How reading Shantaram changed the way I look at the world. — Book review
I recently finished reading the book Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts and I haven’t looked at the world the same way since. Shantaram is loosely based on Gregory’s life, an armed robber and a heroin addict from Australia who escaped prison and came to live in Bombay, India. I wanted to write about my experience without giving away much of the story so that I don’t ruin anyone else’s experience of reading the book. So here are a few things that make the novel truly special to me.
And the choice you make, between hating and forgiving, can become the story of your life.
These are a few lines from the book’s opening paragraph and most certainly sum up the whole novel in the end.
The book explores various sides of a person’s life love, happiness, friendship, pain, laughter and regret. Gregory wrote the novel in 5 parts each of which teaches a different lesson.
What the novel teaches you the most is how it is always your decision to start over, how in order to atone for your mistakes you need to forgive yourself first, come to peace with yourself first and accept everything coming your way with compassion. You need to learn to let go in order to keep moving forward.
Likewise, said in the following quotes from the book.
There are no mistakes. Only new paths to explore.
every human heart beat is a universe of possibilities.
Another thing to take away from the novel was the optimistic nature of the character Prabhaker. A mere tour guide living in the streets of Bombay who finds happiness in the littlest of things in life. Prabhaker is the one Gregory looked up to couldn’t see how far he has come from his past or how he had never realized how kind he was. As we see Gregory mention often Prabhaker’s smile was the most optimistic thing in the world. Prabhaker chose to see the best in people, which we often fail to do.
Shantaram also talks about one-sided love. How Gregory fell in love with the woman Karla, who never really loved him and even betrayed his trust. Even then Gregory loves her, because it’s loving her gives him peace.. and not her loving him back. Although he does hope that one day Karla will feel the same way he does about her, he doesn’t make it is ultimate goal. Karla, her existence is somehow enough to give him strength to go on in life.
There’s a point when Gregory realizes Karla maybe didn’t value the friendship they shared either he forgives her for being who she is, and moves on. He doesn’t hate Karla for doing so, he forgives her. For he will love her, cherish her and remember her. And that’s how it is, when you truly love someone.. you can never really ‘unlove’ them, you can only let them go.
Sometimes we love with nothing more than hope. Sometimes we cry with everything except tears
Love is the passionate search for a truth other than your own; and once you feel it, honestly and completely, love is forever.
The next person who turned Gregory’s life around was Abdul Khader Khan aka Khaderbhai. I am not going to give details about the story here, but Khaderbhai was the beacon of hope for Gregory. He became his father figure, his teacher and his boss. But again Khaderbhai misused Gregory’s trust, used him as a pawn breaking his heart. In spite of all that, Gregory acknowledges the things he learned from Khaderbhai and moves forward.
The whole point is, at every step in our life when we’re down or mistreated or betrayed, no matter how complicated decisions seem at that point, in its simplest form it’s always one of these two choices — 1. hate; which involves revenge or getting back at the person who made you feel that way. Or boasting about your success to the person who mocked your failure. And no matter what, this road always ends in a chase. It tells you that you can only be successful by making others feel like a failure, or you can only find peace if people who hate you are not at peace. It’s a lie! 2. forgiveness; or acceptance. This is a tough road. It tells you to forgive people who didn’t apologize, it tells you to accept your flaws and others’ and asks you to acknowledge it and move on. Because peace can only be found within you. Look at every day with a new hope. Let go of everything and hold on to kindness and compassion and live on!
Hence the closing lines of the book,
For this is what we do. Put one foot forward and then the other. Lift our eyes to the snarl and smile of the world once more. Think. Act. Feel. Add our little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. Drag our shadowed crosses into the hope of another night. Push our brave hearts into the promise of a new day. With love: the passionate search for a truth other than our own. With longing: the pure, ineffable yearning to be saved. For so long as fate keeps waiting, we live on. God help us. We live on.
It’s a long book to read, and even so I recommend giving it a read as it may give you a different perception of life. Although some events may seem larger than life, Shantaram is bold, lyrical and philosophical.
