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For readers who want a wide-eyed romp into the lives of others, both of these books offer the opportunity to hold on and watch out. In one we are offered slices - sometimes frightening - of how people can behave, even in public, while the other book exposes us to a broader voyage from one exotic locale to another.

Exact Fare Only 2 is a scatter-shot collection of experiences by those who use public transit. From the subway of Toronto, to interstate buses in Middle USA, to air flights over Europe, to ferry travel off the BC coast, we share adventures that include far more than destination reached. Fellow travelers do wild and wondrous things, to say nothing of the conveyance drivers themselves. In a situation which is generally of short duration, people seem encouraged to slip the bonds of social convention, and express themselves in ways generally (and best) kept for private moments.

City of Rains offers a more gentle exposure to diverse societies, but is, in its way, no less frantic. The book is so realistic, that it takes the word 'Fiction' on the back cover to show the reader it is a novel. Set in India and France, it is an unconventional blend of two greatly diverse cultures, held together yet expanded outward by the central character/narrator, who observes more than he participates. Interestingly enough, the novel itself begins with a taxi ride, which could have jumped from the pages of Exact Fare Only 2, but the consequences are far more lasting. In a way, there is no final destination, even though many of the events described happened decades ago.

Exact Fare Only 2 is a wonderful idea for a book, and we get our money's worth from every ride we take. Obviously a second collection of such tales, and with an afterword by David Suzuki, it is a collection chosen with discernment, and offers a worldwide opportunity to 'people watch'. All of the contributors are professional writers of one sort or another (there are even a couple of poems included). Their observations range from pathos to humour to fear, and generally express a great deal of surprise.

There are a lot of people to watch on public transport, and every person has the potential to reveal himself / herself in the most unexpected of ways. When on public transport, many people seem to feel they have an audience (and a captive audience). This is the time they can make a 'statement', and others have to pay attention. Or, perhaps, they just relish the opportunity to 'shock'. Others apparently feel themselves to be anonymous, (which they are) and perform deeds, or converse with imaginary companions, much as they probably do in their own dwelling places. It is a safe bet that, if these are their private deeds and conversations, they probably do not have many real visitors to contend with.

Exact Fare Only2 is a collection by twenty-one different authors, from novelists and poets, to screenwriters and newspaper columnists. A couple are actors, and one writer is a pharmacist from Guelph "…where a public transit system has been in operation since 1895." This sounds impressive, and makes one realize that public transportation has always been important. Probably, there were adventures to be had even then. The authors sometimes put their lives on the line during these excursions, but more often it is their sanity which is tested by some of the things they see, and the people they meet.

One expects more travail when the travel takes one to the 'Berranca del Cobre', a canyon in Mexico, one-and-a-half times deeper than the Grand Canyon. Or, during international flights, the concerns of "Suspect Baggage", and the delays it can cause, are often part and parcel of air travel. However, even transit in the city where one lives, has its bizarre and harsh moments. In "Missed Bus", one concisely- timed rider finds out exactly 'why' a late city transit bus is late. Another bus patron in "Follow That Bus" has the bus she is on chased through the streets by the car of a too-amorous suitor, who saw her at a bus stop. 'Love' may be at the root of both encounters, but it is not a love that is appreciated by either rider.

Public transit exposes us to different cultures and lifestyles when we travel in other countries. We temporarily become a member of an alien society, and experience in a very real way a portion of peoples' lives. Sitting and standing side-by-side with these citizens makes them more real to us, and thus more believable. Perhaps we even attain an element of understanding. By the same token, our encounters with different people in our own society can offer us a jolt of reality. Benign, annoying or humorous, we can either have our concepts of our immediate world confirmed, or we can realize we are missing a degree of what is going on around us. The crowded bus, or subway car, brings all of us to a perceptible equality not reached in many other places.

City of Rains also deals with the differences of cultures, but through these differences we come to discover how similar people are. The strictures of every society seem to channel particular ways for us to express feelings and fears, but emotions are universal. Propriety is generally a convention, and morality helps to keep us all in our place.

In City of Rains, Nirmal Dass takes us back and forth between two diverse cultures and settings, following one man's narration and another man's journal. From the sophisticated society of France, to the vibrant cacophony of India, he shifts our attention more smoothly than any form of public transport ever could. As we travel through both cultures, we find that each really mirrors the other, as people go about living their lives. It is neither through the mirror darkly, nor the mirror crack'd, but rather a mirror which is outside of time. Nirmal Dass manages to blend the present, and the past, in a realism that encompasses a host of realities, while characters from each culture tell to us their lives.

The nameless narrator in City of Rains travels to the Punjab to search for his family's roots. He is a Canadian who has never been to India, and is on a quest to finally trace the myths he has heard for decades. He takes a taxi from New Delhi, driving to the villages up on the slopes of the Himalayas, where his family originated. The city taxi, however, does not adapt well to the steep and narrow roads. During a particularly harrowing descent, the brakes fail. The taxi crashes into the wall of a small village, and the narrator, although injured, escapes before the taxi becomes engulfed in flame.

From this point, the narrator enters the land and society of his ancestors. Also from this point, the author takes us on an even-handed journey into both Eastern and Western culture. While immersed in the present, by the village where he stays during his convalescence, the narrator is transported to post World War Two France, by the journals of one of the villagers. City of Rains is a stellar interweaving of these two tales, where the revelations and observations found in the journals, assist the narrator in discovering and understanding his 'new' reality.

The narrator does not have to deal totally with this 'new' reality and alien society. He finds a link to the western life he knows through the journals of Raj Kumar. Raj is the village schoolmaster who offers the narrator a place to stay while he heals. As a young man, Raj had lived in France for many years, and these journals tell of his life there. Although of Indian ancestry - as is the narrator - his childhood had been spent in England, and after his many years in France, he too returned to the Punjab, and the world of his ancestors. They have both, in a way, traveled the same road, and the journals allow Raj to show the narrator how similar they are.

Dass has so much material to work with that City of Rains could have been a pastiche of travelogue vignettes. However, he jumps into each segment with such authority, that we are never confused, and never question the location, the time, or the characters. The Indian village is a living place, inhabited by distinct people, and we follow their lives and customs with ease. The journals which Raj has kept, are a first-person immersion into a physical and philosophical young man, who is as earthy as he is thoughtful. It is a tribute to the author that we are equally eager to get to either portion, and to be kept enthralled by what occurs. Even the fleeting characters we only meet through the journal, such as the ladies in Raj's life, make an impact in the novel. This is indeed powerful writing.

City of Ruins and Exact Fare Only 2 share an impassioned and abrupt leap into different cultures and lives. Exact Fare Only 2 keeps a frantic pace as befits accelerated transport, while City of Rains slides more sedately, but just as quickly, from not only place to place, but time to time. They leave the impression of a passenger train passing across a field at night, its lighted windows offering a flickering glimpse of other lives.