How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It was the work of a second, the eye contact between us. It was just long enough for me to decide to trust him—the little man with the big smile. I didn't know it then, but it was one of the best decisions of my life. (1.1.41)
We've got love at first sight, so why not BFFs at first sight? When Lin decides to trust Prabaker, basing his decision solely on his amazing smile, he makes a dear buddy. Even though Prabaker's life is cut short too early, his influence on Lin's life continues long past his death.
Quote #2
"Friends… well, sometimes, I'm not really sure what friendship is. We've known each other for years. We used to live together once—did he tell you?" (1.2.214)
Leave it to Karla to complicate something as simple and pure as friendship. All of her relationships have the status "It's complicated," even her friendship with Didier. But she does point out some things friends do—know each other for a long time, be roommates, and question whether that's enough to maintain a true friendship.
Quote #3
"Didier?" I smiled, genuinely surprised. "I thought that they hated each other—well, not hate exactly. I thought they couldn't stand each other."
"Oh, they annoy one another, sure. But there's a real friendship there. If anything bad happened to one of them, the other would be devastated." (1.2.262-263)
Um, we're not really sure what the difference is between hating someone and not standing them, but we'll give Lin a pass on that. What's really weird is that two people that seem to hate each other, or at least annoy each other, actually care very deeply about each other. It's like Roger Sterling and Don Draper, or Leslie Knope and Ron Swanson.
Quote #4
I sipped my coffee in silence, knowing that he was right—Prabaker's dark tour had been a kind of test—but not willing to give Didier the trophy of conceding the point. (1.4.19)
Prabaker's dark tour was when he flipped his role of guide, taking Lin to all the worst, ugliest, saddest parts of the city, rather than the fun, sunshiny stuff that most tourists want to see. It's like he was showing Lin himself, his true origins, to see how he would react and whether they could be friends.
Quote #5
"If it was a test," I did at last concede, "he must've given me a pass. He invited me to go with him to visit his family, in his village in the north of the state." (1.4.21)
So the dark tour test, which Lin doesn't really like to admit is a test, was successful. Now, Lin will go to a whole other level of tourism, where there's only running water for an hour a day and no electricity. By testing his new friend's reaction to poverty, Prabaker determines whether or not he can bring his pal home to meet the 'rents.
Quote #6
They nailed their stakes into the earth of my life, those farmers. They knew the place in me where the river stopped, and they marked it with a new name. Shantaram Kishan Kharre. (1.6.70)
What a lovely metaphor. The stakes Lin refers to are the ones that the farmers use to place their bets on how far the river will rise during the flood season. So what's the river in him that they're measuring? Maybe Lin's criminal past, which he leaves behind as he takes on Prabaker's family names: Kishan Kharre, and Shantaram, meaning "man of peace." His new friendship with the farmers is what gives him peace.
Quote #7
I'd grown to like Prabaker. I'd learned to admire his unshakeable optimism. I'd come to depend on the comforting warmth his great smile provided. And I'd enjoyed his company, day and night, through the months in the city and the village. But in that minute, on my second night in the slum, as I watched him laughing with Jeetendra, Johnny Cigar, and his other friends, I began to love him. (1.8.135)
What is a friend, really? Not to go all philosophical on you, but here are some good responses: someone you admire, someone you depend on for comfort, and someone who hangs out with you, keeping you company. But, admit it, at the bottom of all true friendship is love, too.
Quote #8
"You are making a friendship with our Abdullah, Mr. Lin?" Khaderbhai said as we climbed back into the car. "This is a good thing. You should be close friends. You look like brothers." (2.9.150)
Abdullah and Lin are a couple of tough guys who hit it off, and Khaderbhai, the grand engineer of all of Lin's relationships, decides that they should be close friends. His comment that they look like brothers seems like a joke. They look nothing alike, but perhaps he's referring to that brotherhood (or sisterhood) that we find in close friendships.
Quote #9
"You know that fighting is no way to settle your differences. And you both know that fighting between friends and neighbours is the worst fighting of all." (2.11.12)
If your parents and teachers haven't drilled it into your head, maybe the slum director will convince you that fighting is no good. In the slum, everyone must maintain their friendships with their neighbors because it's such a fragile system that could easily be torn apart by infighting.
Quote #10
Like all the fugitive kind, the more successful I was, the longer and further I ran, the less I kept of myself.
But there were people, a few who could reach me, a few new friends for the new self I was learning to become. (2.16.84)
Lin has left behind his past life in Australia, including his daughter, parents, and friends. He's starting to realize that a lot of our identity is wrapped up in our friendships; birds of a feather and all that. So his new group of friends go with his new self. The misfits, exiles, and criminals he surrounds himself determine his new identity.