Pocket Diary Book Club

20.01.2025

I was just typing a message: “I won’t be able to join you guys today, something has come up”, but before I even finished writing the whole sentence, Priya, with her superfast brain sensed what it was going to be, and with her even faster fingers sent a message: “cancel mat karna, baaki jo likhna hai likh do.”

A battle lost, even before it could begin.

Jab itne haq se koi apnapan jatata hai, tab aap dimag se kam dil se jyada kaam lete ho…

So here is what followed this, on the morning of January 20, 2025, Monday.

Priya and I were at this cozy little café, a little before 11 am. The level of excitement and nervousness was through the roof.  

We were meeting a very well-known and extremely loved author, not on a public platform, but in a café, for breakfast. To samajh mein nahi aa raha tha ke itne bade lekhak ke saath kaise pesh aaya jaye, kya baat chit ki jaaye aur kaunse sawaal puchhe jaaye, jinka jawaab unhone pehle hikam se kam pachaas – sau baar na de diya ho.

Yeh sab kash-ma-kash chal hi rahi thi, aur tabhi Chirag aur humare mehmaan lekhak Shri Divya Prakash Dubey ji aa pahoche. Inki likhi kitaabein, khaas kar “यार पापा” aur “अक्टूबर जंक्शन” humare bahut sare editions mein kaafi baar padhi gayi hai, aur khoob saraahi gayi hai.

Wo hota hai na ke aap jab kisi celebrity ya kisi bohat hi vikhyaat insaan se pehli baar milne jaate ho, to mann mein thodi kuch zizak ya hichkichahat rehti hai, ki woh insaan kaise honge, unki abhivrutti  kaisi hogi, kahi kuch baat ka bura to nahi maan jayenge etc.

But all who have met Dubey ji would agree with this: the ease with which he conducts himself amongst his fans is remarkable. The entire time that we were with him, it just passed by like a breeze. He shared many insightful stories about his experiences, his writing process, and his life. His ability to read the room and make a conversation with each person present is exceptional. Everyone in the room could make a personal connection with him at some point of time, thinking “arrey humne bhi to ye hi mehsoos kiya hai zindagi mein, kabhi kisi mukaam pe!”

Right from having breakfast with him, to driving him to the studio to having a small session with fellow PDBC members, he was such a delight, the whole time spent in his company felt just like his books, a warm hug from life that you didn’t even know you needed!

रुबरु – दिव्य प्रकाश दुबे जी के साथ

(The one which will go down in the history of PDBC – as one of the many firsts – first to be held in the presence of an author, also the first to be held on Monday afternoon)

The session at the PDBC studio started with the very salt of the club i.e. The PDBC Rules. And Dubey ji very patiently listened to the entire set of rules, nodding with appreciation in between.

The edition started with Mitesh picking up Musafir Café for reading. Dubey ji commented immediately, “arrey meri hi book padhoge! Iss kitaab se to maine kab ka break up kar liya hai!”

“ह से हैलो”  from the book मुसाफिर कैफ़े was read briefly by Mitesh, which opened the gates to such an interesting conversation about Mitesh getting married next week and how he resonated with the book so deeply.

It was also shared, during this very interesting discussion of marriage and its aftereffects, about how a bedroom is perceived to be one of the greatest fields of politics. (I must say, this was very enlightening for the likes of those who are already initiated into the institute of marriage, and also who are anticipating to be initiated in it, soon…!)

He shared one beautiful anecdote, narrating a tiny story about a bus journey he took, circa 2003.

“Ek kahaani sach hai ya nahi wo itna mahatvapurna nahi hai, lekin kya yeh kahaani sach ho sakti hai –wo zyada mahatvapurna hota hai.” – he concluded at the end.

“Ek pahad jo dharti ki satah se upar hai wo sab dekhte hai. Par jo dharti ki satah ke niche hai, uske baare mein aksar koi nahi sochta. Theek vaise hi, aisi kahaaniya jo satah ke niche hai, use bahar nikalne ka prayaas ek lekhak ka rehta hai.” (I know, such beautiful words! We were all speechless with this simple yet meaningful explanation of a writer’s point of view).

After this, Yogesh ji read a very insightful passage from the book “Manual of the Warrior of Light” by Paulo Coelho.  He shared about how he can just pick up this book and refer any random page to get the inspiration to deal with any given situation. When Dubey ji expressed his interest in reading this book, Yogesh ji very graciously and lovingly gifted a new copy that he had brought especially for him with a very lovely handwritten message.

This was followed by a few किस्से और कहानियाँ shared by Dubey ji, which included talking about Sanjeev Kumar, a story by Manto and a few other stories, describing which here in words will not do justice to the beauty those stories held.

On a side note, when asked who is his favourite author, he said it is Manohar Shyam Joshi (Quickly adding to the TBR list).

Curious about his writing routine, Priya asked him – “Aapke yahaan pehle chai banti hai ya kahaani?” to which he replies “definitely kahani!” He adds “setting up a routine, a fixed time routine can benefit a lot to those who aspire to be writers.” So, next time, when you put away your pen and paper, thinking aaj mood nahi hai, ya chalo pehle chai banayi jaaye, take this valuable advice and do yourself a favour by setting up a routine to just sit down and write at a specific time of the day, every day. 

 Talking about books, he also shared that all the unread books sitting on our bookshelves are potential knowledge. A knowledge that we are yet to acquire. To which Priya promptly suggested how this can also be used as a potential diffuser to all the taunts and attacks that we face as eternal book hoarders (I told you in the beginning, her brain works at a bullet speed).

One of the many things that Dubey ji shared today that made a lasting impression in our minds:

“एक इंसान जब समय पर अपना शहर छोड़ देता है, तो पूरी दुनिया में वह शहर की पहचान उस इंसान के नाम से जुड़ जाती है।

पर जब वह नहीं छोड़ पाता,  तो वो शहर खुद ही उस इंसान को  भुला देता है।“

We bid Dubey ji farewell, with a token of gift to express our immense gratitude for taking time out of his extremely busy schedule to come visit our library and spend time with all of us, with his amazing insights and wonderful stories. 

Dubey ji, please know that we eagerly are looking forward to your next visit to Pocket Diary Book Club and to hearing many more stories from you. And till then, we are going to keep today’s wonderful memories in our hearts, warm and fresh.

किसी से मिलकर nice meeting you अगर कभी लगा भी करे, तो बोला मत करो। कुछ चीजें बोलते ही कचरा हो जाती है।

–दिव्य प्रकाश दुबे,  मुसाफिर कैफे

——————–समाप्त——————-

– From the diary pages of Nija