Lin and Prabaker’s Chosen Brotherhood

This thread follows the friendship that takes Lin from a wary tourist to a loved member of Prabaker’s family and community, and leaves him grieving after Prabaker’s death.

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The Guide’s Smile

The First Trust An unexpected welcome Prabaker approaches Lin outside the bus and offers to find him a hotel. Lin trusts the small guide’s enormous, open smile, hires him, and begins to accept the help he initially resists. Their first day fills with jokes, small bargains, and the beginnings of a friendship. A name between them Prabaker gives Lin the name “Linbaba,” and treats the foreigner as a friend rather than a customer. He later admits that he charged too much for their first hashish purchase, because he has decided that friendship requires honesty. The exchange establishes a bond built from affection, teasing, and practical care.

The Village Invitation

A Place in Prabaker’s Family The test of trust After taking Lin on a difficult tour of the city’s poverty and exploitation, Prabaker invites him to visit his village. The invitation is more than a tourist excursion: Prabaker is bringing Lin into a private world shaped by family, custom, and the life he left to work in Bombay. Surrender and welcome The journey exposes their differences, but it also teaches Lin how much Prabaker cares for him. In Sunder village, Prabaker’s family welcomes Lin, shares their home and food, and watches over him at night because they believe he must be lonely. Their care reaches the grief Lin has kept buried since prison.

A Name and a New Home

Kinship Made Visible The family’s judgment Prabaker’s parents and the village women draw Lin into ordinary village life. Rukhmabai gives him the name Shantaram, meaning a man of peace, and the people of Sunder treat him as one of their own. Their affection makes the name feel like a possibility Lin might grow into, not merely a label. A bond that changes Lin Prabaker’s loyalty is evident in everyday kindness and in the care with which he includes Lin in village customs. Lin comes to love him, not as an entertaining guide but as a brother whose optimism and generosity help him imagine another self. The village gives that friendship a family context and a deeper sense of belonging.

The Slum Clinic and Shared Danger

A Friendship Put to Work Caring for their community Prabaker helps Lin settle into the slum and stands beside him as the free clinic becomes part of daily life. He supports Lin’s work, teases him when he grows self-important, and treats his neighbours’ needs as a shared responsibility. Their friendship becomes woven into the community’s mutual care. The wild dogs When Lin and Tariq face a pack of dogs in the dark, Prabaker is not the person who arrives to fight, but his friendship has helped build the trust and community around Lin’s life there. Lin remembers how deeply he has come to love Prabaker, whose first instinct in an earlier crisis was to protect another person. The relationship is no longer simply guide and client: it is chosen brotherhood.

Love, Marriage, and Loss

A Brother Remembered A future for Prabaker Prabaker marries Parvati, and Lin gives him the taxi that allows him to work for himself. Before the wedding, Prabaker asks whether a man as short and small as he is can make a good husband. Lin reassures him, recognizing the enormous heart behind his friend’s self-doubt. Grief without repair Prabaker later dies after a taxi accident, leaving Lin bereft of one of the people who made Bombay feel like home. Lin carries the loss into his own grief and relapse, remembering Prabaker’s smile, courage, and affection. Years later, he meets Prabaker’s son, who bears his father’s unmistakable smile, and holds the child close as an enduring link to his friend.

Lin’s first day in Bombay

After Lin’s first weeks of city tours

During Lin’s months in Sunder village

After Lin returns to Bombay and settles in Cuffe Parade

After Prabaker’s marriage and fatal taxi accident