Belmondo Book Club:Session 2
- The Storyteller Mumbai
- Jul 24, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: Jul 25, 2025
Hello everyone!
For all those who attended the Book Club meeting on 23rd , a big thank you for showing up and bringing your books to read and reflect upon. The stories we heard today are so relevant and so inspiring. Also a sort of learning, of different perspectives, of different ways of looking at life, through the eyes and words of the authors who have written the books. How do they see the world, and what were their experIences?
Does this create a shift within , or at least a space to pause to look at life from another lens?
This book, and specifically the excerpt read, brought up issues of identity and anchors. Who am I? What does our identity comprise of, and from where do we even derive our identity?
What anchors us? Could it be music or reading or companionship or a hobby or even your career? What makes you feel most grounded ? When everything else seems to be shifting, what one thing can take you through?
Many more themes run through this narrative, so check out the book for more.
This book speaks about survival, transformation and courage. The reader seeks within the pages of the book, motivation to carry on. Darkness and light are two sides of the same coin, one can't exist without the other.
What is the role of forgiveness, for example, in life? Forgiveness helps to move on, to not get stuck in the chaos, but to move ahead.
On Focussing: What do you focus on in life? Where is your inner periscope looking and leaning into? We can focus on what inspires us and supports us. And when we feel hurt, that hurt points to the noise in your life , the things that no longer serve you. So we can even be thankful to hurt, so that we can walk away from that is redundant, what doesn't fit anymore for us.
What feeds your soul today, and where does your focus lie?
Set in colonial and post colonial India, this story is an inspiring one. The reader introduced us to Kathak as a dance form, and proceeded to explain about its association with Kaliyamardhan Krishna (Krishna dancing on a snake) and the Storytellers of the yesteryears.
The main narrative is about a non-gharanedaar artist , setting a system in place. In a world where lineage and pedigree is spoken about, little do we know about the trailblazers like Pandit Mohanrao Ji. This one is a gem about a person who has left an indelible mark in history where his art form was concerned, to be followed by generations to come.
What if 'Life' was a flat place? What is a' flat place' essentially? The reader took us through the life of a woman who led a 'flat existence' of sorts. The flatness being a source of comfort and belonging. A place to rest perhaps?
This memoir is like a painting, where words form landscapes that emerge and dissolve. Flat places also remind us of the places that are not so flat. Where the rocky terrains can unnerve and disturb you. Where there are mountains of despair and resentment.
The structure, being non-linear complements such a hard-hitting story. The attempt to find the pieces of the puzzle , from dissociation of parts of herself, from fragmentation, to something else. It is s story told as it is, without seeking to end with poetic embellishments of completeness and resolution. It revels in searching for the aspects of ourselves that seem fragmented, and how the outer landscape and the inner landscape of perception are linked.
Sometimes , even 'emptiness' is a sign from the divine. What do you think?
A heartwarming story of a young Muslim girl, and a story that depicts the vulnerable children of our land, whose world is tainted by violence and suppression. And in her gentle yet firm voice that reverberates across the length and breath of the book, she laughs and cries through the vicissitudes of life's challenges. And in spite of it all, finding in her heart the ability to love the ones that don't even see her for who she is.
This one is for the daughters of our land, especially of the minority population, who struggle and bear more than we can even imagine.
Xoxo
Shukrita Sankaran
Hello readers. Feel free to use this space to extend any thoughts and comments on the session, relating to the content and the themes explored in the books that were read out.