Shantaram (Roberts)

Author Bio
• Birth—June, 1952
• Where—Melbourne, Australia
• Education—attended Melbourne University
• Currently—lives in Mumbai (Bombay), India (?)

Gregory David Roberts was born as Gregory John Peter Smith in Melbourne, Australia. An author, he is best known for his novel Shantaram. He is a former heroin addict and convicted bank robber who escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980, and fled to India where he lived for ten years.

Roberts had become addicted to heroin after his marriage ended, and he lost custody of his young daughter. In his efforts to finance his drug habit, Roberts became known as the "Building Society Bandit" and the "Gentleman Bandit," because he had chosen to rob only institutions with adequate insurance. He would wear a three-piece suit and he always said "please" and "thank you" to the people he robbed. Roberts believed at the time that in this way he was lessening the brutality of his acts, but later in his life he admitted that people only gave him money because he had made them afraid. He escaped from Pentridge Prison in 1980.

In 1990 Roberts was captured in Frankfurt after being caught smuggling heroin into the country. He was extradited to Australia and served a further six years in prison, two of which were spent in solitary confinement. According to Roberts, he escaped prison again during that time, but then he relented and smuggled himself back into jail. His intention was to serve the rest of his sentence to give himself the chance to be reunited with his family. During his second stay in Australian prison, Roberts began writing the novel Shantaram. The manuscript was destroyed by prison wardens, twice, while Roberts was writing it.

After leaving prison, Roberts was able to finally finish and publish his novel. The title Shantaram comes from the name his best friend's mother gave him, which means "Man of Peace," or "Man of God's Peace."

Roberts lived in Melbourne, Germany, and France and finally returned to Mumbai, where he set up charitable foundations to assist the city's poor with health care coverage. He was finally reunited with his daughter. He got engaged to Francoise Sturdza, who is the president of the Hope for India Foundation. Roberts also wrote the original screenplay for the movie adaptation of Shantaram.

In 2009, Roberts was named an Zeitz Foundation Ambassador for Community. Ambassadors help raise awareness and shape activities in their respective dimension.  (From Wikipedia.)