“Srijan short story read aloud: Guleri belongs to a village called Chambe, married to Manak. Every year all the girls from the village go to their hometown during the mela…”
Pocket Diary Book Club – Edition 47 – Minutes of Meeting – 9th February 2025 • Number of Readers – 10 Moderator Total people present – 13 • Moderator • Readers Present – Deep, Mahak, Chaitry, Arnav, Mansi, Manha, Mehul, Sudhanva, Vinod, Rohan, Hetvi • Srijan – Short Story – Boo Guleri the protagonist belongs to a village called Chambe. She is married to Manak. Every year all the girls from the village go to their hometown once an year during the fair (mela). Guleri has no kids. That one year, Manak, the husband, asks her not to go to the her hometown. We did not complete the narration, but the Manak had a terminal disease and hence did not want Guleri to leave him that year. • Rohan – The Anthropocene by John Green Collection of essays The book started as a podcast before becoming a full-length book. The story narrated by Rohan was about the board game Monopoly, and its history. It was the first non-fiction book by John Green. Monopoly has been the best-selling board game for about 80 years. The Landlord’s game was invented about 30 years before Monopoly. It was created by Elizabeth Maggie Phillipe and showed the injustice of the current rules of the game. During the Great Depression, Charles Darrow encountered a version of the game created by Quakers and tweaked it. It was then called Monopoly. It turned out to be a story of capitalism working to capitalism failing. Ironical story. • Chaitry- The India Way by Dr. Jaishankar Analysis of India’s foreign policy. Book emphasis “multi-alignment” , instead of choosing sides. Personal experience as a diplomat. Emphasis on balance between traditions and modern global challenges. Straight forward lookout to political aairs
Aatmanirbhar Bharat Very Rational Very unapologetic • Hetvi – 50 Greatest short stories The story of an Hour – Kate Chopin Short story of a woman grieving over her husband’s death. Controversial at the time, because of its theme of female independence. One of the most analyzed feminist short stories in American Literature. The ending was tragic because she wanted to live a long life; but she lived only for an hour. • Deep – Mobi Dick by Herman Melville Story of a sailor who trades in whale oil. A harpooner. Tale of a hunt for a giant white whale called Moby Dick ,to seek revenge for the leg lost by the Captain to the whale. It is a story of fate and human struggle. It was a commercial failure when it was first published. “Call me Ishmael” • Vinod ji – Kurbani Ni Kathao by Jhaverchand Meghani Collection of folk tales of sacrifices Meghani is known as Rashtriya Shayar He narrated a short Gujarati story – An out-of-season lotus grows in a lake. Whatever comes out of the lake belongs to the caretaker/ gardener of the lake. The gardener thinks he will oer the lotus to the King and get good money for it. A passer-by notices the lotus and requests to buy the lotus for 1 gold coin. But the King oers 10 gold coins for the lotus. The passer-by mentions to the King that they are both disciples today. Disciples of Buddha. The gardener thinks that if he sold the lotus to the person, they were oering it to, he would be much richer. The gardener goes directly to Buddha and oers him the lotus. When Buddha asks what he wants in return, the gardener says – He does not want anything, just a molecule from Buddha’s feet. • Mahak – Call be by your name by Andre Aciman It is a romantic novel with a straightforward plot.
It is set in the 1980s in Italy. It is about the romance that blossoms between Elio and Oliver. Quote from the book – “Our hearts and bodies are given to us only once. Most of us can’t help but live as though we’ve got two lives to live, one is the mockup, the other the finished version, and then there are all those versions in between.” A movie was made starring Timothee Chalamet. • Arnav – The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus French philosopher. Philosophical essay exploring the absurdity of life. Cornerstone of existential philosophy. • Manhar – American scientist researching about tribes of the world. Gujarat – Narmada tribals. Explores Gujarati culture. Becomes helpless by the end. He survives and goes back to America. • American Wine Guide – We learnt about how to taste wines and to identify the type of wine in 60 seconds. • Discussion about Dubeyji’s books; introspective fiction. • Musafir Café – Priya read a few pages from Musafir Café. • To access the book club, a slot needs to be booked. You can read books at the reading room. 11am-6pm • Round of dumb charades