The Laughing Buddha Cab Company/ Chris Mooney-Singh

The title shouted from its cover: The Laughing Buddha Cab Company.

A Buddha’s face, an open palm, an old-style taxi cab at the bottom-right.

And the poet himself — a Caucasian face under a Sikh’s turban.

Scanning through the pages quickly, some words and phrases caught my attention: “Monkey men“, “Metallica dreams“…

Didn’t mean anything to me (as yet) but certainly very intriguing.

And so I read the poems on the way home.

This was one poetry book that connected with me, for some reason.

Maybe because it revealed more layers to the poet, as a person.

Chris Mooney-Singh gives his readers a peek into his life and experiences, through the poems drawn from jaunts in taxi cabs, in Singapore and India.

The piece titled “Taxi Pantun” (page 57) was quite poignant. About a cabbie relating his woes of his wife (the cabbie’s) battle with cancer to his passenger. Not knowing that his passenger emphatised more than one might think.

Speaking of empathy, lines like these made me ponder:
“I watch the bats
outside the MRT
where taxis stop
as we return
with troubled looks
from anxious jobs.
Their circling wings
match out heartbeats,
a comforting flutter
above our heads.”
From p. 65 – “Urban Dwellers”

I thought these were beautiful words:
“Light scaled your hair last night.
A moon rising between apartments
sent down its white ladder through
the window while you were sleeping.”
From p. 68 – “Views from My Apartment”

In this collection, Chris’ poems gives me the sense that there’s an air of acceptance; a coming-to-terms with whatever life has thrown at him.

“Children, Darling, are no longer an option.
Children cannot pour like jellybeans

from old jars. Sweets may not be good
for us, after our half century. Better they

stay away. We can go to other homes
as uncle and aunt and give out Toblerone…“
From p. 72 – “Views from My Apartment“.

I know I shouldn’t draw the conclusion that this collection is about Chris and his life.

But I can’t help but think that he’s giving the reader hints of his life, a peek into his mind.

Overall, I’d say this collection is “Quietly Colourful”.

The poems are contemplative and reflective.

Come to think of it, this collection could be said to be like Chris the poetry-man himself.

The words burst with a performer’s flair at times.

Colourful, like Chris the performer of poetry.

And quiet.

When the stage lights dim and the performer steps off.

Perhaps into a taxi cab.

See also:

• Review from Zafar Anjum’s
• The Taxi Buddha, published at Umbrella Issue 4, Fall 2007
• Item availability at NLB libraries

Analog science fiction and fact/ Jan & Feb 2008

p4. Editorial by Stanley Schmidt. On the trend of TV shows showing a preview, before a commercial break, of what’s to come. And then after the show resumes, there’s a recap of where the show left off prior to the break. Suggests this might reflect an epidemic of short attention span, real (of society) and/ or perceived (by content producers). And that consequences are that TV/ radio content is further diluted; leading to even shorter attention span. Worse is that people become unwilling or unable to spend time reflecting on important real world issues. He ends by posing a question for the reader to think of how the same people who aren’t willing to reflect deeper and have tendency to respond based on condensed info, but yet have the ability to vote.

P60. Tom Ligon gives an update on the “world’s simplest fusion reactor”. Describes the series of experimental models (with photos of two models) to create clean fusion energy. Concludes by saying the final results by Dr. Robert W. Bussard and team, are useful enough for others to examine for themselves on the viability of the technology. Ligon feels it can, and in relatively affordable terms.

P198. The

P237 – 238. The index to 2007 issues.

p226. Tom Easton recommends Charles Stross’ The Merchant War, Michael Swanwick’s The Dog Says Bow-Wow, Bruce Boston’s The Gardener’s Tale, non-fiction texts reviewed: Rumors of War and Infernal Machines: Technomilitary Agenda-Setting in American and British Speculative Fiction, Charles E. Gannon, Rowman & Littlefield.

Bunker 13/ Aniruddha Bahal

The cover was provocative.

It’s a plane, btw.

NLB Call No.: BAH – [TH]
ISBN: 0571217419

I’d never expected a Military Thriller to come from Asia.

Which was why I picked up this book.

I give this book a 5 out of 5.

If there’s ever a Man Booker prize for military fiction, maybe this might be a strong contender. Or maybe not, ‘cos it’s a lot more exciting than many of the Man Booker prize winners!

I mentioned the Booker prize because this novel reminded me of Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi“. Maybe both novels have similarities: The main characters are Indian nationals, both stories feature characters who think Asian but act Western (or what we stereotype as “western culture”). And a twist in the plot at the end that gave me a mind-bend.

But I digress…

At the surface level, the plot in Bunker 13 can be simply put as: One Indian man’s thrill seeker’s perspective against a backdrop of war, sex, drugs.

But it’s a lot richer than that.

Plot: Your nickname is MM. You’re a writer for a magazine, and you specialise in military affairs. You volunteer for assignments like undergoing paratrooper training, and being posted to observe firsthand the counter-insurgency measures and tactics by the elite battle hardened units at the Indian-Pakistan border.

You hit the ground running from page one.

It’s action packed almost all the way. From trying to get a heroin high while parachuting off a military plane (yeah, unbelievable but plausible somehow), to firefights and raids deep in enemy territories, to organising rave parties, to meeting with the Russian mafia, to conducting a daring daylight raid on a jail to free a fellow conspirator, to risking his life to rescue a woman he loves.

I found the part describing an editorial meeting (the character, MM, is a writer) particularly funny. The writer’s equivalent of political and military maneouvers. You have to read it to appreciate it ‘cos I can’t do justice to that chapter, short of copying the entire chapter here.

It was clear from the start of the novel that MM is not a normal guy. In fact, he appears like a criminal from the start: shooting and peddling drugs, gun-running on an international scale. Yet as the novel develops, so does MM. I got a vague notion that he has some social conscience buried deep in his psyche.

A tortured soul, more scarred than what the author chose to reveal at the beginning.

Overall, the novel seems like a combination of clever writing and editorial work.

There are graphic sex scenes, but they are not vulgar. They somehow came across as highly appropriate for the novel’s setting, pace and style (conversely the scenes would be quite odd if it were in a Tom Clancy…)

It definitely has all the ingredients of a military thriller bestseller — sex, drugs, violence, love, heroics, espionage, war, wry humour.

And when you consider the background of the author, the plot becomes even more intriguing.

Highly entertaining stuff.