““Dearest Gentle Readers… ‘So many books, so little time’ is a thought which has plagued members on more than one occasion. In the words of Carl Sagan, the trick is to know which books to read.””
POCKET DIARY BOOK CLUB
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
YEAR 2024
23/06/2024 03:00pm
EDITION 37
Venue: Akshat Drama Group Studio
Facilitators: Priya and Smit
Written by: Abha
Edited by: Priya
Theme: One book that everyone must read in their lifetime
Dearest Gentle Readers,
It has come to the attention of this author that ‘So many books, so little time’ is a
thought which has plagued the members of this book club on more than one occasion.
In the words of Carl Sagan, the trick is to know which books to read.
Thus, was conceived our Edition 3 7- members of the club were asked to bring one book
which they think everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.
We started with Rohan’s narration of a passage from ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’
(Viktor Frankl). Happiness was redefined – does it mean the presence of joy or the
absence of sadness and misfortune? That it is a state of mind was unanimously decided.
But the Holocaust was a misfortune in the real physical world, a real -world dystopia.
There’s only so much that the mind can ignore and be happy, correct? Wrong,
apparently. An entire new ecosystem was set up in the concentration camps and people
found some semblance of happiness even in their darkest hours. “Love is the ultimate
and highest goal to which a man can aspire…” says Frankl.
We then moved on from one real world dystopia to another. Megh narrated an excerpt
from ‘When the Moon is Low’ (Nadia Hashimi). The story is set in Afghanistan. Starting
with the theme of finding love in an arranged marriage, it then chronicles the struggles
of the protagonist in the face of the Taliban’s ascent to power. It stresses on how the
patriarchal principles imposed by the Taliban affect both the genders. A mother’s
dilemma on instilling the right values in her son, while fighting for her own survival,
forms an important part of the narrative. This book reminded the members of a
‘Thousand Splendid Suns’ – so the sun, the moon and the Megh’s name were painting a
very splendid picture indeed:)
Added to it, Priya noticed that everyone was wearing shades of a mature palette – black,
white, grey or blue, but in dull tones. It was, as if, to welcome the first cloudy, pleasant,
but may-rain-soon-heavily-anytime day：）
We then moved on to Rajarshi’s narration of ‘The Midnight Library’ (Matt Haig).
Rajarshi was reading about a library inside a library (PDBC) which was very meta. The
protagonist enters a library, where she can choose any book- only the books are a portal
to the various multiverses to her life. Choosing a book as a portal to another world – a
feeling we are all very familiar with! The butterfly effect was touched upon – no life in
any multiverse was ‘perfect’. The protagonist wanted to enter a world where her cat,
Walter was alive. But in the multiverse she chose, Walter had become Schrödinger’s cat-
it was somehow alive and dead at the same time. Questions were raised about Walter’s
pending eight lives. Walter had died due to restrictive cardiomyopathy – moral being
‘Restricting your heart is injurious to life’ 😉 Alfred Adler as an author and Pet Sematary
(Stephen King) came up as tangential reading recommendations.
Janak introduced us to the sci fi world of the ‘Lord of Light ’ (Roger Zelazny). The story
combines Eastern mythology ( including, but not restricted to Indian mythology) with a
fantasy world- where technological prowess decides the social hierarchy. Most religions
refer to the higher power as Light in some or the other way. This author would not
pretend to understand the further intricacies of this very interesting piece of literature –
but found these words noteworthy – ‘No word matters but man forgets reality and
remembers words’:)
Having veered a bit to Illuminati (now operating via WhatsApp groups apparently) – we
were ushered into the world of childhood innocence by Mitesh. ‘Zindagi Aais Pais’
(Nikhil Sachan). As children, all of us were aware of the distinct sounds of our father’s
scooters. The protagonist of Mitesh’s story is a child who forgets the mathematics of ‘19
ka pahada’ but remembers the tune in which it is sung (which had me singing Pahada
Pahada to the tune of Bahara Bahara for some reason). The child gets stuck on 19
tiya…19 tiya…and hence hates the number 57! I sympathi se because at the face of it -57
looks like a prime number! It’s an imposter of a number (unlike our Edition 37 – which
indeed is a prime number:)).
We all jointly coo cooed over Rahul Dravid – and why being Mr Dependable makes him
relatable to the protagonist’s father.
Nijaji then ushered us into the absurdist world of a translated French work titled ‘The
Outsider/ The Stranger’ (Albert Camus), based on what country you buy the book from.
‘Absurdist’ actually turned out to be the word of the day with all of us wondering about
its correct Hindi translation (it’s betuka FYI). The protagonist in this book receives a
telegram informing him about his mother’s demise-which made me wonder how people
spelled correctly and made grammatical sense, even when they were being charged by
the word. And now when we have unlimited free w riting space, well :). Further into the
story, the protagonist somehow ends up accidentally killing a man and is put to
trial. Two questions are put before him – Does he feel remorse for what happened?
Does he believe in God? What does he say? Well , you have to read and find out for
yourself. As Nijaji put it, ‘everyone interprets this book in their own way.’
The theme of absurdist literature was taken forward by Saurabh who read from
‘Women’ (
?) by Charles Bukowski. The protagonist of the book mirrors the
author’s own personality. He is a writer and a recluse – however the girl he is courting,
Lydia, is a social butterfly. She calls him the most unknown famous man. Which the
protagonist is absolutely fine about. I guess that is the reason why most authors have
pen names.
From the world of absurdist literature, we moved on to the world of epic fantasy
literature- ‘Lord of the Rings ’ (JRR Tolkien). Bharath dictated a passage focusing on a
character called Boromir. His character arc and growth throughout the series were
discussed. The perils of owning the ring, whether the evil coming from the ring was
absolute or depended on who wielded its power, is a question that plagues Boromir’s
mind. The discussion somehow shifted to re -releases of Rockstar and Zindagi Na Milegi
Dobara and it was a task indeed to conquer the nostalgia and proceed with our next
narration.
So from discussing Second coming of Rockstar and ZNMD, we moved on to ‘Second
coming of Gluttony’ (Ro Yu -Jin) narrated by Prince. The book has 489 chapters ( yes
gentle reader, I do not mistype – chapters), each having 15 -20 pages. Some time was
taken to calculate the number of pages in the entire work. It is, ironically, what is called
a light novel. When Prince mentioned that the book is so interesting that ‘Aap isko
padhte reh jaayenge’- he also meant it literally.
Gaurav, our next reader, introduced us to a ‘Brave New World’ (Aldous Huxley). As one
character in the book asks, and I quote – “For what was there one could do in private?” –
‘Read’, I thought
. In the book, Bernard, is now a part of a dystopian world where
the citizens are classified in an intelligence based social hierarchy. People are constantly
overstimulated and supposed to be happy forever. Bernard, on the other hand, wishes
to promenade. He is averse to electromagnetic golf. He wishes to experience human
emotions, even the sad ones. Analogy was drawn to the current state of society and
social media. Too much content actually causing discontent.
After all the fantasy and dystopia, we finally landed back on earth. Or stars, if I may!
Sudhanva narrated from ‘The Fault in our Stars’ (John Green). Sudhanva had read this
book as a teenager and wished to revisit it now. He feels that it carries him back to that
time he read it first. He developed a penchant for reading sad books post reading this
one, however, no other book has been able to recreate the magic of reading this back in
his teenage. He mentioned that ‘We grow with every book we read’. Also , what should
we say to someone who’s crying? Stop crying? Or let them? Is crying cathartic? Is
reading sad books ‘sad’ist?
It was then time for yours truly to reflect further upon life and mortality. ‘Tuesdays with
Morrie’ (Mitch Albom) deals with the dialogue between a professor ailing from
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and his student, wishing to seek his wisdom in light of his
impending mortality. I read this book on a Tuesday for it be an immersive
experience
Priya is reading from ‘Have a Little Faith’ by the same author. We discussed about
Morrie’s optimism and compared it to the optimism of a PDBC club member dealing
with a life-threatening issue but having the same zeal for life as Morrie. Morrie pretends
he has a little bird (Morrie has a little bird, little bird, little bird) sitting on his shoulder.
He asks her daily, is today the day I die? If yes, if this was your last day on the planet,
what would you do differently?
It was now time for the lady herself, Priya, who narrated from a book very interestingly
titled- ‘Ibnebatuti’. The meaning (or rather the lack of a meaning) of the book title was
discussed. The scene she read from was a meet-cute. The book has both- the tingles of a
new blossoming first love, and similar tingles of a more mature second chance at love.
The book reminds Priya about the sacrifices a mother has to go through to ensure the
well being of her children. It talks about a life’s worth of opportunities missed, but also
how it is never too late to find oneself. Also, the correct reply to Laaton ke bhoot baaton
se nahi maante is – Baaton ke bhoot laaton se nahi darte
Our penultimate book was ‘The Courage to be disliked’ (Ichiro Kishimi, Fumitake Koga)
narrated by Sameerji. Another setting in which a dialogue takes place between a young
man and a wiser, older person regarding whether or not etiology leads to teleology, and
if not, what exactly is the relationship between the two? ‘Any notion of happiness is
absurd’, believes this author – hence proving that the interpretation of happiness is,
indeed, different for different people.
Our closing act was a passage narrated by our facilitator. Smit read from ‘The Difficulty
of Being Good’ (Gurcharan Das). This is one of the many retellings of the Mahabharat –
each chapter from the POV of a different character in the Mahabharat. The chapter Smit
read from was from Aswathama’s POV and titled ‘Aswathama’s Revenge’.
‘Revenge is a human institution, not a natural fact’, says the author. Is forgiveness easy?
No. But is it the only way to end the cycle of revenge? Yes. ‘The Mahabharat Secret’ by
Christopher Doyle came up as a related reading suggestion. After all, there is no such
thing as too many adaptations of the Mahabharat:)
With this, we ended this edition- with promises to meet immediately at the chai ki tapri-
and soon of course- in the next edition. Until next time.
Yours truly
Abha 🙂
Megh – When the Moon is Low
Sameer- The Courage to be Disliked
Bharat- Lord of the Rings
Rajarshi- The Midnight Library
Priya – Ibnebatuti
Abha- Tuesdays with Morrie
Saurabh- Woman
Rohan- Man’s search for Meaning
Smit – The Difficulty of Being Good
Prince – The Second Coming of Gluttony
Gaurav Gupta – Brave New World
Sudhanva- The Fault in Our Stars
Nija- The Outsider
Janak- Lord of Light
Mitesh – Zindagi Aais Pais