““Look inside yourself Simba, you are more than what you have become” – Mufasa, The Lion King. This is the last edition of Phase I.”
POCKET DIARY BOOK CLUB
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
YEAR 2023
02/04/2023 3:00 PM
Edition 10
“Look inside yourself Simba, you are more than what you have become” – Mufasa, The Lion
King.
This is the last edition of Phase I. We have reached a milestone!
Aishwarya began writing the minutes. Neha came late. So, we put the extra work on her. She
looked really sincere while writing, her head down, a silent pen running on paper. But
impressions can mislead. The ones who kept requesting her for jokes (her witty observations),
ended up being barbecued.
The real title of these comments:
Neha ki chichli baatein
“Don’t take it personally”- Rules.
Backstory time. Priya tells us about Haldi Ghati. She shows us the actual “Haldi Ghati ki mitti”.
“The star is always first”, said Yogesh to Rajesh. We start with the history of Haldi Ghati. ‘Yudh
ho raha hai”, Rajesh sets the scene for us, and we are mesmerized by his recitation. Chetak is
blue in colour. Animals take energy from their owner.
After the war-cry, we move from grievous violence to non-violence, and we begin with Reena.
She reads from ‘Experiments with truth’. The experiments are spi ritual, moral and humble.
She is reading three books at a time!
Priya’s notes: What his wife feels, is a snubbed, hidden behind the covers somewhere story. I
read both the English and Hindi versions of The Story of My Experiments with Truth. I share a
complicated relationship with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. The way he blames women for
his weakness and clears himself of guilt for his attraction towards them is detrimental if
overlooked. History is full of Great men who need not be given a free pass to be sexist.
However, his struggle to fight violence with non-violence is no mean feat. Blaming him for all
the mistakes happening during the fight while overlooking his efforts an d action is like
assuming him to, not be human. No one is a pro in hindsight. He was a leader, he had
prejudices and flaws, he had a voice and he used it. There is a lot to read and think.
-Neha enters.-
Moving from non-violence to violence, Aishwarya reads (we did NOT know it was the last time
she did, before moving to Bukaro. Unfair) a twisted, true, bizzare live story from ‘The Tattooist
of Auschwitz’. She hesitated, did not want to go into the gruesome depths of the book.
“WE WANT GRUESOME!!”, everyone cried.
The woman, Gita had been etched with the tattoo, 34902, and so have the digits been etched
in Rajesh’s memory now.
When Nirali introduced the new member, Pruthvi, Priya clarified to him that she ain’t a
boomer. I’m convinced she loves to put people in sudden, awkward positions. Pruthvi reads
‘Thinking fast, and slow’. Are we good inherent statisticians are we are inherent grammarians?
I think not, no sir, no, mmhm. That pretty much summarises what I took from the book.
Shaurya suggests, it’s a must-read book, helps rationalise your thinking, despite his irrational,
impulsive book buying habits.
Manisha gave us a choice! We chose ‘ICONS’. Could we also perhaps, maybe, choose which
icon would she read? We gave un-asked suggestions, sassy as she is, she took none. She read
about Murthy, the man of principles, and how his father taught him to defy the laws of
mathematics. So he did.
Smit reads next- The Difficulty of Being Good, by Gur charan Das. Chapter is called Arjuna’s
Despair. Krishna is being vague ? in advices 1 and Arjuna is contemplating his decisions. The
book continues to compared Greek mythology with Mahabharata, where Arjuna and Achilles
are considered analogous to each other, except for the part where Arjuna believes he would
have not won had it not been for Krishna, and Achilles is proud and over confident.
Shaurya is back to his senses; from prophecy, he returns to science. Kuhn popularized the
word Paradigm Shift, so much, that we cannot think of a time before it. Kuhn redefined the
word, Shaurya, with his book choices, implemented it.
Bharath brings ” The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”, and he begins with ‘Earth has been
destroyed’. Yippee? Yippee!
Dhairya introduced us to The Library of Babel, threatening about the records of every
statement there ever was.
Ankit says, casually, “Yeah, it’s called government records”.
1 I wonder, if he gave a clear direction, do this and not that and the result was not to the liking of Arjun (not Arjuna) then like me, would he
also hold a resentment/grudge/blame Krishn for what happened? I am not good at the advice; can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?
Nirali misses the joke. Loser.
From space to Earth back brings us Yogesh, with the book, 80/20 rule. Yogesh reads, “20% of
those who marry, constitute 80% of the divorces”.
Priya: Listen I am an advocate. I disagree.
We find out that the rule also holds true for annoying things like evil alarms that you set and
ruin your slumbers. But, to our relief, Yogesh, helped us create an imaginary Swayamvar for
Kusangi, and explained us how 80/20 can also be USED FOR DATING! Convinced enough to
read the book.
We move to Outliers, which talks about unfair advantage. Ruchi made us face that things start
to get unfair since the day you were born. It talks about how your birthday can affect success
in life. I wonder if this is mere association, or the मंगल दोष, शनि भारी people were not kidding.
The book, subtly says stop trying, and it has rightly convinced me to do so. There’s a number
of factors that play, so there’s a lot of things to blame. It’s a relief. Whoop Whoop, mediocrity!
Talking about mediocrity, Ankit brought Harry Potter for us mere mortal muggles.
BEHOLD POTTERHEADS for we are going to Hogwarts.
Ankit, you can tell, has read the book, memorized it, lived it back and forth, by the way he
reads passionately, and paints a picture of Harry being disappointed in himself and
Dumbledore trying to lift his spirits.
My pen stops working, while Garvi, our Kathak prodigy is teaching us the science of Kathak
and how everything works in their separate world. I’m trying to listen to everything she says,
while looking for a pen, and while Nirali hands me a box of around 12 pens, 6 o f the first fail
to work. I’m convinced it’s a practical joke on me. I wonder if the panic of missing out on things
is visible on my face. I looked at Garvi, and she is calm (which helps), reciting gracefully, while
her feet are tapping, I suppose, unknowingly, subconsciously. I wonder if she has transcended
to the stage in her mind, while still here with us, when her fingers elegantly rise and fall up
and down.
Kusangi reads Murakami, and you can see how lit up Nirali’s eyes are. It’s a book on men who
have loved and lost. When Rajesh asked how it ends, Nirali and Ruchi confuse it with other
story and the chaos looks fun. Rajesh is cynical if the book captures the right emotions, he
says he’d read himself and vouch for it.
Raxil, takes us to Himalayas, first in Gujarati, and then in Hindi. Pardon me if I misunderstood,
but Kaka Kalelkar is travelling with his BUA!? Ankit clarified our fear, things are platonic. We
sigh with relief.
Fun fact? Snehal is into dark stuff, but not in a creepy way, as she claims. Hoping it’s true, we
move to the gory details. Move? We dig and live there eternally.
I think, ‘In my opinion’ is exactly how you should start every controversy. Wickedly, Dhairya
does that when he talks about Treasure Island, but refuses to read Treasure Island itself.
Mitesh reads मेरा सोलहवा साल from रसीदी निकि2। It’s Amrita Pritam’s autobiography, and she
chose the title, because she was suggested her life has had enough revenue stamp moments.
Alarm went off and we end at, कहते हैं। When the alarm did go off, I think Rajesh was more
disappointed than Mitesh.
Even more disappointed when he realised that Van Gogh addresses ALL his letters to HIS
BROTHER!? BLASPHEMOUS.
To our shock, Rajesh ‘s book has an ordinary title. It stirred a lot of emo tions, but when he
began reading, we’re reassured. The book introduced us to a made-up rule of time travelling,
‘While time travelling, if you see yourself, shoot yourself ‘. Now THAT matches his genre. To
understand the book, psychedelics are encouraged. I think he despises how people skipped
the endings of their books, so he chose to leave us confused and hanging. Fair.
At the end of the day, Chirag was excited to announce the clay workshop, but to his
disappointment, things were already informed. It wa s painful to witness. To his relief, Nirali
entered and jabbed the door on his elbow, and the awkwardness left through that same door.
Before leaving, I mix all the working and non -working pens together because I’m a vengeful
raccoon. I’ll get my pen next time so that this vile act does not backfire.
We disperse. Then converge again at Chai, only to disperse again.
नििली बातों का अंत।
2 https://archive.org/details/AtmaKatha-Hindi-AmritaPritam/mode/2up?view=theater