““Today at 14:55 on 22nd Sept, I, Prashant, shall start writing MOM, which will not be filtered by Meghna… Is this Prashant buttering people? Hell no.””
POCKET DIARY BOOK CLUB
MINUTES OF THE MEETING
YEAR 2024
22/09/2024 14:55 PM
Edition No.: 42
Venue: Akshat Drama Group Studio
Facilitators: Nidhi & Meghna
Written by: Prashant
Edited by: Priya (all the grammar & spelling mistakes!)
Here we go.
Today at 14:55 on 22nd Sept, I, Prashant, shall start writing MOM, which will not be filtered by
Meghna (and any other PDBC official), since they’re cute people. Is this Prashant buttering
people? Hell no.
Okay enough with the… Uh. Drama. Our facilitators of the evening are Meghna (who is not a bully
(as she said) and Nidhi, who is a conductor in an orchestra and may hit people with dandiya, for
the sake of better dancing of course. She likes the Whiplash movie. Imagine dearest Nidhi yelling
softly asking to dance with her like below. Yes, this happened.
Our edition starts with a beautiful, beautiful jazz song in which a
performance was produced by Yogesh Ji (Voilà, link) in which some
members perform including Anushree, Abhiraj, Hetvi, Prashant and
ahem… conducted by Nidhi. We see some glimpses of Shah Rukh
Khan poses and bodybuilding in that. But but but, jokes aside,
pretty great performance and Dandiya conducting. Che ers to
edition no. answer to life, universe and everything’s first
performance. Here are some beautiful translated lines of the song:
“… Listen to me, me, the half singer
Talk about me, to your loved ones, to your friends
Tell them about this little girl with black eyes and crazy dreams
What I want is to write stories that you will hear about
That’s all …”
and to the roses we all were gifted today by lovely lovely Chirag 🙂 (multiple to me, perks of being
Prashant (if my name would have been wallflower, I’d have another pun incoming))
And oh, since we’re on the same page of dancing, here’s what Abhiraj kind of looked like while
dancing.
It’s a character-based edition!
We had to select a particular character and pick up passages related to the character: dialogues
background story the author’s observations about the character in the book etc.
All of us dressed up/used props!
The Last Queen by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni Anagha:
Our first performance is by a beautiful beautiful last Rani of Pu njab, Junjur Kaur by Anagha. And
her seeing Dilipsingh(her son) after 50 years. And lives with him in London after all the life of
wars, her conversations with her son, and her son’s story after getting back to India. Apart from
the interesting passages she read, the energy in her voice OMG, lovely.
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green performed by Rahul:
Next performance is by Rahul. Who is reading The Fault in Our Stars and Augustus smoking and
not smoking the cigarette iykyk. I mean we all know at this stage. Then it got all serious as shit
and I was pretty silent and not laughing at all. Things were on fire, no one knew what to say. And
well. He said thank you at t he end when everything was serious af after cancer and all, and we
all laughed. Fun times.
Like the Flowing River: Thoughts and Reflections by Paulo Coelho:
After which Yogesh Ji talked about some thoughts of Paulo Coelho. I won’t go into details, but
here’s a beautiful poem for your beautiful soul dear reader.
“… Be like the flowing river,
Silent in the night.
Be not afraid of the dark.
If there are stars in the sky, reflect them back.
If there are clouds in the sky,
Remember, clouds, like the river, are water.
So, gladly reflect them too,
In your own tranquil depths …”
~ Manuel Banderia
And one more. Because. Why not?
“… You don’t always have to pretend to be strong.
There’s no need to prove all the time that everything is going well.
You shouldn’t be concerned about what other people are thinking,
cry if you need to,
it’s good to cry out all your tears because
only then will you be able to smile again …” <3
White Night by Fyodor Dostoevsky performed by Rijuta:
Next in the dish, we have “ek tarfa pyaar ki kahani” by Dostoevsky by Rijuta. God, I love this hindi
between all the English. They, the talkative narrator and Nastinka, meet for the first night, second
night, third night. Nastinka, his love, who lives with her Dadi. And his pleasures, his wantings, his
need to talk with her.
Honestly thought, ek tarfa.
Kat gaya. Because Nastinka had a lover and all. (how novel I know!)
Drama drama drama.
Yade Yadi Yada.
We hop on to the next one.
You Get So Alone at Times That it Just Makes Sense by Charles Bukowski performed by
Prashant:
The next one was me, Prashant, who read 3 poems by Bukowski. The bluebird being the favorite
(he told me he has basically told everyone he meets this poem at this stage), with the glass of
whiskey, or so they say. Which he removed from his paperbag (So British as Anushree would say).
What is not whiskey anyways if you’re in the mood? Here is a tiny passage from one of the poems:
“… there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out
but I’m too tough for him, I say,
stay down, do you want to mess me up?
you want to screw up the works?
you want to blow my book sales in Europe?
there’s a bluebird in my heart that
wants to get out …”
What’s funny is even heart is in the rib *cage*. So yes, let the bluebird fly dear reader, let the
dreamer dream.
P.S. Thanks Meghna for the black cold coffee (Nescafé if I may), you’re the best!
Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood performed by Anushree:
Then we had Anushree with a cute paper hat (The wings) on her head read Handmaid’s tale.
Handmaids are the people who carry the babies. While all the other women cannot have a baby,
Such a classic dystopia. Which I’m yet to read ofc. There’s also a pretty famous series and graphic
version of the book also out there.
Now after all the serious stuff, we’re reaching to the Hindi stories full of laughter. With of course
Mitesh.
Chandpur ki Chanda by Atul Kumar Ray performed by Mitesh:
Mitesh was reading Chandpur ki Chanda, Montu and Chanda (who is also pinki btw) ki prem
kahani. We’re back on Hindi!
प्रेम के जलते दिये से मुस्कान की लादलमा दनकलने लगी। And there was दिल के अंिर का दिया and
प्रेम का दिया
and a lot of laughs and diyas. And some sapna and भैंस का गोबर and Lara Dutta and Dino Morea
and bahot kuch. (Lara Dutta being main attraction, boo Dino)
The Burning Kingdoms by Tasha Suri narrated by Prince:
Next, we have “Rao” prince who is prince of Allore. Who reads, um. A fantasy novel. And I’m
confused by too many characters. TMI. And there was Aditya and Chandra and Haranya Kingdom,
and a nameless saint. And burn, okay it’s hard to MOM sometimes.
Maus by Art Spiegelman read by Bharath:
Maus is a Biography Graphic novel by Art, whose father being a Jew had survived holocaust. It’s
a very hard book. Very. The book focuses on Jews (Mice) and Auschwitz and the dark past of
Nazis and Jews. There’s a lot to put on the table for me for this book since it was one of my
hardest and favorite reads but cutting it short, it’s a gem. And it can make an old man like me cry
easily because of the raw emotions of being in a holocaust, the effects on you after it and on your
generations as well.
There are a lot of things history teaches us and one of them is that some histories should not be
repeated.
Here’s a tiny quote I loved from the book:
“… But it wasn’t the best people who survived, nor did the best ones die. It was random! …”
The Addams Family by Charles Addams narrated by Abha:
Next, we have a very very scary Wednesday A ddams with black af attire and 2 choti by Abha.
With a (hypothetical) sword if I may and an invisible hand (which says you can’t see me). There
was sword fighting and chai and love and fights and teenage. Abha didn’t look as scary as Snape
to me though.
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte narrated by Shivani:
Next, we have Bronté in the house. By Shivani. Catherin e and her love for Heathcliff and Linton
and a lot of extremes of emotions this book carries. And the love and hatred and the wanting to
destroy your loved ones.
… and Kaga had one job in Rockstar. Which. Well. Well.
P.S.: In case you didn’t understand this. Well. I’ll judge you. I’m sorry.
I Too Had a Dream by Verghese Kurien narrated by Akanksha:
Next we had Akanksha who reads I Too Had a Dream, and she talks about Verghese Kurien who
appreciates all the occurrences in his life, accidental and non -accidental and the people he met
because of whom the Dairy Industry in India boomed eventually (still going on). Just a TL;DR
about Kurien: he was one of very important figures who led White Revolution (attached link for
those who want to look up: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_revolution_(India) ) in India. On
a side note, I have seen a tiny documentary on Amul’s strategy during COVID times, here’s a link
to that: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=nnwqtZiYMxQ
Very interesting ways to survive and thrive. Interesting guy and his way of wanting to give people
creative freedom and challenges at the same time.
“… True development is the development of men and women …”
And there was a quality issue and milk being tangy and Amul chocolate was so sweet.
Well. Chaos.
And then there was hunger.
And. Well Hunger games.
Katniss. And Hetvi. There. I connected the events!!! YAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAY!!
The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins narrated by Hetvi:
So, yes, next we have Hetvi reading The Hunger Games, who by the way has had hairstyle just
like Katniss. She was also wearing black tee (was this intentional? I think yes.) Should I write this
in more, I don’t know the literary way? She may kill me later on but yeah what the hell.
She sat there reading The Hunger Games, while she represented herself as Katniss, she did not
restrict herself from being only her. There we heard the enthusiastic wishing from Effie Trinket
saying “… May the odds be in your favor …” There we heard her being Katniss in her softness and
in her anger, there we sat listening to her in awe and the small faint noise of the fan which took
over the noise of AC which did not shower us with rain this time, and her voice silent -ing all the
noise with the yell of “LET GO”.
Okay I may have overdone this. Here’s also the pretty poem she read. (twice because, well I may
have been a little bit busy collecting flowers from Chirag. Apologies Hetvi:’))
“… Deep in the meadow, under the willow
A bed of grass, a soft green pillow
Lay down your head and close your eyes
And when they open, the sun will rise
Here it’s safe, here it’s warm
Here the daisies guard you from every harm
Here your dreams are sweet and tomorrow brings them true
Here is the place where I love you …”
Poems by Anirudh Mehta performed by Abhiraj:
And the last reader we have Abhiraj. Who played Kachcha Kela, Anirudh Mehta aka Aatish
Kapadia.
He starts with मैं लुक्खा हं. The Indian Bukowski version.
“… मैं बकवास हूँ, मैं इतना हूँ बकवास जैसे बासी खट्टी छास्स।
मैं ढक्कन हूँ। मैं चूहे के िू ध का मक्खन हूँ। …”
Brb going back laughing.
P.S. I did ask the dearest AI how Charles Bukowski would look like eating Kela. And well. Here’s
our Kachcha Kela Buckowski version!
Priya’s P.P.S Using AI in PDBC is not permissible except to create imaginary crossovers of authors
like Prashant the Bukowski fa n did! Also, all these shorthands , brb, td:lr are mea ningful
abbreviations, the meaning of which is only known to the writer… iydkiadk1
1 If you don’t know I also don’t know
With this, we concluded our meeting after me reading this stupid, witty, broken MoM which by
the way had more TODOs than how many flowers were there in the room (and trust me there
were a LOT).
I thank PDBC for this lovely place. And all the participants and our dearest facilitators and you,
the reader. Thanks for joining. It’s always fun getting back to this place after cocooning. It’s
always really fun seeing people sharing something so beautif ul, forgetting all the background of
their life and being there. Bhavita once told me living in the moment is meditation. I guess this is
too in a way?
So, thanks for sharing this space with me:)
I’ll add in 1 of my random Hindi lines to conclude this.
आते रहो दिर मेर े अंजान यारो इसी राह पे, दिर हमार े साथ खोने के दलए।
Thank you:)
~ Prashant