Taxi Tales on a Crooked Bridge by Charlene Rajendran (RM 28.00) "So what are you?" he asks, as the drive to somewhere begins.
The short answer: someone trying to figure out what the question means, in taxi.
Charlene Rajendran is one of the many Malaysians who lives in Singapore, and she choose not to own a car. This book chronicles her conversations with some of the 'driving philosophers' she has met on the hundreds of taxi rides she has taken. Ethnicity, gender, nationhood, religion and more are discoursed in short trips across the island state. Seemingly transient and anonymous, but never lonely, the space of a taxi might be the ideal place for both passenger and driver to ponder the world that is literally passing by.
This book delves into the existence of the Indian community since the time of their arrival in Malaya as indentured labour 150 years ago, to the present day. It is an explication of the struggles, pain, agony that they suffered as a result of treachery, deception, trivialization and contempt by those who claimed to have their best interest at heart. This account exemplifies the vicious cycle of the loss of faith, hopelessness, frustration and decadence experienced by the Indian community for the 150 years of dwelling in this country. It is an Indian attempt to seeking the wound gangrenous that afflicted his people. This is the voice of an ailing community.
