BENGALURU:  Sixty-four-year-old Sujatha Verma, the oldest member of the Bengaluru branch of Bring your own book (BYOB), was disheartened when she got to know that the monthly meet-up of the book club might be cancelled due to fear of Covid-19. But to her surprise, the meet-up did happen, but with a little help from technology. For the first time, the book club did a virtual meet-up on Saturday. 

Soma Bhattacharjee, who is one of the five admins of the group, said, “ This is not an ideal situation to do a meet-up, but neither did we want to cancel the plan. Registrations were done and members were ready with their books. And moreover, it was our 50th meet-up,” says Bhattacharjee, who also added that only 15 people participated this time. Traditionally, book lovers meet to discuss on their previously read books. But this time, members caught up on video call to discuss the books.

“One of the reasons for fewer participants is that while some are not so tech-savvy, others preferred a discussion in person,” says Bhattacharjee,  adding that usually, there are 25-30 members in every meet-up.
At the BYOB meet-up, everyone is given 5-10 minutes to share their views on the book of their choice. But sometimes, certain members are also allowed to be part of the discussion and  just listen. “In other book clubs, there are restrictions on discussing radical or controversial books. But we don’t have any such rules,” said Bhattacharjee. Usually, meetings are updated on social media. 

Verma says her family and she are avid readers. “I am glad to see my granddaughter picking up this habit too. In 2014, after my husband passed away, I hardly had any human interaction. Around this time, I joined this group and now, I have some of the closest friends here,” said Verma, who discussed Ashoka by Charles Allen and The Pedant in the Kitchen by Julian Barnes this weekend.