Shantaram

Lin and Didier go to Ghani’s mansion. He cries when Lin tells him about Khan’s death. The passport factory is now in the basement of this house.

Lin visits briefly with Krishna and Villu before he and Didier go to the Palace. Lin finds an open door and walks through the burned building. He eventually finds a small door that lets him into a well-preserved attic. Madame Zhou is sitting in a chair, heavily made up and disoriented by whatever drugs she has taken. He has no idea of her age or nationality. She is so pitiful that Lin is ashamed of how much venom he had felt. He hears a scream as Rajan attacks him. Lin stabs him in the shoulder, but Rajan’s twin appears and attacks him as well.

Rajan hits him from behind with a piece of wood. Didier appears in time to shoot the twin in the groin. Lin prevents Didier from shooting them or Zhou. They leave, change, and go to Leopold’s. Lettie says that she is going into business with Karla and Karla’s new boyfriend, Ranjit, who goes by Jeet. Lin toasts to Karla. Mahmoud Melbaaf walks by and tells them that Ghani is dead. He was the traitor. Lin is surprised that he does not feel jealous about Ranjit and Karla.

Nazeer and three men break into Ghani’s house. Nazeer stabs him in the heart before they cut off his hands, feet, and head and scatter them in the house because Ghani had told the Sapna assassins to do the same with Madjid’s body. Then they go to kill everyone in Ghani’s faction.

Ghani betrayed Khan because he thought the distraction of the war risked everything they had built. He used Sapna to agitate everyone. Khan’s enemies began helping him to find Sapna so that he would help them. A man named Jeetendra carried out the actual killings.

Nazeer succeeds Khan as boss. He puts Lin in charge of Ghani’s counterfeit passport operation. Lin agrees. He chooses Johnny Cigar and Kishore as his helpers and Nazeer as his council contact.

Lin talks to Lisa at a restaurant. They chat about her and Vikram’s business. She says Karla wants to see him and invites him to her room for coffee. She invites him to live with her in Tardeo. She thinks they can keep each other off drugs, and she told Karla she’d look after him. Lisa admits that she was with Abdullah to make Lin jealous.

After Lin and Lisa have sex, she tells him that Karla left America because she killed the man who raped her. She shot him in his house and left the country.

Outside, Lin sees a familiar dealer and is tempted to buy drugs. Abdullah appears just in time to stop him. He has been in hiding. There are Iranian spies and some residual members of the Sapna group who are still searching for him. He also says that he is going to be married soon.

Khan’s been dead for two years. Abdullah tells Lin that he plans to kill a rival gang leader named Chuha. As Abdullah takes Lin to a restaurant, he says he has a surprise for him.

He has been training with Abdullah for nine months, but Abdullah has never fully recovered his strength. At the restaurant, Abdullah points out a man that he says is always watching Lin. It is Modena. Lin chases and eventually catches up to the limping man. Modena’s face is cruelly disfigured from Maurizio’s blade. They smoke together, and Modena apologizes for running. He says he watches them to find Ulla. He still checks every flight for her. He trusts Lin because he thinks Lin killed Maurizio. Modena doesn’t believe him when Lin denies it. Lin admires his ability to deal with his pain while maintaining hope.

At Leopold’s, Lin eats with Didier and his new boyfriend, Arturo. The movie producers Vikram, Lettie, and Lisa are also there. Lettie tells Lin to stay calm when Jeet, Karla’s new boyfriend, arrives. Jeet says Lin is Karla’s hero. Kavita let him read some of Lin’s short stories, and he is a fan. Jeet says that Anil, the editor of The Noonday, wants to meet Lin. Didier is going to Italy for three months.

Johnny arrives and asks Lin to come to the slum with him. Johnny thinks he was a bad friend for not working with Lin more closely. He blames himself for Lin’s troubles. However, the purpose of the trip is about Kano the bear, who has escaped from jail. Johnny wants Lin’s help to hide and protect him. Kano broke his cage when he saw animal control beating his keepers. Johnny wants to put the bear in disguise. They find the bear in a blue burka. Lin then asks a sculptor to make a Ganesh mask so that they can carry Kano on a shrine, an ostensible monument to the elephant-headed God.

Abdullah meets them at the end of their escape route. He laughs when he realizes it was the bear he sent to Lin in the slum. Abdullah knows where Chuha and their enemies are. Lin goes with him, and they drop into the house’s backyard. Abdullah goes in alone, surprising Lin and ignoring their plan. While Chula’s gang attacks, Lin won’t tell them who he is, but he kicks the door to warn Abdullah. They beat Lin with brass knuckles. He regains consciousness and hears Abdullah shooting.

Lin joins the fight. They lose two men, but when they are done, the Sapna killers and Abdullah’s Iranian enemies are dead. The war is over. Khan’s men’s deaths end Khan’s former council, but Khan’s enemies are dead as well. Lin hopes that Kano is okay.

At the Haji Ali Mosque, Lin and others pay their respects to Salman. It is their first time together since the fight. Sanjay is the new council leader. The cops say they will never let Abdullah go if they see him again, which is why Abdullah is returning to Delhi that night. He invites Lin to help him in Sri Lanka as he accomplishes a final mission for Khan. They are going to go help the Tamil Muslims, who are caught in between a fight of Hindus and Buddhists. Lin agrees, but he is reluctant.

Lin finds Karla on the beach. She says that Khaled has had a long journey but finally made it back from Afghanistan. She wants Lin’s help to find him. Karla also says that she will marry Jeet. Lin realizes that she no longer has any power over him. She says she is happy for him and Lisa.

Karla admits that she’d had the idea to create Sapna as a common enemy but had not endorsed the killings that followed. She tried to get Lin to stay with her, but he had gone with Khan instead. Later, Khan told her Lin was in the heroin den.

Karla says she worked for Khan and Ghani for four years. She felt no remorse about the Sapna killings, or when Khan said he had to leave Lin in prison, because she knew he would choose Khan over her. She says, “I’m cold inside, Lin. I like people, and I like things, but I don’t love any of them—not even myself—and I don’t really care about them. And you know, the strange thing is, I don’t really wish that I did care” (927). Lin feels empty and free. He forgives her and says he will always love her. He walks back to the slum and sees three singers.

He sees Kishan, who takes him to Qasim, Johnny, and Joseph’s wife, Maria. He sees Prabu’s mother, who scolds him for not greeting her. Then he sees Parvati carrying a boy who looks like just Prabu. The baby is named after his father. They celebrate together as Lin thinks about the love they have shared.