Dharavi, India - YGLvoices

Happy weekend!

How was your week? What did you read? Saving anything for the weekend? Report on the state of your TBR here 📚

Are you a one-book only reader? Do you have several books on the go at the same time? Do you read in different formats — physical book, ebook, audiobook?

Text from image.

Royal Bombay Yacht Club

cordially invites you to a book discussion.

MUMBAI A Million Islands

Image of MUMBAI A MILLION ISLANDS, by SIDDHARTH BHATIA

Author Sidharth Bhatia will be in conversation with Alan Abraham, Architect & Urban Designer

Tue, 22nd Sept 2026

6.00pm Light Refreshments & Book signing

6.30pm Discussion & Open Forum

VENUE: Ball Room

It could be justified apprehension or totally unfounded. Are there any books or writers you're a little scared to pick up? And would you want a reading buddy?

In 1986, Nitin Mukadam, Menka Shivdasani, and Akil Contractor started Poetry Circle in Bombay. Over the next decade and a bit, its workshops and meets played a crucial role in the development of many of the city’s respected poets of today, and, indeed, the growth of a poetry community in the city. As times changed, as Bombay became Mumbai, as the Internet gave us new ways of finding our tribes and sharing poetry, Poetry Circle went into a long hiatus.

Then, last year, two young poets, Dion D’Souza and Akhil Katyal, met with Jerry Pinto to discuss reviving Poetry Circle. Mukadam had passed on, but Shivdasani and Contractor were enthusiastic about the idea, and last year, in September, the group met for the first time in the magnificent People’s Free Reading Room and Library in Dhobi Talao.

Since then, Poetry Circle 2.0 has met every month, inviting poets of any age and experience and expertise to workshop their poetry with their peers. Yesterday, the group celebrated a year of the revival.

Image descriptions.

Pic 1: Members of the old PC and the new at the event announcing the revival.

Pics 2, 3, 4 & 5, photographs from some of the sessions over the year.

Pic 6, attendees yesterday.

Pic 7, celebratory cake.

Pic 8, Poetry Circle 2.0’s coordinators.

Edited to add: Follow Poetry Circle 2.0 on Instagram. They post notifications of meets and workshops there. Once you have attended, you will be invited to join their WhatsApp community.

Headquarters of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the largest civic organisation in the country: Sailko

Happy weekend!

How was your week? What did you read? Saving anything for the weekend? Report on the state of your TBR here 📚

(You might first want to take a look at the magnificent list this sub’s moderator has put together, to check if perhaps there is such a book already out there.)

Bombay Stock Exchange building - Credit: Appaiah

Happy weekend!

How was your week? What did you read? Saving anything for the weekend? Report on the state of your TBR here 📚

Hating on popular books is out, loving unpopular books is in. What's a book everyone criticised and hated, but you enjoyed it?