Marine Drive at night thanks to Johnnylubber


As we wind down our discussion of SHANTARAM let's consider the last paragraph.

"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 out little consequence to the tides of good and evil that flood and drain the world. ..... For as long as fate keep waiting, we live on. God help us. God forgive us. We live on."

1)What is your opinion of the character Lin? Has your opinion changed since the opening pages? How? Why?

2) Did Greg Robert' story of the man called Shantaram leave you wanting to hear more about him?

The picture of Marine Drive and the final quote from the book go sooo perfectly together, and leave me sooo melancholy about coming to both the end of the book and the end of the discussion that I don't want to answer!
Besides, I'm a little distracted this morning by a handsome sailor aboard his vessel in the Mediterranean... :thud
More later ~

Well, Lin, seems to 'wave at things as they pass by' ... he he he... Just found another similarity.

That said, I love the theme of the book, which I think is a book about 'destiny', rather than a book about Lin. What say you?

YES, I want to hear more! :thumbsup :thumbsup
Lin is kind of left by the wayside, still bucketing out his own leaky ship.

And THANK YOU for the Wonderful Pictures of India! :)

That's a really good parallel between Jack and Lin!!


The pics are great! Johnnylubber provided them for our first discussion!

Great point about Lin and Jack, Depputante! :thumbsup
I'm really glad Lin arrived back at the slum with Prabaker's family at the end. I always felt that's where he left his heart and his 'true' self. Not with Karla and not with the mafia goondas, but with the honest, simple people he met right at the start of his journey. But, of course, in the mythic sense, he had to leave that place in order to find it again.

I was also glad to note that he was ambivalent about staying or leaving Bombay. Finally he was beginning to perceive that his life there was going in a direction that was ultimately a dead end. The adventurous, romantic side of criminal activity was beginning to wear off. If he really loved Bombay, and the Indian people, and himself, he was starting to realize he'd have to 'come clean'.

But this didn't come as a sudden revelation; rather it was just an inkling. And that makes it the more profound I think, because that's the way evolution happens - not with a bang but a whimper! One step at a time...fumbling along...doing what seems right at the time. The last paragraph sums it up so beautifully. Lin's journey isn't over. And I definitely wanted to hang in there and stay with him for the next leg!

Sorry for falling off the edge of the earth the last couple of days - I've been distracted by a certain boy wizard and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry :D

As I read the last paragraph, I thought about a journey through a mourning or grieving process. My mom died 19 years ago and I can still remember one of my friends mother telling me to just worry about the next step that I needed to take - and then worry about the one after that. It is also similar to the advice given to someone battling addiction - one step at a time....I wonder, although accepting of the loss of his dream with Karla - is he mourning the loss?

Anyway - I think that at the end of the book, Lin is truly on the road to becoming the person we all want him to be - the slum dweller who is helping the people in the slums for the right reason. I like him more in the last pages of the book than I did throughout the book - the person he was truly came out then.

Hmmm - Do I want to know more about the character, Lin? I would read a sequel to the story - but if he truly has journeyed to the place where is is a truly good person, I'm not sure if the character would be worthy of a 900+ page book.

BUT you know, Lin seems so BUSY and yet so Passive.... :blink:
WHAT is his GOAL ?

Glad you're back...I think alot of us have been sidetracked by the same wizard!

A very good question. I have several thoughts, but I wonder sometimes if his goal was to get by, do no harm....

He mentions how good it felt, going to Afghanistan, to have a goal and a purpose at last ~ misguided though it/he was. I think Lin wanted to do something meaningful with his life but he was kind of stuck (passive) due to his options being somewhat narrow as a fugitive. He had to go with the flow because to strike out on his own path in any kind of dramatic way might've led to being caught. He was spinning his wheels a lot of the time ~ busy but not getting anywhere. And he's not the first guy to be beguiled by the possibility of fighting for a 'cause' as a means to finding purpose and meaning in life. It's a very macho mindset. Later he changed his mind about all that, and was coming up with a new template for his whole life by the end of the book. I want to find out more about that!