Shantaram and other books on India

When I first read Shantaram two years ago, I felt inspired to experience life in India first-hand. Although as author Gregory Roberts says: 'the characters and the dialogue and the narrative structure are all creations', the descriptive eloquence of the people and places around him is so obviously drawn from real-life that the far-fetched nature of the plot becomes a mere aside to the inherent qualities of Shantaram; the depiction of everyday life in 1980's India, and more specifically, Bombay.

'The colours were vibrant. The fragrances were dizzingly delicious. And there were more smiles in the eyes on those crowded streets than in any other place I'd ever known.'

Roberts writes best when observing the interaction between the dazzling array of Indian and foreign characters in Shantaram, and the city in which they inhabit - the vivid, bustling, beautiful Bombay.

There have been many other books written by foreigners on living in India; Sir Mark Tully's intensely emotional insights immediately spring to mind, William Dalrymple's City of Djinns, Chasing Rainbows in Chennai I have heard, but Shantarm was the first I read about India and as such it had the most profound effect on me (except perhaps Midnight's Children, but then again Salman Rushdie was not writing as an outsider looking in).

I'd be interested to find out which books on India you would recommend, and why? Are the characters in Shantaram an accurate portrayal of Indian people, and life in India? Have reading books like Shantaram enhanced your own experiences of India?