Thanks to johnnylubber for allowing us to use her pics when we first discussed Shantaram.


This is the famous and infamous Leopolds. Where a lot of the action takes place, especially as Greg begins to tell the story.

Lin met many people in Leopolds, some good, some not so good. What meeting or person affected you the most? Which one do you think affected Lin the most? Why?

Wow! That doesn't look at all the way I pictured it in my head! Thanks for the reality check!
For me, it's a no-brainer ~ Didier, hands down. What a character! I adored him and all his existential angst from the very beginning and looked forward to the next time he showed up throughout the story. Vikram would be second, with the cowboy outfit...very cool, yaar?! B)
For Lin, I suppose my answer would be Karla. She was such a magnet for him throughout the book, and he wouldn't have gotten that pulled in if she hadn't told him to find her at Leopold's.

Didier for me too. I pictured a sort of Sidney Greenstreet character.
He was opportunistic and yet sad and self destructive. I could just say ditto to every word of Susan's post.
Vikram must have been a spectacle in that get-up. (giddy-up)

I also liked Lettie, because I like the British.

And I agree with you Susan about Karla being the one who sucked Lin into that world and was a catalyst for most of what happend to him in India.
He would have willingly and inexplicably died for her.

Oh my! I guess great minds do think alike!
I'd have to say Didier too! He was amusing, knowlegeable and probably the biggest BS artist around but he seemed to enjoy life even if he was drunk most of the time!
And of course it would be Karla for Lin. He called her his guardian angel, his savior, right from the begining and I think he meant that in more ways than one.

That pic of Leopold's is so interesting! And it is almost like I pictured it! BTW, the banner that is on the flagpole. Is it me, or wasn't there a similar picture of Johnny? :lol:

Didier!! What a "character' he is!!

What about Ulla and Modena?? ANy thoughts??

Karla is really etched in my mind, and Lin's. A second charachter would be Khader, and then the Chinese woman holed up in the castle.

Each charachter is so different! I used to live in a 'foreigner's house' and beleive me, when you're living with a small group of 'foreigners', you get ALL types. ;) In this regard, Shantaram is a great book. Brings back memories.

Here's another pic of Leopolds that I googled a while back.. just another wide spread angle of the area ..



here's the site & the credit that it was on..
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=htt...l%3Den%26sa%3DG

~ Mary Kay

I don't think I really pictured anything about the physical characteristics of Leopold's - I always thought more about the characters being there. But, if I had, I don't think I would have been anywhere close!

For me - Didier - what a character - pretty much ditto what everyone else said about him.

I also think that Didier would be one of the people who impacted Lin the most as well. Although he never directly did anything to Lin - he was the nucleus of the cell of many of the people who had great impact on Lin as he experienced Bombay. For example, Lin met Ulla through Didier, right? And she played a part in his arrest and subsequent prison stay.

While I do think that Karla is one of the key players in the book - I have to point out that "technically" Lin didn't meet Karla in Leopold's - she saved him from being run over by a bus on the street. But she was the one who sent him to Leopold's ("But, hey, if you come to Leopold's, some time, you could find out.")

Oooh, hey, someone should photoshop JD's pic in. Or, I can just tell myself it IS Johnny. Good spotting, shopgirl! :thumbsup

Madam Zhou! Evil incarnate! She is the creepiest and most sinister character, and she will need to be in the film, considering her actions, the ones that sealed her fate.

I think they are good examples of how life in India can serve to only magnify the sorry tendencies of greedy, confused people.
Their relationship with India and each other was a sick, dysfunctional co-dependency.

She really reminds me of the movie The Last Emperor, the charachter Empress Dowager.

Or the female Pirate Lord in AWE!

In thinking about Ulla, I've got to say that the whole idea of a runaway renegade free spirited desperado expat works much better for me when it's a man! Women who are in similar circumstances I find tragic. Maybe because men tend to exhibit more freedom power and strength that way, and women less. There's a line somewhere in the book that Lisa says to Lin about a war between the sexes raging in India and the women losing big time.

Ulla reminded me of a super-model, with that kind of beauty. However, she had victim written all over her lovely self! Bad choices, worse choices, and no concept of consequences. I wouldn't say she was stupid...well, maybe I would! She certainly didn't appear to be very savvy, except about how her beauty affected men. There's power in that to some degree, but Ulla didn't even seem to know how to parlay that into anything that would save her from being used and abused.

I thought Ulla's love for Modena mirrored Lin's love for Karla - they both loved unconditionally and without reason and without justification, IMO.