenge is all about, experiencing new things!

All in all not a completely bad week, but I'll need to really work hard in the coming weeks to catch up on some of the slips of this week and the potential ones of the next week owing to the holiday. 

Till next week!

Link To The List.