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
