Shantaram Chapter 34 Summary

  • The group of fighters stays put in the mountains for a couple of months, and cold winter sets in.
  • In the camp, they set up workshops to restore AK-47s. Once they're finished and ready to make delivery, Khaderbhai announces that it's time to walk home.
  • Khader tells Lin a story of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (Here you go. You're welcome.) They talk about Lin's father-figure issues with Khader, and also about dreams.
  • Suddenly, Khader quotes a line from the poem that Lin copied from Karla's diary so long ago. Khader says that it's by her favorite poet, Sadiq Khan. He also tells Lin that he knows Karla very well, and has known her for years.
  • It's all coming together for Lin; Karla works for Khaderbhai and Abdul Ghani, and recruited Lin for them so that they would have their American for this trip to Afghanistan—conspiracy alert.
  • Khader explains that even the clinic was part of his master plan; he used the slum as a test run on the drugs he got from the lepers to see if they were safe to take to Afghanistan.
  • Lin is furious and cusses Khader out. He wants to know if Khader has anything to do with Sapna or Madame Zhou, and his father-figure denies it. Lin also asks about his jail time, and Khader goes suddenly quiet. He blames that on bad luck too, but says that everything he did was for the right reasons, even if it was wrong.
  • Our buddy Lin threatens to stay behind when everyone leaves, because he's so angry with Khader. He also throws in a nice, adolescent I hate you, for good measure.