How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"Prabaker took me to a kind of hospice, an old apartment building, near the St George Hospital. [...] And the owner of the place, who has this reputation as a kind of saint, was walking around, tagging the people, with signs that told how many useful organs they had. It was a huge organ-bank, full of living people who pay for the privilege of a quiet, clean place to die, off the street, by providing organs whenever this guy needs them." (1.4.158)
A for-profit hospice might seem completely insane, but in the Bombay that Shantaram paints for us, dying is a profitable business. The moribund (SAT vocab, baby) homeless are so grateful for a quiet place to cast off their mortal coils that they pay a guy with both money and their organs (!).
Quote #5
"I never realized that men had to climb six flights of stairs, to fill a damn tank, so that I could take those showers. [...] I told Prabaker I'd never take another shower in that hotel again."
[...]
"He said, No, no you don't understand. [...] It's only because of tourists like me, he explained, that those men have a job." (1.4.167-169)
Lin is used to sloughing off the sweat of Bombay three times a day in his hotel shower, but when he finds out where the water comes from he feels guilty. However, the guys who fill the tank are so poor that they are grateful for the work and the pay. Of course, there's probably something that could be done on an infrastructure level so that they're not choosing between back-breaking work and poverty…
Quote #6
"But… but…" I stammered, flattered by the generous gesture, and yet horrified at the thought of life in the slum. I remembered my one visit to Prabaker's slum only too well. The smell of the open latrines, the heartbreaking poverty, the cramp and mill of people, thousands upon thousands of people—it was a kind of hell, in my memory, a new metaphor that stood for the worst, or almost the worst, that could happen. (1.7.69)
General Sherman had it wrong: war isn't hell; poverty is. The slum is basically a big old symbol of poverty in the city, and all the difficulties that come from living in it stem from a lack of economic resources and power.