The read-meet

Hi all

Last week-end was an invitation to take part in something larger than me. I had been engaging myself with a group called the Caferati. These are writers in the making, professional writers, film-makers, people who choose to bare their soul and the longing with their pen. They also are brave enough to let others criticize the way they write or what could be better.

I started my journey at 6 a.m. on  Sinhagad Express. Unfortunately I didn’t have a camera with me otherwise the game of sun, shadows, mist, rain was something to be wondered at. As it was a Sunday, there were not too many people going to mumbai so was able to catch a seat and travel comfortably. If it was a week-day then I’m sure the story would have been otherwise.

The anniversary read-meet was organized near a picturesque place called Bhivpuri Road Railway Station.

One of the roads near Bhivpuri Road Station

Reached to our hosts the Shah Farm at something around 10 a.m.

Shah Farm

We had breakfast while the organizers called up other people who were coming for the workshop as well as the read-meet. By around 11:30 or therabouts we were something around 40 odd people.

The first mini-workshop for the day was taken on the subject of Content Writing by john mathew The workshop lasted for almost 40 minutes

Then Raamesh started with a genre or way of writing which is called Nonsense which is not equal to nonsense. He showed us few examples of what would constitute Nonsense. One could find about nonsense at http://www.nonsenselit.org/

Suniti showing Performance Poetry

After that, Suniti enamoured us what performance poetry is all about and her learnings from the famed Kala Ghoda festival. While not being loud she is a force of nature in her own right.

Batul is the one in the middle

After that a beautiful person named Batul shared with us the joys and let-downs of being a screenplay/scriptwriter for movies. She told us some of the mistakes people do and what should be in scriptwriter’s mind. This again was fascinating.

There were couple of writing exercises but was frankly not in the mood to write, was just in the mood to hear, interact and understand.

Then lunch happened something around 14:00 and couple of us went to the river-bed for a stroll around 15:00 . Came back and the read-meet started. Quite a number of people read their stories and poems and it was a joy to hear them all.

Finally tea happened around 17:00 hours and people exchanged e-mail addresses, mobile nos and what not.

A fascinating day finally starts to end, writers, tea, rains and nature a day to remember .

Note :- All the pictures are either from Suniti Joshi’s album or Peter Griffith’s works. You can find more about either and all of them at http://www.caferati.com 😉