Shantaram Chapter 32 Summary

  • The group spends a month in Quetta preparing to cross into Afghanistan. Lin passes the time practicing new languages and reading books that a Pakistani fighter named Ayub Khan brings him.
  • Khader visits Lin and tells him the story of his early life in Afghanistan and how he came to be the crime king of Bombay. Then he gives Lin a pistol and teaches him how to clean it.
  • The next day the group takes a train to Chaman on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Everyone in Khaderbhai's group gets off before the station. They get into a truck that takes them to meet another group of men, the rest of their band, that makes them number about 30.
  • One of them, with a crazy look in his eyes, comes for Lin like he wants to kill him, but Nazeer steps in and saves the day. It turns out that the guy is nuts and thinks that Lin is Russian. (BTW, the Russians have taken over Afghanistan, which is the reason behind this whole mission. Grab a quick history refresher here.).
  • The guys tell Lin that Habib (crazy-eyes) is on a revenge spree because the Russians killed everyone in his village. Now he goes around murdering anyone who might be Russian or working for them.
  • Khaled Ansari volunteers to watch over Habib, and Lin thinks that with this decision they have lost Khaled.