Book club meet dated December 2013, MOMs...

Book club meet started with discussing Sumit’s home town. Sumit had gone to visit his home town, Bihar. We asked him the route to Bihar.  He said there are two routes, viz. via Kolkata or via Delhi. He said he prefers Kolkata route since there are less or almost nil chances of thieves getting it in the train. Second important thing worth mentioning is, an unmarried guy in the late twenties have more chances of getting kidnapped. If he is found alone in the farms he is sure to get kidnapped. For the simple reason of dowry. The girls’ side then don’t have to give dowry!!!. Sunil is in that KHATRA age and stage..Sumit BewareJ Better patao the girl from Mumbai…

Book reads:

Karthik read In the company of women by Khushwant Singh and is currently reading Partition (By the time these MOMs are published he must have finished reading).

Partitions: A book of serious nature where history is discussed from the voice of various characters including political leaders, kings, common men, breeze, rivers like Ganga and Jamuna, desert, culture, cities like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, etc. Though the auth claims to be unbiased, I find that at the final court of justice, no hindu king is called to clarify himself, while Mughal kings keep justifying their acts. Very clearly, Aurangzeb has to justify his acts while his brother, a failed Dara Shikoh, is highly pitied upon. The book also claims that India was always ruled united, be it Mughals, Turks, or any other king who visited / ruled India, and that only the British wanted it to be split to ensure that India be busy with its internal issues. The book also claims that some of the pages of Baburnama were removed, by the English, to make Indians believe that Babur built the Baburi Masjid after demolishing a Hindu temple.

Vignesh is reading Lateral thinking by Edward Bono. Lateral thinking is completely off beat thinking. For eg. (This is the example he gave) If you have 4 stages, viz. A, B, C and D. In the normal circumstances, thinking, one would go step by step. First A, followed by B, then C and finally D. However in lateral thinking, If you are on A, you directly jump on C or D…without going in a linear way…This way, you get a completely to new dimension of perspective to your thinking!!!

Amit read  Darbar by Tavleen Singh and Biography of Meena Kumari by Vinod Mehta

Sumit read Jaya by Devdatta Patnaik. Jaya is basically a book on Mahabharat. However, he said after the book he was all the more confused as to who all finally went to Heaven and who went to HELL!!!

Deepali read Business Management Sutras by Devdatta Patnaik and Biography of Meena Kumari by Vinod Mehta

I too read Biography of Meena Kumari by Vinod Mehta and In the company of women by Khushwant Singh.

I wanted to read Meena Kumari’s biography because I liked her performance in Sahib, Bibi Aur Ghulam. She was SUPERB…Particularly when Rehman visits the kotha and she is extremely displeased with this. She pleads him to stay at home. He asks her whether she can dance, whether she will give him company for drinks, etc….She tells him that she will do everything what he wishes her to do. She actually dresses like a kotha woman and takes drinks just to make him stay with her at home. And the song Na jaao saiyyaa, chhudaa ke baiyyaa, Kasam tumhaaree main ro padoongee, Machal rahaa hain suhaag meraa, Jo tum naa honge, to kyaa karungee..is very touching.

I think this is the extreme form of love…She takes alcohol just to please her husband!!! People in love do anything just to get acceptance from their lover, husband….This is a FACT.

In real life also, she becomes addicted to drinks. Initially she takes it for health and later on…to drown her sorrows…..

Meena Kumari never required glycerine. Tears came to her eyes when she desired them to come..

I liked the style of the author’s writing. In the entire book, he writes “my heroine…actually owning the responsibility of the book…or the facts about his heroine???

Few lines from the book:

I am in love; yes I am in love, with a married man, who is married to me…..

Most reasonable people accept that early environment is largely responsible for shaping future personality, character and attitudes; and so was in the case of Meena Kumari….Those who are unfulfilled emotionally have a tendency to view love as some kind of panacea – something which will provide an answer to all the ills of life. Conversely, if this love is not found, for them, all life, however rewarding in other spheres, is meaningless…The cumulative impact of this was that Meena Kumari was never able to find sufficient love. Because she gave every inch of herself she expected the same measure in return. Further, the commitment in her case was so total, the hunger so voracious, the passion so overwhelming, that she soon felt dissatisfied. ‘Many a time I thought that my destination was within my reach and I was going to get that love for which I was longing, but again and again, I realized, though late, that I was running after a ‘mirage’.

The truth, the harsh bitter truth, is that people exhaust each other. Irresistible on Monday, Interesting on Tuesday, Tolerable on Wednesday, Dull on Thursday, Insufferable on Friday – this is usually the cycle of human relationship….

It is difficult to compass the exact date, but around 1962 Meena lost faith and hope in the future. She realized she was not going to find her style of love. Therefore she concluded she would take things as they would come. Personal relationships were for her satisfying and worthwhile if they provided cursory cheer – no more was expected, and no more was usually received.

She took the same attitude towards the bottle. If brandy or whatever else she was drinking was successful in short-term clouding and fuzzing of her difficulties, it was essential and useful. Never did she wait to consider such mundane things like the effect of 9.00 am brandy drinking.

Doubt, if she ever seriously thought about what was in store for her the next day or the next week or the next month. The present was of consequence, the future indeterminate and hence negligible.

As a result she began life on a day-to-day basis. Sometimes she would meet someone promising and there would be brief hopeless hope that something enduring had been discovered, but very soon she received knowledge, that like before, this was wishful thinking…..

Book meet ended with Amit’s poem specially written on book club members. (was that the reason he desperately wanted to have a book club meet in December!!!)

हम Book Club के members सारे

हम Book Club के members सारे,

Books के प्यार में खीचे चले आरे;

Mainly books कि बातें करते,

छोड़ते new ideas के फव्वारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे!

किताबों की listing करते,

Recommendation for sharing करते;

पढ़ी किताब का gist बताते,

सबके अपने विचार हैं न्यारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे!

पहले tea-time पे मिलते थे,

कुछ और भी चेहरे दिखते थे;

कुछ छोड़ गये, कुछ छुट गये ,

जो बचे, वो हैं genuine readers प्यारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

Meeting को lunch time के slot में डाला,

क्योंकि भूखे भजन न होए गोपाला;

खाते-पीते बाते करते,

अपने ख्यालों को शब्दों का जामा पहनारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

ओशो की बातें कर गया कोई,

चारु निवेदिता के पीछे पड़ गया कोई;

खुशवंत के रंग में रंग गया कोई,

अपने दिल की बातें करते, न कि समाज बदलना चाहरे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

वन्दना के initiative ने, कितनों से introduce कराया है,

Books loving का जज्बा, खुलके सामने आया है!

Inside corporation है book club का affair, can be called Corporate Affair,

Earlier excellent आते थे MOMs, कोई उनको फिरसे लिखवारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

NVK की तमिल किताबें,

उनकी बातें वो ही जाने;

Simple बातें, सच्ची लगती,

ज़यादा intricacy में घुसकर, क्यों अच्छे एहसास को मारें!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

Deepali की confident opinion, fighting spirit दर्शाती है,

कहनी होती है जो उन्हें बातें, openly सामने आती है;

Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Osho इत्यादि,

सबके विषय में ज्ञान अर्जित कर डारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

जीवन के शाश्वत सत्य हैं, Death and Tax,

So its natural that, we have someone from Income Tax,

पर इस club की न sale है न income, we want to have just chill and relax,

न बनता है न देंगे, Sales Tax हो या Income Tax,

जी लेना चाहते हैं हम, Taxes से न हमें सतारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

Landmark Education का संज्ञान,

है Vignesh की और से आया;

उसके अनुभव का फ़ायदा उठाकर,

आया हमको भी तो मजा रे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

Sumit की innocence एकदम charming है,

उसकी व्यस्तता, अनिश्चित उपस्थिति की warning है;

न आया आज तो, मजबूरी होगी कोई उसकी,

आ गये तो, ऊपर वाले की हुई बड़ी कृपा रे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

यों तो खाना खाने को, खाते ही हैं,

Book Club के lunch का, मजा ही कुछ और है;

यों तो बाते होने को, होती ही है,

यहाँ बातें कहने सुनने में, आता है अलग ही मजा रे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

जीवन एक सुखद सपना है,

दिल जिससे मिल जाये वो अपना है;

हसी ख़ुशी बस गुज़रता रहे वक्त,

लड़भिड़ के तो मुखड़ा रंगीन, व आंखों के सामने घूमते तारे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

दिल से दुआ है, किसी का दिल न टूटे,

अपना तो सपना है, किसी की उम्मीदों का सपना न टूटे;

गलती से भी, किसी के जज्बातों को समझने में गलती न हो,

न समझे इतना भी तो अनपढ़ रहे, पठन पाठन का फिर क्या फ़ायदा रे!

हम Book Club के members सारे,

शुक्रिया

20/12/13