Never mind the bullocks by Venessa Able
What does it take for one woman to drive 10,000 km around India – a land where bullock carts vie for space with SUVs on eight-lane super-highways, where GPS systems fail to give directions, and where a blessing from the gods is considered better road insurance than safer driving?
Description
As Vanessa Able learnt through trial and copious error, it means mastering the unwritten rules that underlie what at first sight looks like pure anarchy, and the world’s cheapest car – the Tata Nano. From the gleaming towers of Mumbai to the badlands of Hampi, the croissants of Pondicherry and all the way down and back round again, Vanessa’s little yellow Nano takes her on a voyage of discovery. En route, she learns the unwritten rules of horn and full-beam etiquette, of vehicle pecking order, and what to do when the SH11T hits the fan. Narrowly escaping death by truck, she expertly dodges monkey attacks, evades an elephant mugging, and falls hopelessly in love with a mathematician called Thor, who is probably the worst driver she’s ever met.
Richly entertaining, Never Mind the Bullocks is a madcap adventure unlike any other. Filled with wisdom gleaned from the dusty highways – where ‘speed thrills but kills’ – it is an ode to the road, and to the unparalleled, often chaotic experience that is driving in India.
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Vanessa Able began her career as a correspondent for The Hewler Globe, the first English language Kurdish weekly in post- Saddam Iraq. She mostly filed her stories from Turkey, where she settled in Istanbul and eventually landed the post of Editor- in-Chief of Time Out Istanbulmagazine. She then began freelancing for the Observer, concierge.com, Geographic Traveler, Esquire magazine and the New York Times. Never Mind the Bullocks is her first book.
| Price: | AUD $27.99(NZ$35.00) |
| ISBN: | 9781857886122 |
| Format: | Paperback – Demy format |
| Publisher: | Nicholas Brealey |
| Imprint: | Nicholas Brealey |
| Number of pages: | 304 |
| Publication Date: | May 2014 |
| Edition Numbe |
Short URL: https://indiandownunder.com.au/?p=3096