2011 - List of books

2011 has been the worst year of blogging for me as I somehow couldn't sit down and write on anything that mattered to me, I had taken to twitter at the start of the year and found it tough to go beyond 140 characters after that!

To make amends thought I will atleast try to salvage something out of 2011, a year I managed to spend a lot of time reading. So thought of listing down books I read; I had a very lofty goal at start of the year - 25 books something couple of my friends warned me I will not reach.

So let me see how I fared, here goes my list

1.Temple Goers - Aatish Taseer

2.Have Space Suit , Will Travel - Robert Heinlein

3.Once Upon a Time in Scandinavistan - Zac O'Yeah

4.Smoke & Mirrors by Neil Gainman - Brilliant collection of bizarre short stories

5.Chinese Whiskers - Pallavi Aiyar

6.Arthur C Clarke's The Collected Stories - (Still not finished) this is a huge collection of his short stories right from 1930s to 90s. Its been a fantastic read, I usually read 2-3 stories once in a while. As I write about it I feel guilty of having neglected the book for last 4 months. But more on that later in the list

7.India After Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha - A must read to get an idea of how our nation evolved after independence ( good read atleast till 80s )

8.Room - Emma Donoghue

9. A Concise Chinese English Dictionary for Lovers - Xialou Gou : Story of a Chinese girl who goes to England to learn the language learning much more about the strange land and an unusual love story. One big diff was the way story is narrated, its from the perspective of this girl and the English in the book is her English - Badly formed sentences, wrong words etc! and it gradually improves as her language and understanding of culture improves ...

10.The Artist of Disappearance - Anita Desai

11.Transforming India - Atanu Dey

12.Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka - Thanks Vaidya for the recco, delightful read!

13.Blaft Anthology of Tamil Pulp Fiction ( still reading this, slowly one story at a time)

14.Batman : The Killing Joke - Alan Moore (ofcourse- just had to get this :)

15.The Hotel At the End of the World - Parismita Singh

16.Wide Angle - Anil Kumble ( its a photo album/coffee table book)

17. The Eight Guest and other Muzzafar Jang mysteries - Madhulika Liddle

18. Ambani and Sons - Hamish McDonald ( had to get this after 3 years of working for Ambani! )

19. The Secret of Nagas - Amish

20. Tea time for Traditionally Built - Alexander McCall Smit ( yet another book from the delightful No:1 Ladies detective agency series! )

Then towards the end of the year I got lost in the world of Westeros and other continents created by George RR Martin, easily the best stuff in world of fantasy. Guess the Songs of Fire and Ice series deserves a separate post, but this is what i covered last year

21. Book One : Game of Thrones

22. Book Two : A Clash of Kings

23. Book Three : A Storm of Swords

24. Book Four : A Feast for Crows

25. Salt - A World History by Mark Kurlansky

25 incidentally was my target at start of the year and until i started on George RR Martin's heavy tomes, I was well set to go past that number. And as you could probably notice there are 3-4 books in various stages of completion in that 25 ;)

Hoping I will touch 25 books in 2012 as well :)

Fair Meter :: Meter Fare

Hailing an auto-rickshaw in Chennai is a rare event for me, I usually travel by car to places nearby and work, use buses/train to get to places a bit far away. Last sunday it so happened that I had to go somewhere in between and was short of time so had to hail one. Chennai is notorious for its meter-less autos and so fare needs to be fixed through a negotiation process before trip begins. The initial quote depends on lots of factors from your appearence, confidence with which you ask about the destination, language used ( to judge if you are an outsider). After the mandatory haggling we agreed on a mutually acceptable rate and started the journey. But the driver that day was in mood to talk and talk he did throughout the journey. It all started with my casual remark about the exorbitant fares charged and lack of proper meter system. He made it clear that he doesn't really like doing this rate negotiation etc and is actually hurt by the usual talk that Auto drivers are out to cheat/fleece people and the talk of them being an ill-mannered, rash, reckless lot. That set tone for the conversation throughout the trip.

I asked why not have a meter, what is preventing all of you from using one and going with standard rates as people clearly avoid autos as much as they can. Does he really get adequate business? "We are also normal people who want to earn an honest living, we also have kids going to school and a wife to answer to, vegetables,provisons, rent for house,auto etc" he started. Majority of Auto drivers in Chennai take Autos on rent and need to cover petrol/bribes to cops and any damages to vehicles at the end of day whatever is left after all this is what they take home. "No one wants to fleece as such but situations have forced them" he added and mentioned the fear of his wife's potential scoldings when he goes home in the night with days earnings as one of the reasons for aggressively asking higher rates! I asked him if he agrees that by installing a meter with proper defined fare, the amount of business he does will go up and he will earn more?

He agreed to that saying that is what most of his ilk want but he laid the blame squarely on Government's shoulder. According to him the current meter rates were fixed last decade or even before when petrol prices were still in 30s. When they pay 70 plus now for the same litre of petrol how can they be expected to make any money by plying at old rates he asks. Then he was quick to point out people are not to blame, and that he understands the frustation and anger of middle class against Auto drivers. "No one gets money easily everyone has to work hard to make ends meet, we definitely understand that and even though we try to get more but not at cost of angering customers". He also felt that "Customer should pay willing with open heart if they curse you while giving then that money will not help you or stay with you". That''s quite a thin line indeed they are treading on, given the amount money they ask at first!

He maintained that its a misconception that its easy money for Auto drivers and they are altogether an unscrupulous lot. He started on 'being honest' vs 'being practical' thing and added that lot of people including himself when they start off try to be honest and not overcharge. But then at the end of the day the money earned is simply not enough. His thought process was simple, he felt he had to earn slightly more than an unskilled labourer and if that cannot be achieved there is no point continuing. For a man who rued not being educated enough - he is ensuring his children are educated properly and is counting on them to bail him out once they grow up - his usage of English words amazed me. Maybe it because of living in a city,he used words like "System", "Supply-Demand" and a couple of other English words. I suggested that he could probably look at changing the line of work or something. He admitted that given the way petrol prices are going up he might have no other choice but to shift to something else but he has been doing this job for a long time hence the reluctance to move. It was a different experience talking to people we stereotype as a unscrupulous cheats out to fleece us and to hear their side of the story.

I then moved to another trend in Chennai transport which has always piqued my interest - something called Share-Auto. This is something which evolved and became a very efficient alternate mode of transport in Chennai and I'm told in several other places in TN where the autos dont 'run on meter'. Share-Auto as the name implies is a vehice usually a rickety Piaggio/Bajaj on much bigger capacity where lot of people who pay anything between ( Rs.5 to 15 based on distance/route) share the ride. In Chennai- esp in the route I travel to work, these rickety vehicles have been replaced by sleek Tata Magic which provides very comfortable seats and feels very safe to travel in.

So I asked our man on his views on Share-Autos and what do Auto drivers feel about it. He admitted that they(Auto drivers) are to 'blame' for this and that most of the current share auto drivers are all former auto drivers who sold their vehicles and upgraded to this because of the earning potential. They easily make 3-4 times what he makes in a day he says. According to him no one really expected this to click, initially when these vehicles were availble those who purchased them had hoped to use them for passenger transport to longer distances just like autos. But somehow this model evolved without official permission, since the people driving it/owning it were not able to make ends meet they started taking in more passengers ( multiple sets of paying passengers), this was done surreptiously. They were always under threat from any policemen who notices it and it was a risky business but was profitable as more people saw this as a means to earn support for making this legal grew. But the biggest support for this according to our man came from the vehicle manufacturers, he is sure that they had 'invested' quite a bit of money to get the licenses cleared and create this market segment. And it has really taken off and filled the huge gap in public transport for the middle class and lower middle class. Esp frequent commuters - office going folks and students, for them this has become a very good way to travel where they need to wait for long time for a crowded bus, instead travel more comfortably and quickly at a slightly higher rate than bus but at 1/4th or 1/5th of auto-rickshaw.

I returned back to why things are like this for Auto drivers, why cant they pressurise their union to get Govt to increase the fares if that's what is needed to ensure proper adherence to meters. Apparently Govt has issued too many licences for autos but now they don't want so many Autos on streets and hence they are in no mood to make the system work. Maybe it is true, but somehow that didn't quite make sense to me. Chennai sure has a decent public transport system. But having lived for a while in Mumbai where Buses,trains, autos/cabs co-exist I still feel we need Autos charging affordable/standard rates are must.

While on Autos and meter fare, came across this really neat crowd-sourcing site - MeterPodu Aim of the site is to help in providing average/acceptable meter fares for a given journey ( if u specify a from and to destination in a city) by voluntary data update by people.Brilliant initiative, really essential for a city like Chennai - more power to the guys behind this! Hope it picks up and some standard evolves despite apathy of those in power ...