Caferati

Caferati

I stumbled onto their blog, through Akshay’s blog and immediately knew I’d found a treasure. I was still getting over the content on Akshay’s blog, which isn’t half as trivial as he claims, and here I was confronted with a blog of a “motley group of writers” who meet up online and offline, over coffees and conversation to read out their oeuvres and discuss them. I browsed their blog for a few days – leaving comments where I felt I had something worthwhile to say, and then Max Babi contacted me. A founder-member of the group, he was organizing the first-ever Pune Caferati meet – “Would I like to come?” he asked. There was no doubt in my mind that this was something I wanted to do – I am not a great writer, infact I’ve hardly written any stories and can’t write verse for nuts, yet I knew I HAD to attend.

So I went – 7th November 2004, Titash Neogi’s apartment off Spicer College Road – and am I glad I went! I went as an observer, commenting very little, seizing the opportunity to simply soak in the atmosphere and get a feel of what the meetings are all about. I was quite awed (and even inspired) by some of the stuff read out – the talent in these people left me feeling humbled, at the same time it made me realise that I might have something to offer as well…

I attended the Bombay Caferati meet this Sunday (21st November 2004), having gathered the courage to read out something I’d written a year back. Hosted at Gold Mist, in a beautiful apartment, overlooking Jogger’s Park, Bandra and the awe-inspiring Arabian Sea (awe-inspiring the Bombay coastline is, whether it’s because of the degree to which it is polluted, or those huge waves that crash the shore during monsoons!) the meet was a bit disappointing in terms of what was read – most of the pieces read didn’t do much for me. The last item on the agenda – the play reading, by Peter and Vijay – was mind-blowing stuff! “Relaxing” was how one gentleman described it ; I’d say “invigorating”, “spell-binding” and “captivating” – the oratory skills of the two gentlemen who read it out, coupled with the taut, well-bound script made me want more than the two scenes that were read out!

To Life, posted on Literary Mosaic, was my first-ever attempt at fiction writing…as I’ve said myself, it’s a simple story, almost simplistic. An experiment, to see if I’m capable of producing anything worthwhile or am I just full of useless crap that no one will want to read… friends who read it, had stuff to say, but most of it wasn’t constructive criticism that would guide me to improvement. Caferati gave me that – starting with Max, who read my story and encouraged me to read it at the B’bay meet, Manisha, Avi and Peter who critiqued it at the meet and gave me pointers on how to improve the story (rather, make it one!) and Titash, who with his organized little comments, ripped my story apart, giving suggestions on how to improve it…

I have just started my journey with Caferati and have a long way to go – I’m sure as hell looking forward it…it’s going to be one rocking trip!!! :-)

P.S Any more comments on the story are welcome!