Shantaram

As my status message has been screaming from some time about SHANTARAM I finally couldn’t resist to go to LEOPOLD Café. I am not sure if Gregory David aka “Shantaram” had found the same Leopold but yes it’s definitely a place to hang out.Its got tradition its got crowd its got ambience...in short everything I would like to have at my beer joint .

This also reminds me that 900+ pages of the book does deserve a salutation in my blog. Its a very informative book in various respects. Not just Leopold but the whole point of view which describes the country called India is terrific. India is too diverse a country to fall under any standard definition and worse the way the people of the country behaves is all the more intriguing.

Its amusing but a foreigners account helped me understand my country better .I am no book critic either but its was enlightening to dig into the rationale of the most normalest things which we take for granted as a part of the growing up in INDIA.

The book not only has some incredible personal account but it also says what makes India unique and also what makes Indians the race which they are. Now sure GDP is growing at more than 9% but that’s incidental. The beauty of my countrymen is their insatiable ambitions and tolerance to suffering. What an Indian can do to merely survive has now turned out to be the force which makes brand India sticks.

PS: please read INDIA in slow motion by Mark Tully ..another incredible read.