Cabbing All The Way by Jatin Kuberkar : A Review

BOOK TITLE: Cabbing All The Way

AUTHOR: Jatin Kuberkar

ISBN/ASIN: 978-9385854064

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction

FORMAT: Digital

SERIES / STANDALONE: Standalone

HOW I GOT THIS BOOK: I thank Debdatta Sahay of b00k r3vi3s for this review copy

SUMMARY:

Twelve people agree to an idea of running a shared transport service from a common residential locality to their out-of-civilisation 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 seatbelts for the journey is about to begin...

FIRST IMPRESSION:

The cover is the first thing I noticed about the book. With good caricatures and bold colors, it caught my attention immediately. The summary was short and intriguing and conveyed the point of the story across. With such a quirky title and short summary, I expected the book to be a read peppered with humour and wry philosophy. The book was short enough to be read in one sitting.

REVIEW:

I want to begin this review by appreciating two things about the book. The author's attempt at penning a book that does not conform to the common 'bestseller' genres that are currently trending. The unique concept and narration

What struck me first about the book was the way it dealt with a topic everyone could relate with. Cabs are some of the most popular vehicles on Indian roads right now, for the convenience they offer and the 'welcome break' they give from autorickshaws that cannot ply to the offices that are located a long way away from civilisation. A lot of employees working in the various IT offices would immediately relate with the need for a special vehicle that would ease the long trip, helping people reach their out of the way office without worry. Though there are organised buses, cabbing all the way will immediately strike a chord. We all have our own special travel stories, those we will cherish. And everyone who is familiar with regular long distance commute will have a co passenger turn from stranger to friend. The connection between these two people will be quite strong and they may even turn into life counselor if they are like minded and willing enough. This is why you will resonate with this book.

Cabbing All The Way works because of three reasons:

1. (i) It talks about how necessity will make people think creatively and find out ways where none exist.
2. (ii) The book is also about how though people are reluctant to conform to rules initially, they all get together to a proper routine that is beneficial to all over time.
3. (iii) It reinstates the fact that man is a social animal, and forcing people together would eventually end up in either a good rapport and newfound closeness or ego clashes. Both these facets of the people have been brought out well.

Each of the characters are very relatable and are the representations of people you may see every day. The absolute normalcy of these characters and their realistic descriptions will make sure that the characters resemble someone you know, but are not very memorable. The book has its moments, with wry humour and witty one liners in places. But it did not sustain its name as a good read because the humour either became flat or was, in places, forced. The story itself has a good premise but while reading the book, one does expect a stronger plot to accompany this beginning. There is a plot, but only barely so.

The book did surprise me in many places.

I was initially wary about the introduction of twelve characters being an over kill but the author has not wasted any time on giving detailed descriptions and character sketches of each person. He has carefully crafted the story and events such that only some description is actually given. The rest is let to implication and inference. And I believe that is a beautiful way to not take the focus away from the story (or in this case the task) at hand. The author gets a special mention for not conforming the readers' imagination to certain features of the characters and making it impossible to budge away from that, forcing the reader to follow the descriptions closely instead of understanding of their own accord.

But, like most books these days, a generous dose of localized terms and descriptions are used in the narrative. While this might not be a hindrance for someone who knows the area, this might reduce the speed of the casual reader who has to pause to let certain sentences sink in before proceeding. The terms have been added, no doubt, to give the book the right feel because no one actually speaks in formal English amongst friends, but there is a slight risk of some references going over the head of anyone who has no idea about them. This has become a trend in many books in India nowadays that not many people bother about raising a complaint. There are no other major complaints about the language but it cannot be stressed enough that the book would have been better with crisper editing, and by avoiding certain obvious errors. Better English would have made the read an even more engaging one. I might be a rare reviewer who finds a fault with the nitty gritties in the language but I really cannot understand the need to make a book more 'Indian' by infusing it with vernacular terms and sayings.

Cabbing all the way began well. It had great potential and I really was looking forward to reading it to the end, seeing what it was actually all about. But instead, the book falls flat in between for many reasons. Over time, the names begin to get confusing, and only very few characters out of the twelve stand out. (Though I am still sure the additional descriptions would only have increased the length of the book with no actual purpose). The names tend to get confusing over time and fade into the backdrop as part of the narrative. The problems are built up beautifully, making the reader wonder what the solutions might be, but the solutions, if and when they do come, seem surprisingly impossible or so conveniently placed. This is where the book veers away from the angle of realism. The book did board all readers into the cab, but the bumpy ride on a never ending side road off the highway quickly came to an end in the middle of nowhere and the reader was magically transported back to civilisation in a 'climax'.

The book won my heart for many reasons - mainly the idea it set out with, trying to talk about something everyone will relate to, but something no one has talked about yet. It also began well, with the author not wasting time on unnecessary details or descriptions and instead giving the reader a realistic account of what would happen if twelve people were put together for one cause and how they would find a solution. The book seemed well on its way to a good plot when it spoke about the disagreements that crop up and how some people take up the megaphone and try to 'rein the others in'. (Yes, this does happen a lot among groups of people where self appointed leaders try to bring order). And it was also amazing how the characters gelled well and came together to solve issues and sort things out. The characters had all the shades and were common, everyday people.

But the book failed to engage me into reading when it gave quick patches and solutions in a language I was not comfortable with (yes the book is in English - and that is not what I mean). The weak plot and purpose is a dampener to my reading and is one of the reasons why I file this under 'a one time read'. The author gets a special mention for writing a book that has so much of promise and could inspire a changeover from the romances flooding the market, but if only he had taken it all the way and ended it equally well, this book would have been so much more memorable. 

WHAT I LIKED:

• A really great attempt in a completely different genre
• Liked the emphasis on how necessity makes people imaginative and cooperative
• A cover design and summary that will entice the reader into reading the book - that is a major plus.

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER:

• The lack of an actual plot is a thing that sticks out noticeably.
• The book has certain parts in the middle that seem stretched out and do not lead the story anywhere. These could have been avoided / edited out
• Though I did not expect this book to have a moral lesson, I did expect a closure or conclusion that never came.

VERDICT:

A bumpy ride

RATING: 3/5

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?

EDITIONS AVAILABLE: Kindle, Paperback

PRICE Free on Kindle Unlimited, Rs. 100 for Paperback

BOOK LINKS: Amazon