Whims published... It's not an expert's opinion, It's not an online diary, It's not a web journal... It is just my whims published

Any Indian man will tell you that although love might not have been invented in India, it was certainly perfected there- pg 393
Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more you wish they'd never happened - pg 402

Prisons are the temples where devils learn to pray - pg 404

Hate strangles a man, that's why hate has no great literature - pg 414

The only victory that really counts in prison is survival. Survival is not just about being alive. It's not just the body that must survive a jail; the spirit and will and the heart have to make it through as well - pg 415

People say that money is the root of all evil, but it's the other way round... Evil is the root of all money - pg 444

Pumping iron is Zen for violent men - pg 452

It isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts - pg 454

Wherever you go in the world, in any society, it is always the same when it comes to questions of justice, We concentrate our laws, investigations, prosecutions and punishments on how much crime is in the sin rather than how much sin is in the crime - pg 472

People haven't stopped believing in love. They haven't stopped wanting to be in love. They just don't believe in a happy ending anymore - pg 504

There's nothing so depressing as a good advice - pg 545

Depression happens only to the people who don't know how to be sad - pg 546

It's better to have a weapon and not need it, than need it and not have it - pg 585

If we envy someone for all the right reasons, we're half way to wisdom - pg 607

A good man is as strong as the right woman needs him to be - pg 645

When the student is ready, teacher appears - pg 708

Wars can't change things. It's peace that makes the deepest cuts - pg 728

The best revenge, like the best sex, is performed slowly and with the eyes open - pg 805

Fate always gives you two choices, the one you should take and the one you do - pg 858

Old habits die hard, lie harder - pg 918

It is always a fool's mistake, to be alone with someone you shouldn't have loved - pg 921

Every human heartbeat is a universe of possibilities - pg 932

Following are the lines with which Shantaram ends:
I'd always thought that fate was something unchangeable; fixed for every one of us at birth, and as constant as the circuit of stars. But I suddenly realized that life is stranger and more beauitful than that. The truth is that, no matter what kind of game you find yourself in, no matter how good or bad the luck, you can change your life completely with a single thought or a single act of love - pg 933


Though I love each and every one of the quotes from Shantaram, following three are my personal favorites.

3. Fate gives all of us three teachers, three friends, three enemies and three great loves in our lives. But these twelve are always disguised and we can never know which one is which until we've loved them, left them or fought with them - pg 632

2. Personality and personal identity are in some ways like co-ordinates on the street map drawn by our intersecting relationships - pg 632

1. We know who we are and define what we are by reference to the people we love and our reasons for loving them - pg 632

I finished reading Shantaram! This mammoth autobiographical fiction is penned by an Australian born writer cum armed robber cum heroin addict cum prisoner cum Jihadi soldier cum slum dweller cum doctor in slum cum Mumbai mafia member cum charity organizer cum screenplay writer, Gregory David Roberts!! Yes, you read it right; all these roles/professions (?) are of a single person in the very same incarnation. Shantaram is a rechristened name for Lin (which again is his name in fake passport) or Linbaba, as fondly called by most of the people in slum of Mumbai. This novel was written over a period of 13 years!, literally in blood and sweat as Gregory Roberts himself says. Twice the manuscript was destroyed by the police when he was being tortured in jail.

After escaping from high security Australian prison in broad day light, Lin travels to few countries holding fake passports and lands in Mumbai. From there begins this inspiring and vivid tale of Shanataram. This book brims with one liners and quotes. I am sharing a few with you guys... Hope this inspires you to take up this must-read-book.

The simple and the astonishing truth about India and Indian people is that when you go there, and deal with them, your heart always guides you more wisely than your head. There's nowhere in the world where that's quite so true. - pg 35