All-woman club a paradise for booklovers

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, April 14

This is the story of six avid booklovers who became friends and started sharing their passion for reading.

“‘A book must be an ice-axe to break the seas frozen inside our souls”. True to this attestation by Franz Kafka, we started our book club - ‘The Book Lover’s Retreat’ - a few months ago with a group of six friends coming from different stages of life and age but with a common passion for reading. Now, we have over 20 members and are growing rapidly,” claimed Neetu Narula, founder member of the club.

“Our group chooses two books per month - a light read by any Indian author as well as a critically acclaimed book by a foreign author. We set a reasonable target date for discussions and try to choose titles that promise to stretch our minds and also warrant collaborative discussions,” she said.

Last month, the club invited Dr Jas Kohli, author of “Anything to Look Hot: A Candid Confession of a Plastic Surgeon”.

“It was indeed a pleasure to engage Dr Kohli in an interesting conversation on his way of writing, life as a cosmetic surgeon and challenges faced while authoring the book. We discussed how patients are getting obsessed by the look of film stars who in reality are immensely helped by the art of photoshop and makeup,” said Ritu Tiwana, another member.

‘The Book Lover’s Retreat’ now meets often. The passion of the all-woman club is now to expand horizons and it has more regular events to provide potential readers and writers to share the common love of reading and sharing experiences.

“Nobody quits the book club. Once you are in the club, you are in it forever,” said club members.

At present, Neetu Narula, Rajni Dang, Simret Matta, Daman Chattwal, Dr Aeyna Sood, Ritu Tiwana, Kiran Grewal, Khusnuma, Cherry Garg, Dr Birinder Chopra, Dr Kiranjot Behl, Neetu Chopra, Sangeeta Sharma, Dr Sabreena Sidhu, Shaifali Gupta, Anu Brar, Camie Thind and Chandni are members of the club.