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16 December, 2016

Cabbing all the way by Jatin Kuberkar- [Book Review]




About the Book:

Twelve people agree to an idea of running a shared transport service from a common residential locality to their out-of-civilization office campus. Twelve different minds with equally diverse personalities gel with each other to fulfil a common need. At first, the members collide on mutual interests, timings, priorities and personal discipline, but in the course of their journey, they become best friends, make long-lasting relationships, mentor and help each other on various mundane matters. The journey goes on fine until one day some members try to dictate terms over the group. The rift widens with each passing day, the tension surmounts and finally all hell breaks loose... Will the journey continue? Fasten your seat belts for the journey is about to begin...

Goodreads * Amazon

 My Review 

The first thing that connected me to the story is Hyderabad. I understand the hyderabad roads, the traffic, problems in share autos and the tiredness on reaching the office after 1 hour of frustration. This book is all about the shared transport that a group of 12 office goers arrange by themselves to travel between their office and home and vice-versa. The story is about new friendship that blossoms between 12 strangers outside their office.

I too travelled in an office cab with my colleagues and i beleive that great friendship blossoms between colleagues and co-passengers as they have at least 1 hr time to pass in peak traffics. There also goes a lot of understanding and adjustment to catch the cab on right time. This book is a fun ride with hyderabadi punch dialogues and half baked English by Mohan, though I wonder how HR selected Mohan to work in the company first place. The narration is easy going but a few episodes like anthakshari and teasing the friends is quite boring to read.

People like Saina will be present everywhere who think about themselves only. The love story Raghav and Avni is good, the help and advice that cab members provide each other is impressive. However, over time the cab co-passengers take the cab for granted and they atlast realize that the purpose is important over anything when the cab services stops. There is not much story in the book but it's all about friendships,  misunderstandings, selfishness, egos and adjustments. The title of the book is apt and the book cover is OK but not very attractive.

I would recommend this to working professionals who travel to office by shared transport. If you are a hyderabadI, you might enjoy more. This can be a quick read of 150 pages.

My Rating
3.5/5


Excerpts from the book

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What a relief it was. It felt like we were all prisoners for life and had been unexpectedly released on an unconditional bail. A strange sense of freedom engulfed all of us and we smiled at each other. The feeling was comparable to a holiday that came just before Diwali, during our school days. It allowed us to freely burn crackers while our parents were off to work. We had a whole day ahead of us . . . No bosses, no family, no kids, no mundane chatter…nothing at all. A whole day, just for us, to unwind!
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“I HATE these dramas and the daily serials, especially the ‘saas-bahu’ stereotypes. They show women in such poor light. At first, a girl gets married and everyone is happy. Then suddenly, her shady past comes to light. This Sati Savitri happens to be the object of desire of a forgotten boyfriend. When the story gets stinking rotten, then someone is murdered or resurrected and the bugging continues . . . Oh my God! According to me, these serials are spoiling a whole generation by branding every mother-in-law as a scheming monster and daughter-in-law as Dracula-in-law . . . Gosh! I hate them . . .”
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Sometimes I asked myself, ‘What was so different about this crazy group that made it stand out?’

‘May be because it was a group where we were all equals. A place where no one dominated, no one pressed their opinions, no fake emotions, no forced relationships, no undue commitments. It was like a parallel universe that we stepped in and out of each morning and evening. It was a different world with some rules but no compulsions, there were deadlines but they weren’t rigid, there were conflicts, but nothing personal about them.
It was “our” own world with just “us” in it.’
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“‘Management by inaction.’ That is the only solution right now. In situations like these, we should not try to fix anything. Let relationships take time and get adjusted by themselves,”Sushant said as we walked out of the cafeteria.


About the Author:

For the mortal world, I pretend to be a Software Engineer who works hard (or hardly?) in the hours of a day. I am the guy next door, a hard core Harry Potter fan and a movie buff. I literally ‘live’ every movie, I have strong opinions about its content and I hate it when a movie based on an interesting concept is messed up for the sake of commercial value. I enjoy watching cartoon shows (doremon, dora and Choota Bheem) with my son. I never get bored of listen to the endless chatter of my wife. When I’m not writing, I make toys for children.

But beyond the boundaries of this ‘cholesterol rich’ coil, I am a rider of rapturous thoughts. I am a thinker, a philosopher, a seeker, a story-teller, a writer, a wanderer and every other thing that a thought can be. At times some of these figments fire out of my thoughtful bowl and command me to write, muse, create, recreate, destroy…EXPRESS!

Who Am I? I have been asking this question to myself since 33 years, and I got a different answer always. Sometimes I get confused and think, am I asking the right question to seek the correct answer? Or may be that am I missing the whole fantastic universal drama around me while I am busy finding an answer to an irrelevant question?

Does the answer even matter?


Until next time,


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