Shantaram Chapter 14 Summary

  • Khaderbhai welcomes Lin into his home and introduces him to his discussion group: Sobhan Mahmoud, Abdul Ghani, Khaled Ansari, Rajubhai, Keki Dorabjee, Farid, and Madjid (yes, there will be a quiz). These folks are mostly exiles from the Middle East.
  • Three more men show up: Andrew Ferreira, Salman Mustaan, and Sanjay Kumar, but they are junior members and aren't there to discuss, just to listen.
  • Abdul Ghani hands Lin a manifesto written by Sapna and asks him what he thinks of it.
  • He thinks it's ridiculous, so he says so. Madjid corrects him, saying that cutting a man up into pieces is fairly serious. (We agree.)
  • Abdul Ghani confirms that Sapna's followers have committed at least seven hideous murders in the last month.
  • Khaderbhai says that they are very interested in Sapna. He asks Lin to interpret the poster-manifesto, because it is written in his native language of English. He thinks it uses Christian imagery, but used in a way opposite to the original message.
  • Farid brings a hookah pipe and the men smoke a hallucinatory mix of marijuana and hashish, which knocks Lin for a loop.
  • Khaderbhai asks Lin to propose a subject for discussion, so he settles on suffering (good times).
  • The group gets into a philosophical discussion about the purpose of suffering.
  • After a few hours, Lin walks home and runs into Prabaker, Joseph, and a little girl, all waiting at his hut.
  • It turns out that Joseph has been cleaning up his act after the punishment he got for beating his wife. He has paid the little girl, who has only four fingers on one hand, to paint handprints on the door of all the huts for good luck. This is as confusing to Lin as it probably is to you.
  • Lin asks Prabu what he thinks that suffering means and Prabu says that suffering is hunger.
  • They say good night.