Shantaram’s stalker

I didn’t realise that I was following in the footsteps of Gregory David Roberts until I read Shantaram. Then again, I’m sure neither had several hundred other people that had got a taxi from Mumbai airport into Coloba and stayed at one of the crappy hotels on the sea front just down from the Taj Mahal Intercontinental. He described the experience of getting off the plane in Mumbai for the first time infinitely better than I did.

I stayed at the Sea Shore Hotel, in the same building he stayed at when he first arrived in Mumbai, and ate in Leopold’s, where he ate regularly and fell in love with a woman named Karla. I had no idea of this at the time. The Sea Shore Hotel is conveniently located for the main drag of Coloba, and Leopold’s is an institution, visited by thousands looking for respite from the scam artists and hectic traffic of the Causeway.

I’m still reading the book, but seeing as how I haven’t yet joined the Mujahideen or set up a clinic in the slums of Mumbai, I think this is where the shared experience between between us ends.

Possibly related posts:

• They also do shoes
• All better now
• Hotel blessing
• Cities at night from space (photos taken from the International Space Station)
• Hotel or Hostel?