Last week Amardeep mentioned the new book by Biju Mathew who organizes and fights for the rights of taxi workers in New York City. The book is titled, Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City.

FROM THE PUBLISHER: A back roads ride through the yellow cab industry of New York City by lead Taxi Workers’ Alliance organizer Biju Mathew.As the point of entry for many of the city’s visitors, the yellow cab has become an enduring metaphor for New York City and its exuberant twenty-four-hours-a-day rush. But just as the city has changed in recent years, so too has the industry that keeps it on the move. Indeed, as Biju Mathew reveals in this highly readable, fast-paced survey of New York’s taxi business, just about everything has been dramatically altered except the yellow paint. Drawing on conversations with the drivers themselves, Taxi! details both the pressures and triumphs of life behind the wheel, from the effects of ex-Mayor Giuliani’s “quality of life” and “zero tolerance” programs and the structure of car and medallion ownership that often results in minimal earnings after a 12-hour shift, to the unexpected ease with which a workforce representing 80 ethnicities—and at least as many languages—organized, culminating in the 1998 strike of 24,000 taxi workers. One of the organizers of the Taxi Workers’ Alliance, Mathew is uniquely qualified to survey the fascinating world of the yellow cab. Buckle up, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

This week’s New Yorker has an article about Biju’s book and the drivers that he writes about.

A book party with no cocktails: ouch. In fairness to the folks at the New Press, which helped organize such a dreaded event recently, at a restaurant on West Twenty-ninth Street, there were a few limiting circumstances. For one thing, almost all of the invited guests were driving. Also, most of them were Muslims and, more to the point, among the city’s best experts on the consequences of excessive social drinking. They were cabbies. The book being celebrated was “Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City,” by Biju Mathew, a business professor at Rider University, and a founding member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, a fast-growing labor union.

Compounding the problem was the fact that the party didn’t begin until 1 a.m.—the start of the slow period for drivers working the night shift. Many of the cabbies, at least, would likely have been in the neighborhood anyway. The stretch of the upper Twenties bounded by Lexington and Broadway is their sanctuary—featuring not only the union’s headquarters but also free and plentiful late-night parking, a popular mosque, and several subcontinental restaurants, including Lasani, where the party took place.

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We already suspected this but now it’s official. The BBC reports on an accurate stereotype:

Indians are the world’s biggest bookworms, reading on average 10.7 hours a week, twice as long as Americans, according to a new survey. The NOP World Culture Score index surveyed 30,000 people in 30 countries from December 2004 to February 2005. Analysts said self-help and aspirational reading could explain India’s high figures. Britons and Americans scored about half the Indians’ hours and Japanese and Koreans were even lower – at 4.1 and 3.1 hours respectively.

That “self-help and aspirational reading” line is important. A lot of the reading being done is religious and scholastic and not necessarily independent reading like you’d think. Still, a bookstore in India is a “cool” place to hang out and be seen. Crosswords Bookstores are especially trendy.

R Sriram, chief executive officer of Crosswords Bookstores, a chain of 26 book shops around India, says Indians are extremely entrepreneurial and reading “is a fundamental part of their being”.

“They place a great deal of emphasis on reading. That’s the reason why they do well in education and universities abroad,” he told the BBC News website.

“People educate themselves and deal with change throughout their lives. And the way to do that is to update themselves with books.”

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