Books, games and costumes: Why this book club in BKC is a hotspot for Mumbai’s executives and Gen-Z

Mumbaikars will snake their way through traffic this Sunday to attend the book club at . The monthly meeting of book lovers called TWC Book Club is usually hosted on the second Sunday of every month, but this month is an exception that it coincides with Eid. While they will bring along their books to the discussion, as they have been doing over the last two years, they will also take it a step further. "This month, we are reading ‘Enter Ghost', by Isabelle Hammad, which is set in Palestine. Since it is close to Eid, for this book meet the theme is Eid traditional," shares Madiha Khan, who is the host of the book club that was started in March 2022.

While The White Crow Books and Coffee bookshop in Bandra Kurla Complex at Jio World Drive's dress code theme is unofficial, they have managed to have unique elements like black academia, all green, and vintage. "We even dressed in saris and Indian wears once when we were reading a book by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni," adds Khan, who is also a city-based anchor and journalist. The Mumbaikar, who has been hosting the club ever since it started out, says it is also one of the aspects that attracts Gen-Z, apart from working executives to the bookshop.

The others have been conducting quizzes to celebrate their true nerdy versions, which may be frowned upon, as they boast of their literary knowledge through words, quotes and characters. "We all realised that since we are a bunch of nerds meeting, we need to do nerdy things. The first part is the discussions. The second part is about these nerdy literary games that we can only play with each other and nowhere else. We played vocabulary games, literary taboo and literary dumb charades, and reverse dumb charades, where the whole group had to explain the title of a book to one person," shares Khan.

Building a community of book lovers
As Mumbai boasts of bookshops and bookstalls across the city, The White Crow Books and Coffee is a dreamy bookshop under the Reliance portfolio, that opened when Jio World Drive became open to the public in BKC in October 2021; the design is inspired by the stepwells in Gujarat. "We do not particularly have bestsellers, we have renowned authors, lesser-known works by authors or lesser-known authors with great work. The idea is to discover new authors and publications," shares Ninad Shah, who has been with the bookshop since its inception.

After a few months, the team and Khan, who first started out with book launches at the bookshop, got together to think about how they could revive the sense of community, especially with the toll the Covid-19 pandemic had taken on people. She explains, "Just after Covid, we thought everybody was missing this whole sense of community, sitting together,and talking about similar things with like-minded people. That's when we thought of doing a book club in the bookshop." Armed with 12,000 - 15,000 books and a 1,100 sqft space, the bookshop and the club has become like a portkey for book lovers living in the hustle and bustle of Mumbai to be transported into a different world full of books. Taking it a step further, they also have a coffee shop that serves coffee by Nandan Coffee, and in the last three years has managed to attract a unique demographic. "The relationship between coffee and books is old and is nothing new. By virtue of being in a mall, a lot of people get pulled in because of how beautiful the store is it has ladders that are very Instagrammable, and a lot of kids who may not read but come and climb on the ladder, and hope is that they will pick a book," adds Shah.

Situated in the heart of Mumbai's new business district, it definitely has many executives who come in, but also has Gen-Z who come very often. "The executives visit the bookshop to buy books during the week as a gifting option. We also help people curate their home libraries. Being surrounded by a lot of IB (International Board) schools in BKC, there are a lot of Gen-Z, who come and visit the bookshop and spend time. We even had a Gen-Z host their book club and their book launches too," explains Shah, who has seen a lot more women at the bookshop than men.

Take your pick
Among the many different activities that the bookshop conducts like book swaps and poetry writing, the book club has been a constant. It can be seen in the fact that the numbers are growing. What started out as 6 â€" 10 people in the first few sessions has now grown to 24-25 people in every session, with Mumbaikars travelling from as far as Thane to be a part of the club. Khan explains, "The format of the book club is such that we have been doing it every month on the second Sunday . The drill is that when one book club ends, we immediately introduce two books and open it up for voting and whichever book gets voted, becomes the book of the next month." They make the announcement on social media, their WhatsApp group, and newsletter. It is after that followers on social media read the book before the next session. "The session goes on for 1 or 1 1/2 hours. We encourage people to come even if they haven't read the book at all because what we take care of is that we don't give away any spoiler that takes away the fun from the reading experience," adds Khan.

When they started out, Khan says she along with the team at The White Crow Books and Coffee wanted it to be a space where you don't just come after reading the book. "You can come even if you are intrigued by the title, want to know more or simply to get excited about that book or other books. Like when we were discussing ‘Rumours of Springs' by Farah Bashir, we gave a lot of recommendations of similar books on similar genres. You can come even if you want to educate yourself about books of similar genres." Over time, they have even got people who don't even read books, who attend the sessions only to be motivated to read.

Interestingly, the book club has come a long way from when it started out. "The first book itself was something that most book clubs don't go for. It was a great pick. It was 'Rumours of Spring' by Farah Bashir, which is about everything that is happening in Kashmir but not a political point of view, but the point of view of a young girl growing up in Kashmir, and how she had a very different childhood compared to what we had,and it was almost relatable. It had some comical elements and a lot of emotional elements to it. She has written the book in a very relatable manner. Usually, topics like Kashmir or Palestine are sensitive topics and people refrain from reading about them because it can get very heavy, but we were very happy that it got selected." The discussion around the book was even more enriching as Bashir even sent voice notes about the book, says Khan, which made it feel like she was a part of the club. It was when they realised how much people have been missing this feeling, and they needed to do more of it.

Over time, Khan has also realised the extent to which she has evolved as a reader. While she started out reading books that were thrillers like Sidney Sheldon, Jeffery Archer and Dan Brown, the book club has led her to books like ‘Rumours of Spring' and ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow',which is a book about gamers, and how they fall in love. "You end up reading books and genres that you would never end up reading," she concludes.