To the author of Shantaram..

Dear Mr. Gregory David Roberts,

After reading rave reviews and strong recommendations for your one and only blockbuster, Shantaram, I eventually bought the book. This happened four years ago. And I’ve been trying to read this book for a few years now and I’ve got only half way through. I don’t know why the book turns me off big time each and every time I pick it up to read. I only reason I kept trying during the last four years was because I spent close to Rs.500 for the book and sometimes I'm left with nothing else in my library.

The plot was well set. A foreign convict enters Mumbai and gets tangled with the mafia and slum-life. What started as a promising plot soon turned out to be a boring yarn of your fictional experiences with Mumbai. I really wonder if you even visited Mumbai. But thankfully, your wikipedia page says that Shantaram is just a fiction and not your real life experience. Phew!

There are several things about this book that irritated me. Especially, your annoying habit of seeing greatness in everything that could be termed as Indianness, particularly poverty. I agree that as someone new to poverty, the abject sufferings of the people may have interested you the most. But I just don't agree with the way you celebrate it. True that opinion differs. Well, Indian's don't like 'Slum-dog Millionaire' nor do Brazilians like 'City of God'. It is not about we-don't-like-facing-truth. I acknowledge that poverty exists, but I certainly wouldn't glorify it as you do in alarming frequency

And oh! Your painful details to attention. I started skipping so many paragraphs just as you begin to describe something new that you came across. It was honestly boring. Whenever I had problems sleeping in the night, two pages of Shantaram was good enough to put me to sleep. I tried using this book in my classrooms so that I can keep myself awake. But after a few attempts, I had to give up since I realized the post-lunch lectures were better than your sleeping dose.

Obviously, your target readers are not Indians. I, as an Indian and in spite of being bad at that, certainly didn’t enjoy the book. But even if non-Indians read the book, I’m not sure if they will get the right picture about this unique country.

Please don’t write another book about India or Mumbai. You seem to know very little about it.