Shantaram Betrayal Quotes

Lisa is the first character in Shantaram to hint at the fact that Karla might not be all that trustworthy. She distinguishes between just working as a prostitute and somehow making it into a sick thing. It seems that Karla, Lisa's friend, used her or betrayed her in a sick game with Madame Zhou's customers.

Lin's list of outlaw acquaintances is growing the longer he is in Bombay, and even though he's drawn to figures like Karla and Khaderbhai, he also realizes that he is giving up part of himself as he allies himself with them. Their strong personalities force him to betray himself, and use him for their own purposes.

Ulla's offer sounds pretty desperate, and she uses some pretty fancy manipulation to get him to do what she wants. "I trust you," she says to him, which puts the pressure on him to trust her. Lin's intuition is trying to sound the alarm, but even though he knows it might be a trap he gives in to Ulla's request.

Oh, snap. Just as he suspected in the quote above, Lin is caught in a trap. Ulla might trust Lin to do what he says he will, but she obviously can't be trusted to be where she promises she will. Unfortunately, her betrayal will cost Lin dearly, as the police are closing in on him and there's no way out.

Fingerprints don't lie—unless you have adermatoglyphia. And in Lin's case, because he's a wanted fugitive, his fingerprints have a terrible truth to tell. He calls the one-of-a-kind mark "traitorous" because his own body will betray him, giving away his true identity.

Lin always knew that he was set up, but he thought that he had been betrayed by Ulla. Now he has new information about the traitor, that it's someone powerful. No offense, Ulla, but that's not you. This sort of rumor, whispered info that leads Lin a little closer to his goal, is the best information he has to go on, which makes it that much harder to know whether he's on the right track or not.

Indira Gandhi, the powerful Indian Prime Minister, was assassinated by her bodyguards on October 31, 1984. This level of betrayal, when those she entrusts with her life turn on her, shows the vulnerability even of the most powerful people. By mentioning this historical fact, the author foreshadows the betrayal of Khaderbhai.

More whispers take Lin a little closer to his target. Didier's French-inflected English, with its "Alors," or "so," sounds gossipy, which makes it a little bit hard to take so seriously. However, he uses the prison nickname "Bite of the Tiger," which Lin earned by gnawing on a guy's face, so his source has some credibility. Narrowing down the traitor to being a woman might make you think that it's the beloved Karla, but hold your horses…

Lin finds out that Karla was, all along, working for Khaderbhai. She'd met him on purpose and led him into the mob world on purpose—all part of a plan. He searches for her not literally, but in his memory. The fact that she wasn't open with him is a betrayal, and makes every shared moment suspect.

Khaderbhai's men had all befriended Lin under false pretenses, because they needed him to fulfill their Afghani mission. When he finds out, it rips his heart out. The "jagged edges" reveal the violence of the betrayal. It's not a clean cut, like a surgery, but a spontaneous, accidental injury.