Monday, July 16, 2007

Shantaram


I have been planning to put up this post for very long now. Happened to read shantaram in these summer holidays and have one word for it"awweessoooommeee". Its the best book I have read in quite a long time. The last book that impressed me this much was Godfather i think or maybe atlas shrugged. This book is one which doesn't lose its pace at any point. Full of action, drama, emotion. And the picture it paints is very colorful. Very vivid descriptions and amazing use of metaphors.aahh..il run out of adjectives but will not be able to praise the book enuf..
I loved the characterization also a lot..of khaderbhai, lee, abdullah tehari, lisa carter and of course karla, one of the most impressive characters(atleast in the initial part of the book). Another thing lovable in the book are the lines spoken by karla..which have inspired an earlier post also..:D so just putting some i liked here(most of them have been spoken by karla my all time favourite:D)..read them with a little attention..ull love them..:)

"The world and I are not on the speaking terms. The world tries to win
me back, but it doesn't work. I guess I'm just not the forgiving
type."

"It's my favourite place in the whole world, to be treated like dirt."

"The truth is a bully we all pretend to like."

"He is the kind of man who wears his sleeve on his heart."

"I could never respect a man who didn't have the good sense to be at
least a little afraid of me."

"Sometimes you have to surrender before you win."

"Wisdom is just cleverness, with all the guts kicked out of it."

"I'd only give you advice if I didn't care what happens to you."

"If fate doesn't make you laugh, then you just don't get the joke."

"I take everything personally- that's what being a person is all about."

"They look like monuments of something that died. Something very
unpopular.. like... human spirit, for example."

"Sometimes I think that's what heaven is- a place where everybody's
happy because nobody loves anybody else, ever."

"Happiness is a myth, it was invented to make us buy things."

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

"Mistakes are like bad loves, the more you learn from them, the more
you wish they'd never happened."

"It isn't a secret, unless keeping it hurts."

"Depression only happens to people who don't know how to be sad."

"Luck is what happens to you when fate gets tired of waiting"

"The past reflects eternally between 2 mirrors:the bright mirror of words and deeds, and the dark one, full of things we didn't do or say"

"Poverty and pride are devoted blood brothers until one,always and inevitably, kills the other"

And for all those who are too lazy to devour the 900 something page book, there is a movie being made on it. But I suggest the book.

8 comments:

Nimit said...

Nice .... would surely try to read it .... ( Aftr all in every discussion you put some one line from the book ) ... btw just for trivia ... it is said only two books have captured the spirit of Bombay .... Shantaram and Maxim city .... try reading it too though it is not written in as dramatic way as shantaram but still has many fact abt bombay

Gurveen Bedi said...

haan yaar i 4got to add tat ..one of the reasons i loved shantaram was because the protagonist loved bombay and it had bombay as its setting..will try maxim city also for sure..

Ravali said...

I wish i cud read the book....but i have to finish HP-7 b4 i try to start tht u knw :D
not been a big fan of books lately ...esp aftr movies happnd to me :(
but i like the quotes put up :)

Tuhina Adit Maark said...

from the lines that you've put the book sounds really nice. i am surely going to pick it up from the bookstore.

$udhi said...

nice quotes
and i will read the book as soon as i finish HP7 (yo ravs, me too !!)
these quotes and settings remind me of a Marathi writer "V.P. Kale"
almost all of his books have Mumbai as a base
its problems,
its happiness,
its money,
its poverty,
its fast life,
its big crowded size,
everything from perspectives of different persons living in different social ladders of Mumbai.

hmm, any chance you will lend me the book?

~$udhi :)

Gurveen Bedi said...

@rava:okies..
@nclgirl:gud decision:D:Dtrust me:)
@sudhi:are wud hav lent it yaar..but left da book at home..in bhopal rite now..nd wil cum directly to bby frm here..

Anonymous said...

"Depression only happens to people who don't know how to be sad."
I Liked it most.

and I liked the book too. :)

pragyag said...

gr88 quotes....had already heard many of them..dint know they are all from this book! will definitely read the book too :)