“‘Hair the color of lemons,’ Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. “You told him about me?” — The Book Thief”
POCKET DIARY BOOK CLUB
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
YEAR 2023
10/09/2023 3:00 PM
Akshat Drama Group Studio
Edition 22
Love on Himmel Street
‘Hair the color of lemons,’ Rudy read. His fingers touched the words. “You told him about me?”
At first, Liesel could not talk. Perhaps it was the sudden bumpiness of love she felt for him. Or
had she always loved him? It’s likely. Restricted as she was from speaking, she wanted him to
kiss her. She wanted him to drag her hand across and pull her over. It didn’t matter where. Her
mouth, her neck, her check. Her skin was empty for it, waiting. – The Book Thief by Markus
Zusak
Attendees (15)
Ruchi, Yatvi, Reena, Bharath, Prince, Jay, Shweta, Navshin, Kusangi, Mitesh, Rajesh, Rajarshi,
Nirali, Priya and Chirag
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Read by Ruchi
Lover boy Rudy represents the ideal human traits when it comes to Liesel like loyalty,
rebelliousness, and self -confidence despite testing throughout the story. The Book Thief
always made me ponder about death and the grim realities of wars but Ruchi today brought
out the most adorable and the loveliest aspect of the book and that was Rudy and Liesel ‘s tiff
and friendship.
P .S. Ruchi has a crush on Rudy.
“… He stood waist -deep in the water for a few moments longer before climbing out and
handing her the book. His pants clung to him, and he did not stop walking …”
In truth, I think he was afraid. Rudy Steiner was scared of the Book Thief’s kiss. He must have
longed for it so much. He must have loved her so incredibly hard. So hard that he would never
ask for her lips again and would go to his grave without them.
Rudy has taught all that Liesel required for surviving on Himmel Street a) cuss words and b)
friendship. Saukerl and Saumensch which initially started as words of repr oach but later
become the comfort which Liesel started finding in the cigarette butts of pap a and stern
shouting of Rosa.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Read by Yatvi
Gatsby‘s struggle and the undying “half -expecting Daisy to wander into one of his parties,
some night.”
Gatsby and his doomed love for the unattainable Daisy. Makes me wonder if Gatsby was in
love with Daisy or in love with the idea of love where he placed Daisy in the centre.
By the way Yatvi seemed wooooed by the Old Sport.
“… He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some
idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy …”
The class rift and the ease of being at ease with the old money vis-a-vis the struggles of the
new money to squeeze in the circle, it is touched upon with such tender words that it striked
me only as an afterthought.
“… He had one of those rare smiles with a quality of eternal reassurance in it, that you may
come across four or five times in life. It faced, or seemed to face, the whole external world for
an instant and then concentrated on you with an irresistible prejudice in your favor. It
understood you just as far as you wanted to be understood, believed in you as you would like
to believe in yourself …”
Bharat: The book is a beautiful piece of Jazz.
The Panchatantra compiled by Pandit Vishnusharman
Read by Reena
One Vishnusharman, shrewdly gleaning
All worldly wisdom’s inner meaning;
In these five books the charm compresses
Of all such books the world possesses
I picked up a copy kept at the library (version: Bhagwan Singh) and started skimming for
something that holds worth for me today, is useful.
There were passages, quotes, shlok that I kept thinking, ye wala is situation me use ho sakta
tha… I kept reading and every story weaved another story. This form of art at such a complex
level is rarely found these days.
‘Mitra Bhedha’ (Loss of Friends), ‘Mitra Laabha’ (Gaining Friends), ‘Suhrudbheda’ (Causing
discord between Friends), ‘Vigraha’ (Separation) and ‘Sandhi’ (Union).
As a community of readers, growing from strangers to friends, all the stories felt true.
Reena told us about the origin of the concept in A. Vishnu, he told the king that if I am not
able to train the princes, the future of your kingdom in the art of political science, then I shall
accept death. In those days, word had value, his conviction in his work inspired me to read
this book to learn ‘niti’.
Tracing history and variations of Panchtantra: https://indicportal.org/literature-panchatantra/
That was autocracy, and the princes were the future rulers. Times have changed, we live in a
democracy, where everyone has a voice and the power to vote. In that mathematical
equation, the stories retain their value, we are all
princes.
“… Arthur William Ryder, a Sanskrit professor at
University of California, Berkeley also translated
Panchatantra in English from the 12th century
manuscript of Purnabhadra. In the introduction of
his work (The Panchatantra: Purnabhadra’s
Recension of 1199 CE) he said, “The Panchatantra
is a niti-shastra, or textbook of niti”.
He also laments about the lack of vocabulary in
western languages for Sanskrit words like niti. In
the introduction secti on he further writes, “The
word niti means roughly “the wise conduct of life”.
Western civilisation must endure a certain shame
in realising that no precise equivalent of the term
is found in English, French, Latin or Greek. Many
words are therefore necessary to explain what niti
is, though the idea, once grasped, is clear,
important, and satisfying …”
The Panchatantra-text of Purnabhadra:
https://archive.org/details/panchatantratext00hert/page/n13/mode/2up
Another related classical Indic work on niti, ‘Nitishatakam’ it is said to be for adults (because,
no animals):
…
Old man and the sea By Ernest Hemingway
Read by Bharath.
Bharath and I reminisced about how it was read way back in school times and how it never
felt and meant so much as when we come across it as adults. The ocean LeMar in Spanish is
the beloved for the old man who sometimes is cross with him and at times best ows all the
love of the world. Bharath read the part where the old man finally brings in the big bait and is
exhausted and the boy is in awe and admiration for him. How Santiago struggled with the
great marlin he caught and how he broke his unlucky streak and finally barely reached home
with the carcass of the great marlin is not known to the villagers and Manolin. But the boy
fetches coffee for the old man, checks on him every few hours and wants to go fishing with
him again. Bharath ends with
The old man returns to sleep and dreams his usual dream of lions at play on the beaches of
Africa.
P .S Bharat carries a beautiful bookmark with him, he seems to have a great collection of
bookmarks and one liners.
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher
Read by Prince
Who can remember their growing up years as soothing, mature and no acne, taunts or
hormones?
This book was written for those angst ridden, self -esteem building, depressing years.
Teenagers.
“Thirteen Reasons Why “, his debut novel, spent over two years on t he New York Times
children’s hardcover best-seller list.1
What we heard about the book in the club from the reader was that this girl dies and leaves
letters/cassettes behind and gives 13 reasons why she committed suicide.
Sure, why not. When Veronica decides to die, we accept her choice.
After a deep surfing and reading many passages from this book, it was like by getting hit by a
truck because we didn’t look up in time.
1 https://www.chartwellspeakers.com/speaker/jay-asher/
The main ex -character, the one who died and passed the blame tape to 13/14 people, in a
game of chain-chain, all those she holds guilty for her own action.
This main character had witnessed her friend being raped, when she was drunk and passed-
out, and then described her rape to 13/14 people in detail on the tape, telling h er how the
victim’s crush enabled it, and telling the rape victim, how her rape affected her as she hid in
the closet and watched . She blames the victim in the book , several times, for their broken
friendship and hence a reason for the suicide. This blamed girl had to listen to her own rape
in detail that she did not remember.
This reminds me of how a hiding child deals with the aftermath of watching one’s best friend
being raped in The Kite Runner. Only, that book dealt with it by showing his inner struggle.
She passes on the tape to rape-enablers to call them out but never sends it to the rapist.
If this was not enough, she had a haircut and wanted people to understand that it was a sign
that she is having suicidal thoughts, sarcastically.
The person who could have done something was her teacher. She put an anonymous note in
the bag for class discussion topics stating that she was contemplating suicide
“… So I did just that. I wrote a note to Mrs. Bradley that read: “Suicide. It’s something I’ve been
thinking about. Not too seriously, but I have been thinking about it …”
and her guidance counsellor, who she told she was having suicidal thoughts.
Zach, a student, stole compliment chits from her anonymous compliments bag in a class to
annoy her. She blames him in her tapes, for taking hope away from her, and being one reason
for her suicide.
Hannah suffers from low self-esteem. It crumbles from bullying , sexual harassment and lack
of social integration. When her guidance counsellor tries to get her to talk, she pulls away and
leaves.
http://etheses.uin-malang.ac.id/16507/1/15320174.pdf
Even the show, based on the book, conveniently, does not use the word depression at all, it
claims to promote mental health, with a very graphic depiction of suicide.
She made plans of revenge on her peeping tom, including his address in her map of who to
visit while listening to her post-suicide tapes, to ensure that his privacy is invaded. One of the
reasons here to commit suicide is an eye for an eye.
If you don’t listen and pass on the tapes to the next person, copies of all the tapes will be
reaching to that person, pre -arranged, pre -planned. She wants people to realize their
mistakes, her death must prove useful.
13 reasons why suicide is never the answer on how to take righteous revenge, there needed
to be a counter book by a qualified psychiatrist. The intent of the author to spread a message
about teenage depression and looki ng for signs gets lost with romanticization of suicide as
empowerment.
1984 By George Orwell
Read by Jay
Jay read very calmly and was poised. He read a politically charged passage hinting
towards totalitarianism. Power is not a means, it’s the end.
“… Until they become conscious, they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled, they
cannot become conscious …”
There was no safe space and no one could escape the omniscient eye of the big brother…
amidst this Julia and Winston begin their affair with their own ways of resistance and political
beliefs… the most haunting line from the book as one approaches the end,
“If they could make me stop loving you, that would be the real betrayal.”
Roads to Mussoorie by Ruskin Bond
Read by Shweta
She read about Pindhari glaciers, Phurkia , a small dreamy hamlet one comes across before
the summit of the glaciers. Phurkia means the whispering of the wind and when Rusty goes
on to describe these magical places , we felt like we were there too . Shweta became all
animated as she talked about how Ruskin’s episodes with his friends, his sufferings and joys
of traveling with friends are so relatable.
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Read by Navshin
The Buendia family, gene rations of loneliness, generations of quest for something
unattainable, generations of visionaries and dreamers. Matriarchal households and magical
realism… Boy who carried yellow butterflies wherever he went … girl with a dreamlike
presence… woman with black laces bandaged forever on her hands…
A chestnut tree which binds the generations between life and death. .. A shipwreck in the
middle of a Spanish desert… 100 years of solitude navigates through all the emotions, morales
and the very fibre of existence and our quests for finding reasons.
With a quiver that is very much the essence of her voice , Navshin said her favourite quote
from what she has read so far is
“a person doesn’t die when he should but when he can.”
Woman to Woman: Stories by Madhulika Liddle
Read by Kusangi,
While she read, I got goosebumps… the book comprises of short stories with big impacts like
an asteroid striking the earth’s atmosphere, burning up, streaking the sky with its brightness.
She read the story Paro which was inspired by an unnerving series of interviews with trafficked
brides over the course of a day spent with a German journalist who was researching the
subject.
Her story reminded me of the story in A Full Night’s Thievery (a woman travels to a desolate
guesthouse deep in a forest on a stormy night, that journey taken alone and thinking of her
loneliness)
ज़िन्दगी आइस पाइस by निखिल सचाि
Read by Mitesh
गिल्लू गिलहरी से कुम ार तक – ममतेश का सफर with PDBC.
All were overcome with such awe and warmth as he narrated Kumar and Vikram’s wedding
woes… As we see a small world contained in a passage, a world with no prejudices against
love, only feelings remain, nothing is masked, the love is expressed and shown in so natura l
and raw words between two people, it was like chai on a rainy day…
बलमवा तुम क्या जानो प्रीत Gramophone plays this song and they try to resolve the lover’s tiff
तुम्हारी आँखें हेज़लनट जैसी हैं…
हमारी शादी में दूल्हा बनके कौन आएिा ममस्टर कु म ार the way he said these and the way the entire
room was lost in this world painted with just love was a completely different experience…
I thank Mitesh to bring out such beautiful pieces of work out in happy yellow glow of PDBC.
Also, it reminded me of Schitt’s Creek, for me it’s till date the most brilliant portrayal of LGBTQ
relations.
म ृच्छकटट क by शूद्रक
Read by Rajesh
A timeless sanskrit classic, we are glad to see such books coming to the club. Most of it went
over the head but could catch a few… all I could sense was the heavy ornamental use of
metaphors to describe the very mundane events of life…
A classic in in its own…this play had many of its firsts in it from not talking about kinds and
instead about the common people… secularism to addressing all the possible vices of life…
The reader kept smirking and guffawing while reading; interrupting our listening,
“… The play is set in Ujjain – a prosperous, urban Indian society – one which places importance
on wealth and gives women who are married, a higher status. In the first act itself, we are
introduced to Charudatta, a wealthy noble-man who has fallen on hard times; Vasantasena, a
beautiful courtesan (nagarvadhu) who longs to marry Charudatta; and Samsthanaka, the evil
brother-in-law of the King, who is determined to ‘conquer’ Vasantasena’s attention …”
Habib Tanvir, the noted Indian playwright produced the play under the name “Mitti ki Gaadi”,
part 1 & part 2 video of the play:
https://archive.org/details/dni.ncaa.IGRMS-3B_213-BC
https://archive.org/details/dni.ncaa.IGRMS-3B_214-BC
So intrigued by the title and its complexity I had to look it up , the play inspired painter
Abindranath Tagore, first silent Kannada film, Hindi film “Utsav” directed by none other than
Girish Karnad, this link explains the play’s history beautifully:
Vasantasena on stage : the timeless Sanskrit drama, ‘Mricchakatika’ (The Little Clay Cart):
Vasantasena on stage : the timeless Sanskrit drama, ‘Mricchakatika’ (The Little Clay Cart)
Samsara: Enter the Valley of Gods by
Saksham Garg
Read by Rajarshi
Rajarshi came to the editions after what
seemed like ages…Today too he says that
the family almost convinced him to stay
home as he was a bit down due to the
weather… but he popped in the pill and
here he was… He planned on reading
Samsara, a book close to his heart since
the Kavi Dalpatram Chowk event.