Special book clubs for expats and women in Gurgaon

| TNN | Oct 20, 2013, 00:00 IST
Special book clubs for expats and women in Gurgaon
Special book clubs for expats and women in Gurgaon
Gurgaon has many social groups that cater to people who, despite having a hectic schedule, manage to take out time for their interests.
Book clubs form a major part of this culture. Members of these clubs meet regularly and have lively discussions. The city even has specific book clubs that cater to various sections, be it expats, women or corporate professionals. We speak to some of these book club members to see how they function.

For expats only
The Gurgaon Connection Book Club was started by Holly Lacsher five years ago. The idea was to get expats to meet each other and discuss what they are reading. “We have members who are from Australia, England, Poland, Bangkok and Sweden in the book club. It’s a good way of meeting each other and staying connected. Every month, one person chooses a book and we all read it. After that, we meet at some place to discuss it. The book can be fiction or non-fiction,” says Holly, adding that it’s a way of making expats feel at home in the city.

For women only
Then there are book clubs that provide women a platform for sharing their ideas about books and their favourite authors. Jyoti Gulati started Mums At Work Book Club so that women could get some ‘me time’. “It so happens that many a time, women forget to pursue their interests because they have to juggle a lot of responsibilities. So I started this initiative titled Mums At Work that helps women do things that they want to. One of the key aspects of this initiative is the book club that was started recently. We meet once a month at my home and discuss about the books that we have read,” says Jyoti. She says that there is no mandate that everyone has to come to the meeting after reading the same book. “We have a particular theme for every month. For instance, last month’s theme was ‘my all-time favourite book’ and this time, the theme is ‘the book that has impacted me the most’. This way, we aren’t forcing anyone to read one particular book,” she adds.

Another book club, called the Gurgaon Moms Book Club, is also a women-only affair. “I started this book club three years back. It’s more of an online forum for women to discuss about the books they have read and also recommend certain authors and titles to others. We meet once in a while. However, there is no mandate that we have to meet every month,” says Parul Mittal, a city-based author.


The regular book clubs

And then there are the regular book clubs. The Novel Ideas Book Club was started by Sunil Sharma two years ago. “When I moved from the US to Gurgaon two years back, I found that there were not many libraries that one could go to in the city.”


“Also, there were no book clubs here. I love reading books and that was the trigger for me to start Novel Ideas. Since then, it has become a forum for meeting like-minded people. We meet once every fortnight at a coffee shop to talk about the ‘book of the month’,” Sunil says, adding that every member gets a say in choosing the books that are to be read, and more often than not, it’s the bestsellers that are chosen.


Sai Chandravadhan, an author and a member of Novel Ideas, says, “I was one of the first few members of the club. Being an avid reader, I needed to find out what others were reading, and also discuss books. We have also made a lot of friends because of this, and in every meeting, people get to share their views on a book, its author and what they learnt from it.”


Similar is the case with Neha Yadav, who started a book club via Twitter, and asked readers to join in. “We meet at cafes or coffee shops in Gurgaon. Our book club is unique because everyone isn’t forced to read the same book. We all read books of our choice every month and everyone gets 3-4 minutes to talk about what they read. The club has seven members at the moment, all above 25.”

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