““इंतज़ार करते हैं आदमी कोई पढ़े उनको ! लिखते हैं किताबें आदमी। करती हैं किताबें इंतज़ार पढ़े जाने का।” — प्रयाग शुक्ल”
POCKET DIARY BOOK CLUB
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
Year 2023
Edition 15
04/06/2023, 3:00 PM
इंतज़ार करते हैं आदमी
कोई पढे उनको !
लिखते हैं ककत़ाबें आदमी।
करती हैं ककत़ाबें इंतज़ार
पढे ज़ाने क़ा।
पुस्तक : अधूरी चीजें तम़ाम
रचनाकार : प्रय़ाग शुक्ि
These lines were going through my mind when I was looking at that lonely bookshelf ,
full of books which are waiting to be read by some more, to be understood some more,
in that white light of that single room, filled with the fragrance of some new books, fingers
etching, reeking of recently smoked cigarettes and fifteen people waiting to end the wait of
some books. (I must tell the advocate among us that the word ‘आदमी’ is gender neutral in
the above-mentioned poem. The word is used for mankind.)
In the beginning, Priya and Nirali, egged on by Chirag created Pocket Diary Book Club. It was
beautiful and nice and free spirits roamed along the walls of the room that housed this
creation. The gods were happy, the trees were happy, the pages of books fluttered and
butterflies made of words flew from the pages of books and surrounded the creators of this
new world. And then Priya said –
‘Let there be rules’ and there were rules.
So, the session began with the reiteration of rules which almost sound like a prayer after
attending 15 editions of PDBC1.
1 shortform
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr54nqD1URA (please play this music while reading this journey)
The first reader is Prince. He has brought the book “ Paddington Goes to Town” by Michael
Bond.
After introductions of the talking bear, he starts reading from the first story in the book which
is “A Day to Remember” where Paddington acts as an usher at a friend’s wedding. After a lot
of names and witty conversation that took place in the chapter, Prince gave it a rest. Since we
were confused what an Usher is , we called light and Ankit threw it on the meaning of the
word Usher and it came to be known that the word usher means a person who shows people
to their seats in a theatre, church, etc.
This was the moment when I visualize a bear showing me seats in a theater and me asking
the bear ‘Could u paws the movie till I find my seat?’
Manisha ji told us about “PB Bear” which was lost to Rajesh (me) and there was this line ‘Ohh
there is something you don’t know!’2
I later found out that PB bear is also a character of a children’s book written by Lee Davis just
like Winnie-the-Pooh. It makes me wonder about the fascination of British writers with bears.
There was an armored bear in the series “His Dark Materials” by Philip Pullman by the name
“Lorek Byrnison” who is a warrior bear , then there is Baloo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BH-Rxd-
NBo )
After thinking that we can call bears in Ahmedabad ‘solar bears’, a sunny joke, we moved on
to the next writer.
Asad brought “The Rivals” by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. It’s a play described as a comedy of
manners. He briefed us about the char acters and read the part where Sir Anthony arrives to
visit Mrs. Malaprop, and together they chide Lydia for her interest in Beverley. Sir Anthony
blames such disobedience in a girl on reading. He argues that girls should be illiterate, while
Mrs. Malaprop makes a garbled case for the areas of study appropriate for young ladies,
attempting to use sophisticated language and instead sounding ridiculous.
2 I am a know-it-all.
The origin of the word malapropism is discussed as the word is named a fter Mrs. Malaprop.
A malapropism (also called a malaprop, acyrologia, or Dogberryism) is the mistaken use of
an incorrect word in place of a word with a similar sound, resulting in a nonsensical,
sometimes humorous utterance.
A look at Mrs. Malaprop’s humble -jumble English include: “illiterate him quite from your
memory” (instead of “ob literate”), “he is the very pineapple of politeness” (instead
of pinnacle) and “she’s as headstrong as an allegory on the banks of the Nile” (instead
of alligator)
I tried my best, as the moderator, to promote the cause of creating a library and requested
readers to read and donate for all to enjoy the book. I feel like an accomplice.3
We moved on to Smit who brought us “Across the Universe: The Beatles in India” written by
Ajoy Bose.
The book details the journey of Beatles to R ishikesh to the ir meditation teacher Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi. While he was reading , the famous song “Within me without you “was playing
and the whole room teleported to the banks of river Ganga in Rishikesh where we sat ,
listening to a story that must be told like a tradition.
I commented, India i.e., भ़ारत आये बबऩा ककसी को ज्ञ़ान प्ऱाप्त नहीं होत़ा। and all bobbed their
heads in covert agreement.
Mitesh brought मारे गये गुलफाम4 urf तीसरी कसम by फणीश्वर नाथ “रेणु”
The story takes us on a bullock cart, driven by Hiraman and his oaths:
1. Never to carry bamboo in his bullock cart.
2. Never to carry chorbazari maal.
Enters a girl, Heerabai.
3 Duty
4 https://www.hindisamay.com/kahani/fanishwar-nath-renu/mare-gaye-gulfam.htm
Mitesh asked us to imagine the movie, Highway, modify it to the roads of a rural village in 60s.
“… ‘भैय़ा, तुम्ह़ाऱा ऩाम क्य़ा है ?’
हू -ब -हू फेन ूगग ि़ास!
हहऱामन के रोम -रोम बज उठे। मुुँह से बोिी नहीं ननकिी।
उसके दोनों बैि भी क़ान खड़े करके इस बोिी को परखते हैं।
‘मेऱा ऩाम! …ऩाम मेऱा है हहऱामन!’
उसकी सव़ारी मुस्क ऱाती है। मुस्क ऱाहट में खुशब ू है।
‘तब तो मीत़ा क हूंग ी, भैय़ा नहीं। मेऱा ऩाम भी हीऱा है। ’
‘इस्स!’ हहऱामन को परतीत नहीं , ‘मदद और औरत के ऩाम में फकद होत़ा है। ’
‘ह़ाुँ जी, मेऱा ऩाम भी हीऱाब़ाई है। ’
‘कह़ाुँ हहऱामन और कह़ाुँ हीऱाब़ाई, ब हुत फकद है !’ …”
From Rishikesh in February 1968 to a Bihari village in the same era, we travelled India in one
afternoon, ending on Raj Kapoor’s सजन रे झूट मत बोिो , खुद़ा के प़ास ज़ाऩा है
ऩा ह़ाथी हैं , ऩा घोड़ा हैं , वह़ाुँ पैदि ही ज़ाऩा है … we traveled to the next world, the next reader.
The next reader is Hitesh who is not yet a reader. He is here to explore the discussions of book
lovers and see if he enjoys reading by experimentation. I was the scientist who provided him
a selected book, I and the audience were also his test subjects, with him on quest to read
“बातें बेमतलब” by अनुज खरे।
“… घणी खूब सूरत िड़की की फोटो देखते ही खट़ाक से उसे फ्र ें ड ररक्वेस्ट भेज दी ज़ाती है।
आुँखों के शटर खोिे उसके जव़ाब के इंतज़ार में बैठ ज़ाते हैं।
बीच में 40 ब़ार चेक ककय़ा ज़ात़ा है।
इसी बीच िड़की की फ्र ें ड लिस्ट में 40 िड़के जुड़ चुके होते हैं।
बस , वह एक अदद हमें ि़ाइक नहीं कर रही होती है। …”
‘क़ाफी बेमतिब की ब़ातें करते है आप’, anonymous commented from somewhere.
The chapter was “लेटेस्ट राष्ट्रीय समस्या”
I was surprised, I thought it must be about the ever-increasing population or the consequent
poverty, the evergreen, will not go out of fashion national samsya’s but Anuj rejected our
theories. He wrote about his dear youthful citizens living5 their life on social media. Hitesh
was confident in his declaration of being comfortable with Hindi. His narration gave him away.
That might be another राष्ट्रीय समस्या, reading silently vs reading aloud.
कोच नंबर एस-10। बथथ नंबर-35। भोपाल से दिल्ली।
“… सीट के नीचे बैग घुसेड़क र ब़ािों पर ह़ाथ म़ार ही रह़ा थ़ा अपऩा हीरो की नजर स़ामने चिी गयी। एक
खूब सूरत िड़की बैठी थी। उमर कोई 25-26 स़ाि के बीच। जींस-टी शटद। एक ह़ाथ में चौड़़ा स़ा बैंड। दूसरे
में रुद्ऱाक्ष के मनकों की म़ाि़ा िपेटे थी। सीट की पीठ से हटकी बैठी थी। गोद में क ़ामू! मतिब अल्बेयर
क ़ामू क़ा द स्रेंजर धरे। वल्डद फ े मस िेखक। वल्डद फ े मस नॉवेि। ऊपर की बथों पर दो ब ुड्ढे। औंधे िेटे हुए।
ऱास्त़ा स़ाफ़। कोई डडस्टबेंस नहीं। जन्म-जन्म़ांतर के सपने कु ि़ांचे भरने िगे। एक पि में कई कफ़ल्मी
सीन आंखों के स़ामने चिने िगे। …”
Imagine a guy and a girl in a train, sitting opposite each other. Haven’t we all lived it?
There was background music playing in my head, his, his head.
Reader: Bhavesh, brother of Hitesh, the two wandering brothers…
5 wasting
On being asked whether they enjoyed this reading, both H&B gave thumbs in upper direction.
We will ask the same question at the end of the session.
Bhavin read from “Glucose Revolution: The Life -Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood
Sugar” by Jessie Inchauspe. The conversation quickly turned to diets, fruits, sugar, fructose,
glucose and I was reminded again of the beauty of a book. The comparison of mitochondria
with a stoker (stoker is a guy who throws coal in steam engine …please
remember Sholay… yep that guy. .. not Veeru, the guy with the
bottle… suddenly thinking why is he drinking when his
train is being robbed? … or maybe just that is why…)
Bhavin made a strong argument regarding following a good food pattern and habit s and
we all agreed.
After each of us had dwelled and perhaps worried of the state of our health,
many made a mental note of resolving to take good care of diet . We moved on
to the next reader.
Dhairya brought “BioShock: Rapture by John Shirley”, a prequel to the first BioShock game,
the novel tells the story of how Andrew Ryan found the underwater city of Rapture.
He gave us a brief that Rapture is a fictional underwater city build by business tycoon Andrew
Ryan in the mid -1940s as a means to create a utopia for mankind’s greatest artists and
thinkers to prosper in a laissez-faire environment outside of increasing oppression by the
world’s governments and religion. He started by reading the foundational quote of Rapture
which is –
“… ‘I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question.
Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?’
‘No!’ says the man in Washington, ‘It belongs to the poor.’
‘No!’ says the man in the Vatican, ‘It belongs to God.’
‘No!’ says the man in Moscow, ‘It belongs to everyone.’
I rejected those answers; inste ad, I chose something different. I chose the
impossible.
I chose… Rapture, a city where the artist would not fear the censor, where the
scientist would not be bound by petty morality, where the great would not be
constrained by the small! And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become
your city as well …”
― Andrew Ryan”
While listening to him reading the passage, it felt like Dhairya had a deep desire to create a
Rapture of his own.
‘Should I read this passage? It is gory in nature.’
‘We love details’ we confirmed our interest with our wicked smiles and the day went on.
…
Navsheen brought The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak which has appeared often enough
for all of us to know them by heart, the rules, courtesy: Ankit.
Navsheen read with such profound emotional intensity that her voice was shaking, looking
directly in her eyes, Priya thought she is nervous and became concerned for her and she said
‘aaram se’ … Rajesh (I) interrupted her, ‘this is the right way of reading. ’ To which Navsheen
later clarified that she was feel ing the heat of the day and not the nerves. Her passion was
so… real. Look at the words:
“… So don’t judge the way other people connect to God. To each his own way and his
own prayer. God does not take us at our word but looks deep into our hearts. It is not
the ceremonies or rituals that make a difference, but whether our hearts are
sufficiently pure or not …”
…
Ankit brought Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom.
Tuesdays with Morrie, is a memoir by Mitch Albom about a series of visits Albom made to his
former sociology professor, Morrie Schwartz , as Schwartz was dying from Amyotrophic
Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
After being diagnosed with ALS, Morrie’s final days are spent giving his former student Mitch
his final lesson of life. The memoir is divided into 14 different “days” that Mitch Albom spent
with his professor Morrie. Throughout these days, Mitch and Morrie discuss various topics
important to life and living. The memoir also recounts Mitch’s memories of Morrie as a
professor.
However, it was fear of aging that mesmerized Ankit and that’s what he read… no doubt one
of the best things I have heard him reading.
“… As you grow, you learn more. If you stayed as ignorant as you were at twenty –
two, you’d always be twenty-two. Aging is not just decay, you know. It’s growth. It’s
more than the negative that you’re going to die, it’s the positive that you
understand you’re going to die, and that you live a better life because of it …”
― Mitch Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
To my surprise I was transported to when I was twenty-two and how ignorant I was… well not
that ignorant may be because I loved books. But still, quite ignorant.
I kept telling everyone ‘You are still 22’ and Nirali went “awe…” Priya was pleasantly surprised
with Ankit’s selection of passage and equally beautiful elocution.
Finding answers is less important than finding meaning. Aur hamesha ki tarah, I was reminded
of a dialogue from a movie , this time , it was voiced by the great Maximus in the movie
Gladiator
“Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back.”
…
And what better way to take the edition forward , to the man who did smile back at death…
many times in his lifetime.
Manisha brought “Bipin: The Man Behind the Uniform” by Rachna Bisht Rawat.
The book details the life of General Bipin Rawat.
Manisha read from the chapter where we see the general after another chopper crash which
happened back in 2015. She also read us how he still flew to do his duty 2 hours after surviving
the plane crash. The man instead of taking it easy on himself, just after surviving a helicopter