Shantaram's story

<div class="section0"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-size:="">Nobody does it better than Shantaram. There are authors and authors. Some sell. Some don''t. Some win awards. Most don''t. But there aren''t too many successful authors who could also be equally successful actors. Gregory David Roberts is one of them. A writer so sure of his persona, story and craft, he doesn''t hesitate or flinch for a second while narrating his extraordinary tale.A tale that is as much about Mumbai as it''s about him. But then, how many authors have lived Roberts'' life?</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">As the flap of his 936-page book reveals, Shantaram, the novel, is based on the experiences of the author, who in 1978 committed a series of robberies while addicted to heroin. Sentenced to 19 years imprisonment, he escaped from the front wall of the maximum security prison in broad daylight, to become the most wanted man on the run. He survived this life for 10 years. A large chunk of it was spent in a Mumbai slum, where he worked as a counterfeiter, smuggler, gunrunner and street soldier for a mafia don. Phew!</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Shantaram, it turns out, was my neighbour. Pity we didn''t run into each other then. This is what I told myself as Gregory David Roberts and I stood at my balcony looking out at the slum — his slum — across the bay. He pointed to a tree on the edge of the water, "That''s where my jhopdi used to be. And right there was where I ran my free medical clinic." Roberts is currently in Mumbai completing the screenplay for the Hollywood film based on Shantaram, starring Johnny Depp (who won over Russell Crowe). Roberts believed Depp would make a better Shantaram. Crowe was not amused.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">It''s impossible to disassociate Roberts from Shantaram (that was the name given to him in Mumbai). With his waist-length blond hair and startling blue eyes, he cuts quite a figure. And knows it. Tough and rugged in appearance, but refined and soft-spoken in speech, Roberts is fully aware of his personal charisma. When he recounts chunks of his life as an ex-con, especially the brutal beatings he survived in Mumbai''s notorious Arthur Road jail, one begins to wonder how he could convert something as horrific into pages and pages of the most eloquent, compelling prose.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">Today, Roberts is on a roll. He''s a much-in-demand speaker on the international lecture circuit, commanding an impressive fees. Depp is now family (a customised Enfield was being shipped out from a Mumbai garage to the star as a birthday gift). And Hollywood calls constantly. None of this seems to affect the man. Talk of walking on the wild side, could anything get wilder? And yet, Roberts is like a pastor today. A man who has found peace and love within. Of course, he still performs. And performs superbly. A lot like Vikram Seth, who also knows instinctively how to mesmerise his awestruck audiences at book readings.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">As veteran writer-performer Dominique Lapierre told me years ago, that to attract reader attention outside a book store, an author should be prepared to sing, dance, jump and shout. "Don''t feel shy, it''s your book. You''ve worked hard to write it. Now you must work harder to sell it."</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-size:="">There have been a few over-rated books on Mumbai. Most have been pretty bogus. Mumbai is hard to capture. That''s what makes it so fascinating. A recent best-seller may have come close, but the attempt remains self-conscious, over-written and fake. It needed an Australian to get it right. You know why? Because Roberts had no choice. Either he understood the violent rhythms of Mumbai, or he got killed. His very survival depended on it. When your life is on the line, you learn fast. And if you live to tell the tale, man, you better do a bloody good job of it. As Shantaram has. Danger can be most creative. Most seductive. If you confront it head on and don''t blink, that''s courage. If you convert your encounter with death into a best seller, that''s genius.</span></div> </div>