Gregory Roberts' book "Shantaram" is the extraordinary story of a drug addict and bank robber who escapes from an Australian prison and flees to Bombay -- where he works as a doctor in the slums and runs with the Indian mafia.
Roberts became a heroin addict after the break-up of his marriage and losing custody of his young daughter. "You think that it's going to solve all your problems, but what it does is roll all your problems up into one huge problem which is getting the money for drugs." In an attempt to fuel his addiction, Roberts began to rob banks, and his three-piece suits and polite manner gained him a degree of notoriety in Australia.
He was eventually caught and imprisoned -- only to escape in broad daylight and flee the country. He ended up in Bombay, where he was captivated by the huge city and its remarkable energy. "The first thing you see is the wretchedness and misery. You see the slums and it really does strike you so powerfully. It's a kind of agony looking at it for the first time."
Roberts befriended a local man who took him to stay in his village in the country. There, the local women decided he needed a new name -- they called him Shantaram, which translates to "man of peace". Roberts was intensely moved by this. "I went into the jungle and I sobbed .. because they saw something in me that I didn't know was there."
or find a $2-copy at your local Vinnies, as I did
Eventually, Roberts was arrested and thrown in prison in Bombay, where he was tortured. A man eventually bribed the police to release him, and that man turned out to be a senior figure in the Indian mafia. Roberts repaid his kindness by going to work for him. He smuggled drugs and passports and ran with the mujahedin in Afghanistan. He was eventually captured in Germany and extradited to Australia, where he served the rest of his prison sentence.
In prison he began to write the book that would become "Shantaram" -- but saw his manuscript destroyed by prison officers, not once but twice. The second time he decided the only thing to do was forgive the man who ripped up his life's work: "I looked at the shattered pieces of my own life in front of me and thought, if I don't do something to move past this, it will destroy me .. I found the prison officer who destroyed the manuscript and told him I forgave him and understood why he did it."
The book was made into a movie which I would like to watch but it's not on YouTube or ebay or anywhere else. If you find it, please let me know.
