Shantaram

Lin meets Karla at Leopold’s, which serves as an unofficial free zone for unsavory enterprises. Even though police frequent the place, crime is overlooked, and money can only exchange hands outside.

Lin notices that Karla shares his courage, determination, loneliness, and reluctance to forgive. She says that he should visit a cave her boss showed her once, after she had met him on a plane five years prior. The cave was full of bats and Buddha statues. That is when Karla decided that India would be her home, although sometimes she is homesick for Switzerland. Karla likes Lin because he is a good listener. She considers being listened to the second-best thing to power. She also says sex is about power and love is the opposite of power.

Didier Levy is a constant fixture at Leopold’s. He is a 35-year-old Frenchman. He is witty and speaks largely in aphorisms. Didier says he stays in Mumbai because he is gay, Jewish, a criminal, and French and only India accepts them all at once.

A Spaniard named Modena and a German woman named Ulla join them. They talk about mental and emotional instability being the basis of every relationship. Ulla slips Lin some money as two men approach.

Lin often uses being a writer as camouflage. He was a writer in Australia and had published his first work when his marriage collapsed. He writes compulsively and relentlessly. After Ulla and Modena leave, Karla says that Ulla told her she gave Lin the money, which he should give to Karla. Ulla will retrieve it the next day. Karla says he should leave Mumbai.

Didier tells him about Abdel Khader Kahn, who runs many criminal enterprises in Mumbai. Didier gets commissions from many sources, including connecting people who need passports, called “books” in the criminal trade. He explains that whoever controls the gun trade can influence the drug business. He says Kahn is the city’s real power. Khan is known to most as “Khaderbhai” (54), which means “elder brother.”

Didier explains that of the eight people at Leopold’s, only four have power. When Karla returns, there will be five. Later, as Lin walks with Karla, he gives her the money from Ulla and Karla tells him about Ulla’s relationship with Modena. She thinks Didier was trying to seduce Lin. As they pass a mangy cat, Karla stops. Lin is surprised that something feral will allow Karla to touch it.

He asks about other people at Leopold’s. Karla says that Letitia came from Goa to party and to look for spirituality. She works with a gem broker on a commission with foreign buyers. Maurizio’s parents died and left him money. Ulla, who has a heroin habit, came to India with a German man whom she adored. Karla compares addiction to love. After telling her she is the most beautiful woman he's seen, Lin walks Karla home and then goes to his hotel.

Mumbai’s courier system bewilders Lin as he rides in a taxi with Prabu. Somehow, thousands of deliveries reach the correct people. They are practicing Lin’s Hindi while the driver scowls at Lin in the mirror, drives aggressively, and shouts at other drivers. Prabu yells for him to stop. The man turns around to glare, and they crash into a stopped car. Prabu is terrified, and Lin wonders if he is scared that the cab will burn. Outside the car, he stops Lin when he tries to help the driver and screams not to touch him.

A crowd of 30 angry people grows to 100. They pull the driver out, beating and tearing at him. Lin is horrified but also grimly satisfied, given how the driver treated them. Prabu says accidents are always terrible in Mumbai, as the mob carries the driver away. Lin is more shocked by his complacency than by the violence. There is rage beneath Mumbai’s surface. Prabu says no one knows why the crowds punish those who cause accidents.

Another taxi takes them into what Prabu calls the “dark side” of the city (72). He ignores the beating as if it had been a mere barroom scuffle. Lin realizes that he’ll have to be involved in Mumbai’s culture if he stays. He cannot simply observe as an outsider and remain safe. They get out and enter a disorienting maze of alleyways.

They enter a courtyard where men sit on benches near groups of children. This is what Prabu calls the “people-market” (80). The children are enslaved and have come to India after various disasters in their countries. Lin wonders what he should do or if he can do anything. He is a stranger and should know more before intervening. Later, he worries that he wasn’t more troubled—prison hardened his heart.

A little girl sings and dances to a song from a Hindi movie as Prabu explains that recruiters scour disaster sites to gather children. Their starving parents happily let them go to have a better chance, even though some are used for sex, for camel races, or as cleaners. Lin thinks there are deeper truths than can be explained and that sharing the truth is how people resist hating the world.

At Leopold’s, Didier explains the “Borsalino hat test” (83). It determines whether a hat is a real or imitation Borsalino. They are fine hats, synonymous with gangsters. A real Borsalino can be rolled up, be passed through a wedding ring, and regain its shape without a crease. Prabu’s dark tour was a Borsalino test. Now he knows Lin is a real Borsalino. Prabu also invites Lin to visit his village for a couple of months. Didier says Prabu is starting to love Lin and that Indians know how to love each other better than anyone else. India is six times the size of France but has 20 times the population. Only love makes India possible.

Letitia, Ulla, and Modena join them. Karla and Maurizio arrive with an Indian man named Vikram Patel. Lin dislikes Maurizio as he contemplates the loathing that ugly men feel for the handsome. Karla asks Lin a hypothetical question: If he could be happy for a while but knew it would end in sadness, would he choose happiness or avoid it? This bothers Lin because he answered this question when he escaped from prison.

Didier encourages Lin to visit Prabu’s village to learn about India. Karla hints that Prabu has invited others, but no one has said yes. When Lin asks what Karla wants, she says she wants everything. Then they talk about Lettie, who was upset with Maurizio. Maurizio seduced her to get her help to influence a contact who could extend Maurizio’s visa and then dumped her. Karla also encourages Lin to visit Prabu’s village and surrender to whatever happens. She kisses him on the cheek and leaves. Lin feels as though this hour was their Borsalino test.