SYLBers,

This was surly even more inspiring and anti-gelid than the First session. I initially thought that the subject favourites could be a little incongruous and lacking in harmony and tempo for the group to be involved and enjoy it considering the variety that we might have to hear in a single hour. But the speakers and the discussions were so lively and brilliant that if it were any other rainy day I would have written a paean.

As always, Amar was the first and he presented first the story of Mrs. Woo and her tribulations in the Chinese back drop and then the lessons on marriage(among others) that we must all learn from the Pearl's master piece. The almost lachrymose Amar convinced everyone that he is very passionate and connected with Pearl's works. The passage that Amar read out was a conversation between Mrs. Woo and Father Andrew on the subject of marriage.

Up next, came the most energetic Shailendra Gupta, and enlightened the group on Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach`s work of lifetime. He had last read this book in 1992 and then last night. Shailendra spoke about the character Jonathan and explained the metaphor of the seagull used for the common man in all of us.Jonathan was always questioning the most logical, time-tested and common sensical things in life.Amar wanted to know if Jonathan was rebellious. Matthew quipped in to explain from his experienced reading that Jonathan was surly rebellious from the point of view of the elders but from his own point of view he was always trying to test his own capacity, contiously striving, learning and trying to excel himself to the path of perfection.Shailendra was of the view that this book conveys different senses for readers of different ages and for the same reader at different points of his life, to which others who read the book agreed.Shailendra then read out the passage which was a conversation between Jonathan and the elders which was very engaging and proved the path breaking thought process for a leader to be.

(Shailendra has promised to share an e-book of this with all of us. Attached are some quotes from Richard Bach's works and review on Jonathan…).

Mathew joined the band wagon next and very poetically recited one of the most celebrated poems of Oriah Mountain Dreamer - The Invitation. Incidentally, Sivapriya let the group know that she had done a training programme for a batch of people for six months just based on this poem.They used to take a particular part and work on it everyday.I had personally come to know of this book while going through a blog written by a book lover in rediff blogs and ever since it has been a favourite poem of mine too.

Sivapriya rose to present the last part, with her favourite book, Eric Segal`s Acts of Faith. She said she tries to learn something from each book that she reads and this book has taught her a lot of things. She first read it when she was seventeen and last time she read it was two months back. She first gave a brief back ground of the story. Its basically a love story setup in present age in New York city between two members of highly religious families. Its about love that can never happen, its about two people who were never destined to meet. They meet very briefly in the middle of the story and Deborah has a boy from Tim as a consequence of which Tim is not aware. They again meet after 20 years. This is towards the end of the book and Sivapriya read the last passage of the book which was typical Segal styled emotional pot pourri.

The session ended with a brain storming on what and how things should be done to make SYLB more interesting and enjoyable.