Shantaram Chapter 3 Summary

  • Prabaker takes Linbaba on a tour of the "real" Bombay.
  • Their taxi driver crashes into a car and an angry mob forms around the cab. Prabaker helps Lin get out of the car and they watch as the people carry out the victims of the four-car accident.
  • The mob attacks the taxi driver and beat him to a pulp.
  • Prabaker is determined to continue the tour anyway and takes Lin down some mazelike back alleys.
  • They stumble over and around people in the darkness until they arrive at a gap between two buildings. Lin follows Prabaker into the dark passage, through the rats (yikes) to a wooden door.
  • Prabaker uses a secret knock to get into a courtyard where a guard is not too happy to see them.
  • The guard is impressed that Lin can speak a little Marathi, a language used in another part of India, and that few foreigners can speak.
  • The cop lets them through in exchange for 100 rupees and they enter what Prabaker calls the "people-market"—a.k.a. slave market. They observe the men there purchasing children and the children performing for their potential masters.