Book Box | A Sunday Book Swap

It is a recent Sunday morning and I am with friends. It was meant to be a book club meeting, sitting in the bookstore cafe, but it ended up being just the three of us. The others have dropped out - one is running the Mumbai marathon, another is travelling, and a third has family over. This is the way it is in a city like Mumbai - there is just so much happening. “We’ll have fun by ourselves” we console each other. And we do.

We have coffee and share a croissant. And discuss Hindi Nationalism by Alok Rai. It's a slim but weighty volume on the Hindi language, its origin, its relationship with Urdu and the controversies around it. Alok Rai is the grandson of Munshi Premchand and the brother of Sara Rai, a writer whose book of essays we read last year and loved. What a literary family the Premchands are, I marvel.

“Why has he written this in such an academic way - it could have been simplified” my friend complains, bringing me down to earth. And this is the magic of book club, in the way it records the chemical reactions between a book and a reader. People have such differing opinions and over the years, we have come to appreciate the beauty of this.

The academic style felt enjoyable to me. It took me back to college days at Miranda House, intensely reading Terry Eagleton, Foucault and Edward Said. I enjoyed slowing down my reading, speaking the words aloud, running my finger under the lines, and reading both the Hindi words and Rai’s English translation.

We are in the midst of these discussions when we hear a buzz of voices. My friend goes to investigate. He comes back looking animated. “Come, come let’s go “ he says and walks us to the front of the store.

We join the circle. After the fair-haired couple, other readers step up with their books. There’s The Promise by Damon Galgut, winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, and the Japanese time travel book Before the Coffee Gets Cold, there’s a Jodi Picoult. I think about what book I will offer for the swap. In my bag I have Hindi Nationalism - I don’t want to give it away. Also, will there be takers for this niche book?

Instead, I buy a book- a thriller set in the world of publishing.

“Yellowface is about the scams in the publishing industry- about the jealousies and frustrations between writers – how some writers feel angry and frustrated that others, worse writers than them, are getting ahead. They feel that because if you are not tragic figures from a war-torn country or oppressed in any other way, you have no chance of being published.”

Two readers sitting at a table next to the circle nod. Everyone looks at my copy of Yellowface.

Post the pitching we swap books, exchanging our Yellowface for Ask the Dust. The young couple tell us they are teachers in an international school. She is from Ukraine, he is from Boston. They’ve been reading about Mumbai – Shantaram, Maximum City and Behind the Beautiful Forevers.

As we part ways, I hold my copy of Ask the Dust, thinking how fitting it is – a story about a writer in LA now travelling to Mumbai via Ukraine and Boston. In this frenetic city, where work and life challenge book club attendance, sometimes the best literary discussions happen by chance, over shared croissants and serendipitous swaps.

Books, much like Mumbai itself, have their own way of bringing people together.

Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya’s Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com

The views expressed are personal