Author: Hemant Joshi
Review: The Advisory Board is a tribute to the taxi drivers. At one time they were the heart and soul of Mumbai. But today with the increasing traffic and influx of app based competitions, they are slipping into oblivion. However the author has taken up this unique concept and woven up the narrative around it. The protagonist starts hiring the cab service after his personal car is rendered useless after an accident. He is depressed since after his wife’s death and because of his plunging tourism business.
The protagonist starts conversation with the taxi drivers, initially by chance and later since he gets genuinely intrigued. He takes us through their lives and attitudes and solutions for problems as they see it. Somehow every time he speaks to the driver he gets an insight and a trace of solution to his own set of issues plaguing the business. Eventually, the story is about how he changes his mindset and develops a positive attitude and confident decision making skills.
The take home here is irrespective of the dark clouds of life troubles hovering above our heads there is always a silver lining. All that we need at times is someone to open up our blinders. Here the taxi drivers did just that and the protagonist was open to ideas which only favoured him.
On the flip side, the narrative does drag in some places and also sounds preachy in some others. Editing should have been better. Like use of inverted commas for dialogues is used indiscreetly in some places so the reading flow gets halted. Baring few syntactic errors its a good read.
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