Pamela, Geetha, Devika, Saras
This
poetry session was announced as a year-end occasion to recite ‘happy’
poems. Readers therefore chose humorous poems for the most part; or
poems exhibiting the lightheartedness of major poets who have shed
their seriousness on occasion.
Saras, Hemjit, Shoba
It
was a time to dress for the coming holiday season in gay clothes.
Thommo was sure he would stand out as the most gaily dressed with his
fancy blue silk shirt with coloured squares, but he didn’t reckon with the bold yellow, red, and black
printed shirt Joe wore (of
Thai origin, presented by his
daughter, although it looked gorgeously African); and a turban wrapped
with
KumKum’s dupatta!
KumKum, Priya, Thommo
The
women were colourfully dressed too, many in red for the season.
Unfortunately, Priya arrived with such a bad case of voice lost, that
she excused herself after wishing us in sign language, and left to
recuperate from her pharyngeal stifle.
Pamela, Geetha, Devika
It
was also an occasion to
celebrate at year-end for
having read six wonderful novels and a hundred or more moving poems
through
the year. Thommo arranged a dinner in the
dining hall of the Yacht Club
for readers and their
partners – but no partners, other than reading members,
could attend.
Butter chicken, matar
paneer,
kadai mixed vegetable, and
salad, followed by mango cheesecake was on the menu, with plenty of
tandoori parathas and rotis.
Kavita, Pamela, Geetha, Devika, Saras
Joe and Kavita
We
came up with the
final list of six novels for next year and included an extra
month to read short stories; this
time, stories of the Pakistani
author, Saadat-Hasan
Manto translated from Urdu.
That means we will have just five Poetry sessions
in 2019.
Pamela & Geetha
At
the end KumKum and Shoba pronounced it was a lovely
session and here we are in a radiant
group:
(standing) Joe, Kavita, Devika, Shoba, Zakia, Geetha, Pamela, Thommo (sitting) Saras, Hemjit, KumKum
