All-Shakespeare Session – Apr 23, 2018

Portrait by Martin Droeshout

Four years ago KRG organised a week-long Shakespeare festival in David Hall, Fort Kochi, to commemorate the playwright's 450th birthday. The record of those events has been captured in posts on this blog. On Apr 23 this year KRG held a session of reading from his plays, poems, and songs within the plays, on the occasion of the 454th birthday.

We had the great pleasure of receiving back in our fold KRG's earliest reader still around, Indira.  She used the occasion to celebrate Shakespeare and to remember the founder, Bobby.

So too, Talitha came on a special visit from TVM for the all-Shakespeare event; here she is greeting her old friend, Geetha, who will now become a regular at KRG. Talitha promises to come whenever possible, and Satish may accompany her at a poetry event in future.

Among us Shoba has the distinct honour of enjoying the same birthday as WS. Here Kavita wishes Shoba, holding a Ginger plant bouquet that KumKum presented her.

No birthday is complete without cake. KumKum distributed sandwiches she made, along with home-made cake from Shoba, and chocolate cake brought by Talitha. Coffee was supplied by the Yacht Club.

Having savoured in depth what WS wrote, once again we realised the truth of his forecast that 

   Not marble nor the gilded monuments

   Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme 

Shoba, Geetha, Talitha, Thommo, Indira, KumKum, Kavita, Priya, Joe, Hemjit (seated)

Here we are gathered at the end.

In Memoriam Bobby Paul George

Bobby, the founder and host of the Kochi Reading Group for many years died by his own hand on Apr 4, 2018. He had been suffering for some time, estranged from his lovely wife Gracy of many years, and taxed by multiple problems, including a mental complication.

When he welcomed KRG readers in the early days (2006) he was a bright and exuberant presence. His enthusiasm for literature and respect for great authors and their thoughts brought life to the discussions. Academics would often read into a poem meanings that are not there, but Bobby would reaffirm the saying of Robert Frost that a poem should not mean but be.

Who else but Bobby with his extended studies in Germany, would introduce KRG readers to Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the great modern poets who died in 1926? He read the poem Lament by Rilke about abandoning ordinary life for the sake of a spiritual quest on Oct 22, 2007 . The central prayer at the heart of this poem is
Ich möchte aus meinem Herzen hinaus 
unter den großen Himmel treten.
Ich möchten beten

That is to say: I would like to step out of my heart / And go walking beneath the enormous sky. / I would like to pray.

Bobby as it happened, also quoted the epitaph Rilke wrote for himself.
Rose, oh reiner Widerspruch, Lust,
Niemandes Schlaf zu sein unter soviel
Lidern.
Rose, oh pure contradiction, desire 
to be no one's sleep beneath  
your many eyelids.

— a beautiful way of closing one’s eyes to this world.

In a similar vein Bobby never tired of his hero, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer, polymath,  and supreme genius of modern German literature. Introducing Goethe’s Faust, Bobby narrated how Mephistopheles (representing the devil) tries to seize Faust's soul when he dies after a moment of happiness, but is frustrated and enraged when the angels intervene owing to God's grace. This grace can only occur because of Faust's unending striving and results from the intercession of his forgiving lover, Gretchen.

One of the earliest recorded discussions of KRG appears in this photo taken on July 17, 2006:

The late Manjoo Menon of blessed memory is in the picture, and they are discussing A House for Mr Biswas by Naipaul; Indira Outcalt, Thomas Chacko (Thommo), Manjoo Menon, Jeena Thomas, KumKum (hidden), Joe and Bobby Paul George with back to the camera.

Here's another early picture when Bobby's wife Grace was also present. It was the poetry session on Aug 9, 2006.

Bobby Paul George, Joe, Grace George, Rajeev, Indira, KumKum, Gopa David, Salim David listen as Joe discusses Seamus Heaney's translation Beowulf

As always at Just Fiction book store, Bobby gave over the walls to artists who wanted to exhibit at no charge. Few photos in the archive do as much justice to his evident pleasure in the company of those who value literature and thinking than this early shot; he is looking directly at the camera:

This was Bobby sitting with Nina Nayar, Jeena Mathew and KumKum during a discussion of the novel Snow by Orhan Pamuk on Feb 16, 2007. In another picture the readers will be thrilled to see themselves nine years ago on June 5, 2009 when we were all younger and wiser:

 This is Priya, Bobby, Indira, KumKum, Talitha, and Amita after the reading of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger.

Later Bobby told us that a poetry Olympiad was held alongside the Olympics in ancient times. In ancient Greece, literary events were an indispensable part of athletic festivals, where fully clothed writers could be as popular with the crowd as the athletes who strutted about in the nude, gleaming bodies covered with olive oil. Accordingly, he read from an ode of Pindar, one of the great lyric poets of Greece:

If ever a man strives

With all his soul's endeavour, sparing himself

Neither expense nor labour to attain

True excellence, then must we give to those

Who have achieved the goal, a proud tribute

Of lordly praise, and shun

All thoughts of envious jealousy.

To a poet's mind the gift is slight, to speak

A kind word for unnumbered toils, and build

For all to share a monument of beauty.

Reading Pindar's Ode

It was appropriate because the poetry reading on July 13, 2012 was two weeks before the London Olympics. However, the athlete's fame is short-lived, Bobby said, quoting Dickinson’s cheery line, which he enjoyed:

Fame is a bee.

It has a song —

It has a sting —

Ah, too, it has a wing.

After we left Just Fiction premises and before we moved to the Yacht Club library, KRG used to meet at DC Books on Chittoor Road. At one such gathering we met to read The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh on Nov 28, 2008 and here are the readers:

Thommo, Indira, Jeena, KumKum, Amita, Talitha, Bobby

On Mar 8, 2010 we read The Spy Who Came In From The Cold by John le Carré and the group picture shows one of our former readers, Pavithra, standing next to Bobby. She left Kochi for a job in Bengaluru. The others are Priya, Amita, Talitha, KumKum, Indira and Joe.

On Oct 8, 2011 we read Animal Farm by George Orwell and Bobby was at the centre of things:

The readers were Thommo, Talitha, Soma, KumKum, Priya, Gopa, Bobby, Samuel, Sunil, Mathew, and Sivaram. It was at this session Bobby exclaimed “The men have taken over now!”, for he had been long discomfited by the customary preponderance of women at KRG. KumKum replied, “At last, the men have become literate!” There was laughter all round at the changed balance, and cheers for the record attendance.

With Bobby around humour was never far. In the context of Animal Farm he merrily started off: “All readers are equal but some readers are more equal than others.” Presumably, he meant himself jokingly, since he was the one to start the group that has now become the KRG. But later in a comment he added: “Joe, Thank you for all the work. By ‘some readers are more equal’, I meant you! It is important to read with passion. thanks again – Bobby Paul George”

At the Poetry session of July 15, 2011 Bobby had an interesting idea about how KRG could gather funds for future ventures. There is a tradition of the Raja of Travancore visiting the Padmanabhaswamy temple every day, and if he does not show up he has to pay a fine of Rs 166; that is the equivalent value of the silver coin by which he paid the fine in the old days. Bobby suggested that no-shows at our KRG should also pay an appropriate fine. There was general laughter at the suggestion.

When we read the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams on Nov 26, 2010 Bobby observed that often “love starts as lust.”Indeed, there is an ambivalence in the word’s meaning in German, for “lust”in German can stand for “fun” as well as “lust.” Now lust is taking over in  Facebook, he said presciently. 

Bobby quoted from an essay, The Catastrophe of Success by Tennessee Williams about art and the artist's role in society:

Then what is good? The obsessive interest in human affairs, plus a certain amount of compassion and moral conviction, that first made the experience of living something that must be translated into pigment or music or bodily movement or poetry or prose or anything that’s dynamic and expressive ... purity of heart is the one success worth having. “In the time of your life—live!” That time is short and it doesn’t return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.

At the reading of the splendid novel The Stranger by Albert Camus, which was chosen by Bobby, we are here ranged to bear witness to our delight in the book:

Talitha, Zakia, Priya, KumKum, Bobby, Joe

Talitha wondered if Meursault, the chief character, was capable of love. Bobby quoted from Camus’ Nobel banquet speech in response:

Truth is mysterious, elusive, always to be conquered. ... artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge.

Bobby quoted another phrase from the novel, ‘this business of dying had to be got through, inevitably.’ Meursault wonders why the chaplain, as a man who is also condemned to death ultimately, cannot sense ‘the dark wind from the future that had been blowing toward me, all my life long, from the years that were to come.’

Bobby remarked that in the end Meursault does not want to be left alone in death. Bobby defined the Meursaultian man “as one who calls a spade a spade. His reluctance to judge and be judged has a Christian echo. Camus is able to portray the man as a man living for the day ... give us this day our daily bread ... The prose is minimalistic and yet searing , full of sarcasm at the bourgeois practices of society ... Meursault has no idea of the "afterlife" and is not interested. He is interested in today.”

Ave atque vale we may say along with Catullus: We salute you ... and goodbye.

Haruki Murakami – Norwegian Wood, Mar 26, 2018

Seven readers showed up for the second novel of the year, the surreal and haunting story of love lost and found, suicide, sexual mores, and undergraduate life in Japan in the sixties. Haruki Murakami, best-selling author with a global readership, was presenting us his first novel to attain a readership of over one million on its first printing in Japan; and more millions abroad as it got translated into numerous languages.

Zakia, KumKum, Thommo

There was the tricky matter of selecting passages, so many of which are drenched with explicit scenes of sex; several no doubt (like Reiko’s intimate lesbian encounter with her piano pupil), would be contenders for the Bad Sex in Fiction Award. Somehow, all the readers found a ‘safe passage’ as it was termed by Hemjit, through the book, bringing out the interplay among the chief characters (Naoko, Toru, Nagasawa, Midori, Hatsumi and Reiko) without having to deal with their nether extremities in action.

Saras

Parts of the book are impressionistic, rather than novelistic; not so much telling a story as conveying the feeling of the scene. Since it has a lot to do with remembered feelings which are disappearing as time goes by, the writing takes on the aspect of painted sketches much as scenes of Hokusai’s paintings evoke a single experience felt in the moment, and then gone. One could even say some of Murakami’s settings would impel the reader to record them as haikus.

Joe

KumKum brought sandesh and singaras from Bikash Babu’s sweetshop for sharing with the readers. According to Thommo, Bengalis have perfected the art of making desserts that have just the right sweetness without cloying the tastebuds. He said Sarkars Dairy Tech has come to enjoy a near monopoly among hotels for the quality of the paneer they make, with milk imported daily by tanker trucks from Karnataka.

Bikash Babu Sweets outlet on Durbar Hall Road

Here are the lucky readers who read Norwegian Wood, heard Thommo sing the theme song, and came out happy and unscathed at the end.

Priya, Thommo, Zakia, Saras, Joe, KumKum, Hemjit (seated) 

Poetry Session — Feb 26, 2018

Catherine Stoll-Simon, Thommo

A surprisingly large turnout — seven members plus a guest — at the first poetry session of the year underscores the love for poetry among our readers. Physical absence no longer seems a hurdle to participation, for Joe & KumKum have been virtually present throughout their sojourn in USA. They send their recorded voice files, podcasts we may say, that are played at the beginning of the meeting.

Contrary to the notion of a general decline in poetry, KRG members evince a lively interest. Sunil who expressed an unease with poetry formerly, seems now a convert, a real poetry fan. He read from the poems of a Polish poet, Czesław Miłosz. 

Saras and Shoba

The presence of KRG's guest of the evening, the French artist, poet, and writer, Catherine Stoll-Simon added to the interest. She is in Fort Kochi preparing an exhibition of sacred dresses, the first of which is titled Christ in New York, on view at the Kashi Art Gallery on Quieros Street, Fort Kochi. Priya has written an article on her work in The Hindu, and introduced Catherine, whom she met during the course of her journalistic exploration.

Preeti

Although Saras has had to move to Nemmara she will try to visit Kochi on the appointed dates for our sessions. We salute her for her commitment and loyalty, and would sorely miss her if she was not present. Pamela meanwhile on a visit to Delhi sent us news of the Delhi Literature Festival (http://delhiliteraturefestival.org/) she attended.

Pamela at Delhi Literature Festival on Feb 24, 2018

Here is a group picture of the readers after the event at the Yacht Club:

Preeti, Saras, Zakia, Catherine Stoll-Simon, Shoba, Priya (Front) Sunil, Thommo (back)

Hannah Kent – Burial Rites Jan 29, 2018

First edition of the novel

We know from the beginning of the novel that Agnes Magnúsdóttir, the heroine of the story is going to be executed. But since it is historical fiction we expect to be treated to interior feelings and scenes that go unrecorded in the annals of drab history. We aren't disappointed.

Shoba & Kavita

The novel is slow to get under way. The reader is presented with tiresome dialogue imagined by the author to be the speech characteristic of figures of authority in those times in that isolated region. It almost sounds like a remote dialect translated into stilted English. We wonder at the earnestness with which district officers sought to bring about a spiritual reformation to convicted murderers. Lutheran ministers seemed available in plenty and up for the challenge too.

Thommo reading

It is through the efforts of one such, Reverend Thorvardur Jónsson, called Tóti for short, we learn the woman’s side of the story. At first Tóti is focused on gospel lectures and one-way spiritual talk. But later in the face of defeat, the spirit leads him to stop sermonising and open up to let Agnes speak. Thus, we obtain the first-person narrative of the condemned woman; it is wide in scope and unsparing in detail about her poverty after abandonment by her mother. Then she finds a step-mother who realised Agnes was blessed with a wonderful mind and went on to make her fully literate, even well-read.

Saras

In the literature of independent women characters we often read their stories and regret they could not have been even more independent than they were — of the wayward affections of men. What was there in Natan Ketilsson to hold Agnes Magnúsdóttir in thrall? He never gave her very much at all apart from copulation, and even mistreated her. Did his money and his economic station hold out the hope she could forever escape poverty if only she could make him take her as his wife? But he never intended to. He was the randomly begetting kind, not the staidly marrying kind.

Zakia

The readers were present in strength and their evident pleasure at the end of the reading is manifest in this photograph.

Thommo, Sunil, Saras, Priya, Zakia, Shoba, Pamela, Hemjit seated with Sugandhi to his right

Poetry Session — Dec 19, 2017

 Zakia, Shoba, Preeti, Priya by the CYC Christmas tree

The very last session of 2017 commanded a good attendance. Many of the poems recited were in the spirit of the Christmas festival. Though some of the poets selected were performed before in the years of poetry celebration by our group, the poems chosen were different.

Shoba, Thommo, Zakia, Pamela reading, Hemjit back to camera

Joe and KumKum were still abroad but keen to participate, and left voice files in the dropbox that were played at the session for the readers.

Zakia

Priya who orchestrated the session brought in Christmas plum cake for the readers, and Santa Claus caps for them to wear while reading. A Christmassy spirit of peace and harmony descended over the assembled readers.

Thommo

Preeti, coming late, made a surprise entry toward the end of the session, but contributed a humorous and expressive reading of a children’s poem called Chocolate Cake by Michael Rosen. You can hear a snippet of her delightful enactment of the poem in an embedded voice file further down.

Hemjit

Preeti

Salutations and greetings to all our readers who have contributed this past year in making our sessions memorable and pleasurable! We look forward to 2018 with relish. Here are the readers at the end of the session.

Zakia, Preeti, Priya, Thommo, Shoba, Hemjit seated
(Pamela had to leave early)

Poetry Session — Oct 13, 2017

Priya

The poetry attendance was sparse, but what was remarkable was the 4 to 1 ratio of men to women in the attendance at CYC, which became 5 to 2 when Joe and KumKum from Arlington, MA, were added as virtual attendees with their recorded voice files sent via Dropbox.

Thommo

The choice of poets was all modern. Therefore penetrating the meaning posed a challenge to the readers and listeners, but that is just as well. For it makes one ponder the words of the poet, recite it aloud to discover what may be hidden in the sonority, and examine the possibilities. As Ashbery explains, obscurity can convey more in the same number of words than crystal clarity can.

Priya and Ankush

As before Priya was responsible for gathering the readers and reporting on the session. The readers responded and pictures of the occasion testify to the draw of poetry.

Sunil, Thommo, Sugandhi, Priya, Ankush, Hemjit (seated)

Julian Barnes — Sense of an Ending Sep 21, 2017

Julian Barnes is the author of the 2011 Man Booker Prize winning novel The Sense of an Ending. It is an intriguing novel with an ending that many of our readers found unsatisfactory, like the ending of a mystery novel which the author deliberately wishes to leave unresolved.

Priya

It is also a novel that speculates a great deal on philosophical matters, starting with Albert Camus’ fundamental question: “There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy.” That schoolboys in senior classes are not only seized of such questions, but also incisively dissect matters of memory and history is credit to the school system.

Thommo

Adrian Finn is the precocious youngster whom the schoolmasters recognise as scholarship material from the start. Tony Webster, though not as bright, becomes his friend and they have a fateful shared relationship with the same girl, Veronica. Tony gets off unscathed, but Adrian who gets second dibs ends up a suicide; we never learn why, but are encouraged to surmise by Veronica who repeatedly says about Tony that he never ‘gets it’. Neither do we readers, in spite of the algebraic relationships Adrain leaves behind as cryptic clues.

Cake for Priya's Birthday!

An alluring feature of Barnes’ writing are the numerous allusions to the poems of Philip Larkin, scattered throughout. Joe and KumKum saw the film of the novel, but it deviates so widely toward the end that it carries the sense of a different ending, made more palatable to the reader by the director, Ritesh Batra, who made his debut with The Lunchbox in 2013.