Shantaram, more than just a book!

Shantaram is a fiction based on the real life experiences of an Australian fugitive, Gregory David Roberts; who prison breaks and comes to the Maximum City, Mumbai. The book is about his journey, his interactions with the underworld mafia, the black marketers and the cops. It’s about his survival and accepting himself and as a Mumbaikar by heart.

It’s not just a piece of literature. It’s far more than a book. Shantaram is a masterpiece. It is something which inspires you to travel. It changes your outlook towards this world, its problems and gives you the zeal to live life to the fullest; no matter what. It has been a life changing book for me. It has evolved me to a better person, a stronger person, who isn’t afraid of the catastrophes of his lives and who knows exactly how to move on gracefully from the failures.

Off late I have been on a Shantaram gifting spree as I want to make sure that most of the people I know should read it. This is one book, everyone must read before they die. With a hope that it touches many more lives, Shantaram has become my default mode of gifting. Well, I’ve been yelled at too by some (who aren’t into reading) for my poor judgement of gifting standards and I proved them wrong after I made sure they read it and indeed, I was right. Those non-readers absolutely loved it.

His writing is very gripping and passionate at the same time. He connects you to his characters so well, that you can actually feel their emotions. I must admit, the character sketching in this book is absolutely flawless. The author forms a very strong bond between the reader and the characters that when the book gets over, you actually feel like a part of you is lost.

The way he describes Mumbai, not even an Indian writer could’ve done it. He made me fall in love with the city and I had to travel all the way there from Bangalore after reading it.

He expresses most of the tragedies with his philosophy which is the best part about the book. Rhetorical dialogue provides provocative one-line philosophical nuggets. He’s too deep about subjects like love, faith, betrayal, friendship and family. Here are some of my favourite quotes from the book –

“The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly, and with the eyes open.”

“If fate doesn’t make you laugh, you just don’t get the joke.”

“A good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be.”

“Men reveal what they think when they look away, and what they feel when they hesitate. With women, it’s the other way around.”

“The truth is a bully we all pretend to like.”

“Every human heart beat is a universe of possibilities.”

“I don’t know what frightens me more, the power that crushes us, or our endless ability to endure it.”

“There are no mistakes. Only new paths to explore.”

“It’s a fact of life on the run that you often love more people than you trust. For people in the safe world, of course, exactly the opposite is true.”

“The worst thing about corruption as a system of governance is that it works so well.”

“News tells you what people did. Gossip tells you how much they enjoyed it.”

“The world is run by one million evil men, ten million stupid men, and a hundred million cowards.”

“A dream is a place where a wish and a fear meet. When the wish and fear are exactly the same, we call the dream a nightmare.”

“Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one, always and inevitably, kills the other.”

“You can never tell how much badness is in a man until you see him smile.”

“The only force more ruthless and cynical than the business of big politics is the politics of big business.”

Shantaram, a name given to him by his first friend’s(Prabhakar) family in the city, means a ‘peaceful warrior’. It means a holy man who is at peace with his life and has sorted its meaning. And he sticks to the name throughout. Being a gangster, he has a certain positive demeanor to his personality which makes a reader to admire him till the very end. He doesn’t harm the innocents and always tries to help the needy. Inside this creepy, greedy world there are a few men like him who keeps our faith in humanity restored.

Everyone here in this world is at war with an option to choose a side to from. And, Shantaram my friend, chose the thug life. An outlaw with a good heart and principles, aimed to spread the light in others’ lives.

His writing is so powerful that he actually transports you to the streets of Mumbai. You can feel the filth of slums on one hand and the class of Café Leopold on the other. He has covered it all with such authority that it makes you spellbound. The book is a roller coaster ride into the protagonist’s life. His best work comes out while he is with his love, Karla and when the duo gets high over their fathomless conversations.

At a later stage, when he wages a war in Pakistan and Afghanistan with his mentor Abdul Kader Khan, you get to see his true grit. It’s a 900+ page novel and not even for a nanosecond you feel disconnected.

It’s engaging, inspiring and simply awesome. Just stop everything and go crab a copy!

PS: All the bibliophiles, check out this amazing artwork by FanGaadi on Shantaram !

Pune: Misals,Movies and Magic!

Ever since Sid, my brother from another mother (sounds filmy right, it is) joined FTII; I have been listening a lot about movies, cameras, booms, shoots and the culture there.

Not just me, everyone knows about Film and Television Institute of India now. Well, the protest against their current Chairman, Gajendra Chauhan – the so called Yudhishthir of the television series Mahabharata has recently put the institution on a global scale for the obvious bad.

Apart for Siddharth and India’s best film school, there was one special dude because of whom I had to plan a trip to Pune. Also, the fact that I hadn’t travelled in a while, added a little fizz to the planning and yeah Poona, the Cultural Capital of Maharashtra was on the cards.

I was running a little short of money, thanks to Diwali shopping and all the celebrations. Sometimes, I seriously wonder that happiness was invented to make us buy things. Anyhow, Avi Bro came to my rescue as usual and the bus bookings were taken care of. I drafted all the must-eats at Pune and by evening it was all sorted.

I had just started to read The Mountain Shadow and it was pretty evident from my face that how happy I was as I could explore more of Gregory David Robert’s tale in the transition. I came back from work late in the night and pushed my cargos, camera and tees into the bag pack and dozed off thinking about all the good food, I was about to hog. Oh by the way, I have an antique 15 megapixels point-to-shoot Nikon camera, which I never use because I suck at taking photographs but still I carry it along. I have absolutely no clue why. Sometimes, it really itches me, why did it I even buy it in the first place? What was I thinking? Moreover, I didn’t even like the fringed Piggy Chops back then either.

Friday – November 20, 2015

11:30 am, is the time I got up. Took bath, lingered Tamasha’s soundtracks, admired Rahman for his sheer brilliance and by the time I got back from my Utopia, I was already late to cook breakfast and meet my travel ethics deadline to reach the bus stop. I rushed to the McDonalds next door, grabbed two McEggs and pleaded the parked auto guy to take me to majestic(on meter), where I was supposed to board my bus at 2 in the afternoon. Shockingly, he didn’t charge me a bomb and things were settled at just Rupees twenty rupees extra on the actual after ‘Meter Ashte Kodthini ‘ (I’ll pay on meter) had failed to work.

On the way, I called Mom and Didi to inform them about my whereabouts and also in case I get hospitalized due to over eating, there should be some medical and emotional backup. Again, for the (n-1)th time I was listening to Safarnama, where n is the last time you can listen to your favorite song because you have killed it by playing it so much.

The weather was nice, it wasn’t raining anymore, the traffic was not killing my mental peace and we were supposed to reach soon. Hence, ‘Togodi Sir, amele ootha maadi’ (please take this and have it later) happened and I offered the auto guy the other burger. Finally, I reached the Kempegowda Bus Terminal at 1:45 which is 15 minutes prior to the scheduled time and it was pretty satisfying indeed.

I boarded the KSRTC Airavat and broke the ice to the guy sitting next to me in no time with a pack of Hide and Seek biscuits. Once we started chatting, it didn’t appear as if we were strangers all our lives. His name is Prasad Wagh and works with IBM. He is a very humble person and hails from Pune. Being a localite, he did help me refine my food itinerary and teach me some Marathi words. We spoke a lot of shit – right from my days at Tesco, Bajirao Mastani and his adventurous hitchhiking trucks stories to his love for the German language. I utilized the night time to say Hello to my beloved book. We reached Pune in no time. He got down at Katraj on the Poona-Mumbai highway. I look forward to see him sometime soon in Bangalore over a peanuts masala by the side conversation. After a while, I also got down at Swargate.

Saturday – November 21, 2015

4:45 am.
Before I could even get my feet off the bus, I was surrounded by the autowallahs from all possible sides. I seemed like a girl in the mechanical department ready to be grabbed. As usual no one could score. I took a minute to breathe and approached an auto parked near the chai stall at some distance from those desperate hawks. Nitin Kamble and I agreed @ rupees 150 for the drop and a plate of Poha from my side, which we both would share. I do not exactly remember where he took me and I couldn’t even read the name of the stall in the dark but the Poha was really good. We ended up eating vadapavs too.Overall, 30 rupees worth of awesomeness.

I think he really admired my generosity and wanted to save a few bucks of mine. So, from there he picked up two girls and it was converted to a sharing auto! Well, not really picking picking girls! Khushboo and Chanchal were students of FC College and they did share some valuable insights about the peak hours for NSP (bird watching) in and around their college. Well in a flash I was there. I gave a crisp, freshly withdrawn 100 rupees note to Nitin and got down.

Finally, I was standing right outside the place who has given us the Bhansalis, Hiranis, Banerjees and Kashyaps. It was a great feeling. The filmykeeda inside me made it a melodramatic moment and it took a while to absorb. The only non-appealing sight outside that FTII peripheral Gate was the ‘Go Back Chauhan’ graffiti protesting against fascism.

As usual, you cannot depend on Sid in the mornings. Luckily, I had taken his room number and it didn’t matter to me that he didn’t pick up my ‘Bro, WhereToComeNow?’ calls. I crossed the road and walked into the New Boys Hostel with authority. Thank you No shave November for the stubbornness and letting people (the guard there especially) take me seriously. No questions asked.

Guess what who welcomes me? Yoko – the same dude who made me come all the way to Poona.

Yoko is a hybrid of a street dog and a high society bitch, looks like a wolf and has this particular bhaukal (swag) of his own. He ain’t friendly at all with the strangers but I was in his good books luckily. He did let me in peacefully without making me shit in my pants, the way he traditionally treats the delivery guys. Yoko is a filmy soul.

The gardener is the official caretaker of this dog but he meets him once a week for bathing needs. He likes spending most of his time in the rooms of Boys Hostel or guarding the lift from its own people. He values the love given to him and wants the boys to stay fit as he doesn’t let them use the lift most of the times. He would gently poke his head inside when the lift is about to be closed and make it open. This sort of fun continues till everyone uses the stairs.

Another thing, Yoko is the undisputed champion of awesomeness in the entire campus. Bholi, Batman and Chotu are there but they do not risk their lives inside his territory. He is pampered by all. When I say all, which includes the students, faculty, the housekeeping staff and the guests. Where there is a shoot, there is Yoko. He can be found anywhere – be it the creative alleys of boys hostel, Campus Theatre or the classrooms of FTII. He is the official ambassador of FTII.

So, I told him a Hi, patted on his on the head and took the stairway to heaven. I gave a solid knock on the door and Mrimay made way for me into their bunker. I could easily make out that they had just slept. So, without disturbing anyone I made myself comfortable on the chair, took a power nap and got ready to meet Shraddha jee, as planned.

I know her through my trip to Jammu and Kashmir, last year. She is a strong willed person and a mountaineer by passion and profession. I really admire her for her time aesthetics. She was there at the FTII Gate at sharp 10 in the morning and I was late by a minute. Shraddha is a Marathi mulgi who loves her culture, still embraces her roots, is highly radical and isn’t shy to mess around if someone messes with it. She is the perfect companion anyone can ever get when it comes to exploring this city and I was extremely fortunate to see it through her lens.

We started our journey on her Black Activa from the Deccan Region. Deccan is the reason Pune is hailed as the Oxford of the East. It comprises of various colleges like FTII, Ferguson College, Indian Law School, Symbiosis and so forth. It city is loaded with students, creativity and has a very positive vibe. As compared to Bangalore, the traffic is less, the food is cheaper and the weather almost similar. What else could I probably want from this place?

So, we had our first halt @ Sri Krishna Bhawan in Tulsi Bagh for breakfast. The Misal Pav was out of the world. The bread was tender and the red curry was spicy. I sometimes wonder, how can anyone come up with a sabzi from a namkeen? But trust me, it can give you foodgasm. The breakfast was concluded with clinking of steel glasses loaded with kat (butter milk).

We left the bike there and started to wander. Traversing through Budhwar Wada, we came across this beautiful Dagadu Sheth Ganesha Temple. We prayed for a while, moved on to Nanawada and finally reached Shaniwar Wada – The Fort. Ok, let me tell you one thing. Lord Ganesha is the most preached deity here and it’s a grand venue during Ganesh Chaturthi. The whole is this area gets converted into an open air pandal with the temple being the focal point.

Coming back to the Fort, it was once the Maratha palace ruled by Shivaji and became the Capital of Peshwas during 1800s.

Bajirao sounds familiar? No? What about Bajirao Mastani? I guess yes. I am referring to the same dynasty and Mastani was the second wife of the king Bajirao. He was a great warrior, who won 42 battles on a trot, which isn’t evident from the promos from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s latest movie- Bajirao Mastani and that is the reason it has been criticized and protested widely in this region. I personally think this retaliation is ultimately going to promote it even more.

After the fort, we moved our bums back to the parking lot. It was time to hit the East of Pune – The camp region and KP to be precise. KP (Koregaon Park) is the Lavelle Road of Pune. It has got huge glassed buildings, a world class Osho Ashram and proudly houses city’s best pubs. It is hangout place for majority of the IT crowd on weekends and you get to see a lot of white skin too. We got into German Bakery. It is the perfect Friday Night Hangover Remedy place. You enter in sotally tober but courtesy those sexy eggs and coffee; come out totally sober.

We moved on to this nearby shop called as ‘The Bombay Store’. It is artsy place opened with a sole motive to get the looted wealth back from the firangs. It is fuckin expensive and in 3, 2 and 1 we were out. The good part about exiting that place early was that we could spend more time on a café. Marzorin is an Iranian joint placed right opposite to it. We ordered their famous cheese sandwich and discussed about the craze Pune used to have for Cricket.

Now that the city’s soul of Cricket, JNU stadium is no more operational and the other stadium, which is owned by the Sahara Group is on the outskirts; a local Punekar doesn’t get to see a lot of Cricket these days. Football is gradually displacing it in terms of charm and popularity but the older generation still seem to worship their Marathi lad- Tendulkar.

It was afternoon and our bodies desperately needed some cold fluid intake. To beat the heat and to quench our thirst throats a unanimous call to hit 1000 Oaks was taken. We ordered their legendary Barman Pitcher and mushrooms. The combo really helped us to trip on our travel tales. Every trip, the literal trip gives me a real good friend and it was her this time. We relaxed our brains and legs till our livers were alcohol free and made a move towards Parvati Hills. It’s a very famous Hindu Temple situated on a hill. Devotees visit it during the festive time and is predominantly occupied with couples and ghettos otherwise.

There is a museum inside which is highly informative and the view from the top is serene especially during the sunset. After admiring the city lights for a while we moved onto our next hop, Pataleshwar Caves.There’s a guy right outside who sells these amazing sabudana vadas, which is nothing but a solid pearl liked lattice and tastes likes heaven. It’s a must try if you are in that area.

After a long eventful day, finally she dropped me back at the hostel. Then came the moment of the day.

Yoko greeted me and escorted back to the fourth floor, like a boss! Sid’s room was locked so I spent the next few hours in Sandeep’s room. Sandeep, a student of art direction is a very humble fellow. Man, you should see his wall. After Dravid if there’s another WALL I admire, it’s this.

Ever wondered how it feels to get up in the morning and see the first thing which you love the most! It’s highly inspiring to see the work of such amazing actors and directors and I’m sure some kid would be putting up Sandeep’s photo on his wall pretty soon.

Without an iota of doubt, FTII houses country’s best cinematographers, directors, musicians, actors and editors. The aisles of the hostel are filled with intense quotes and graffiti. It’s a creative paradise and I had to nearly read everything twice to soak in properly. Then, I got a chance to listen to some soundtracks being composed from Aakarshan, Jatwa and Mrinmay. Met a few dumbasses too. So, overall in a span of 24 hours, I came across 4 types of people –

1. Who think they are awesome and actually are!
2. Who think they are not awesome but actually are!
3. Who think they are awesome and are not!
4. Who do not care about what anyone thinks and Sid belongs to this category.

Siddharth is one person I really look up to in life. Even though he is a sukda-babmbil(lean),scared of injections and a kid at heart but when it comes to being a friend and having clarity of thoughts about life, he just nails it! There was a time when I had lost track and there was no purpose in my life, he was the one who brought me back on track. He pampered me all sorts of good books, exposed me to the real bitchy world and made my nutshell disappear. He redefined my definition of travel and here I am writing this piece today with joy. Thank you boy! Imma hug you.

He is great at what he does – which includes playing around with camera, lights, cleaning the room and charming the women. I can assure you that a world-class cinematographer is on its way and boy once you achieve your dream, you better include my name in your ‘I want to thank you ’ red carpet speech.

Around 9:30 our hero was back from his shoot and we went to have idlys at the girl’s hostel mess. Post that he had a discussion with his director, Rabiat regarding the documentary they were about to shoot. She is from Russia but considers India as her own. She is smart and knows how works get done here. I even cracked a few Bollywood poor jokes and wow she’s a beauty, she could decipher those. The most distinguish thing about her is that she has tattooed kohl on her eyes, which apparently saves a lot of time and money. And guess what her favorite Bollywood actress isn’t Kajol.

I ended the day with a freshly brewed Nescafe while those guys planned for their shoot on Sunday.

Sunday – November 22, 2015

By the time I woke up from the aromatic dreams, everyone had just left for their respective shoots. I guess, coffee acha sapna dekha(I saw a pretty good dream) as I was happy. Immediately, I moved my bums to the café next block. I am not exaggerating, but that was the best cold coffee I’ve ever had. Creamy, Chocolaty and Chilled. Café Durga is spread across the entire city but this location is special. It has an added charm of a lot of Bollywood celebs, basically the college alumni.

I had not planned my day and that I guess was the best plan. I started to walk towards Goodluck in search of some kickass food.

Every city has a café which encapsulates its soul and Goodluck is Pune’s jaan.

You step in at any point, it’s always jam packed. Exactly like Mumbai’s Léopold’s but minus the alcohol. The food is reasonably priced and the bun muskas Kheema pavs are to die for. I ordered mutton Kheema pav, bun jam and chai. I read there for a while and called Shraddha to join in. On my opposite side there was a CA sitting, explaining all the legalities to his client to form a company. On one side there was a young couple who were discussing about expanding their family. They wanted to pet a dog and there were a bunch of teenagers on my left who were planning a road trip to Goa. The only reason I could gauge all this was that I didn’t want to get my book dirty and I had nothing to do while eating. It’s not cos I like gossip.

After I stepped out, I got a call from Joe, my flat mate who also happened to be in Pune for his cousin’s wedding. He uttered, “Hey, talk to my nephew. He’s a huge Cricket fan, like you”.

He said “Hi! I am Jithu Joseph, 9 years old, I study in fourth standard, I love Cricket and you can ask me anything on the sport “in one breath and I was clean bowled from his confidence. I spoke to him for almost 15 minutes. Honestly, I’m not at all a phone person but I loved talking to him. He respected the game, had this eagerness to know more and I could see my younger self in him. He could answer almost everything pertaining to the last 2-3 years about the game and the best part he could answer how many wickets has Rahul Dravid taken. Well, not even a lot of diehard fans know it and he knew. My day was made! *Whistles*.

So, in return of his awesomeness I’m sending him a Dravid and an ABD souvenir from FanGaadi. These are the kids we need for the future- Passionate about something in life. I don’t know, I might see him writing for us soon. So, by the time the call got over, Shraddha had reached. We picked up some guavas from the road and decided to hike Fort Sinhagad.

It started to pour heavily but since we had made our mind, we went ahead. Surpassing Khadakwasla Dam, we parked our bike at her go to Dhaba and started climbing the hill. Even though the trek was about 3.5 km, but it meant a lot more than that as I was hiking in the rain for the first time .The way she lead the entire journey , explaining me what sorts of difficulties do hikers face and how it’s so important to climb over one’s own fever is crucial, made it worth it. Even though I struggled in mid on steeper slopes and when I wasn’t able to see through my specs and the feet were slipping but her words pumped me up at every step.

Moreover, the nimbu pani(lemonade) you get on the way in those tiny huts acts as a booster too. The whole thing meant so much to me emotionally that I can’t thank her for it through my words. And the fact that she just climbed that damn hill just because I wanted to, even though it wasn’t an ambient time for her; made me dumbstruck. Thank you Shraddha jee. Indeed you are a true Gypsy Lioness!Reaching to the top was the Rocky moment for me.

I was overjoyed on that hill for two more reasons –

1. The view – Far from those city lights, I was at peace seeing that picturesque view from one of the highest points in the city.
2. The food – We were about to have the traditional Marathi thali, consisting of Bhakri, Dahi and Kanda Bhajji.

After having the sumptuous meal in the evening, we couldn’t risk it getting down in the dark. So, we opted for a shared jeep for the downhill. The driver dropped us 2 km prior to the place where we had parked our bike. We spoke about Into The Wild, Below 8 and a lot other travel related movies in that trail. Even though we were completely wet, itchy and exhausted but those conversations made us forget everything. It was a walk to remember. We reached the Dhaba where we had parked our bike. The fact that she keeps hiking a lot and is a regular to this place, she met a lot of known faces at the Dhaba and it took us a while to say goodbyes. Finally, the engine was turned on and there we were FREE SOULS, riding in the rains, racing winds. Wuhooooooo!

I was still lost in the beauty of that hike and I the very thought struck my mind that-

Even if you aren’t bored of life and everything is going smooth, still climb that God damn mountain. It’ll simplify things even more.

I got down near her place and boarded an auto for Deccan. I took a shower and by the time I came out, Sid’s desk was already occupied with people ready to eat the biryani, which Mrinmay had cooked. It was a perfect day indeed.

Around 12 in the night, we got a knock on the door, basically an invitation to grab the free cake at some stranger’s birthday. Life couldn’t get any better! After everyone left, the conversation moved from Hans Zimmer and Masaan’s Shweta Tripathi to some marketing gyaan for startups and phew I crashed within no time after that.

Monday – November 23, 2015

Sid had a day off and finally I get to spend some quality time with my bro. It is crazy how he doesn’t even get the time to breathe on most of the days and then there are days he’s just sitting by his window doing nothing but creating imaginary shots in head, reading and chilling. Siddharth is one awesome story teller. The best part about him is that you never get bored with him. He can engage you in a conversation for hours and it was the perfect time and weather for us to bring the brokchodi on.

In the afternoon, we went to have the great Indian economic thali at the ILS mess, roamed around the streets of Deccan and made some khayali pulavs about our lives.

I know every dream first sounds stupid but if we can dream it, we can do it !

So, dream big and let it scare you because till the time you have a backup, you always play safe and take things casually. Once you are scared, that’s when shit gets done.

Later in the evening, I had already started to feel bad and wasn’t in any mood to go back. That’s when Sid took me to Vaishali, one of the most iconic places in Pune. He treated me their special Masala Dosa and made me realize that it’s okay to go back and have even better one’s there. Then followed the epic punch line in a filmy style from one of my favorite movies –

Kabhi kabhi sahi samay pe kat lena chahiye, warna gile shikvey hone lagte hain.

I gave him a hug and within minutes I was gone. It was Magical!

PS: You can also gift this travel related Poster, Tee and Mug to your friends. Cheers.Keep wandering ! I shall be back with more tales.