31 March, 2017

It was a somewhat lonely session with only three people able to make it. Discussion veered toward the difference between `loneliness’ and `solitude’.

Wendel Berry wrote ` In solitude one’s inner voices become audible [and] one responds more clearly to other lives. In loneliness one’s inner scream becomes deafening, deadening, severing any thread of connection to other lives.’

Solitude, I feel, is a state defined by the physical body whereas loneliness is a state of mind. We struggled with what might be the Marathi equivalents. Unmesh, our guest attendee, came up with  `Ekathe’ for lonely and `Ekaant’ for solitude – which seem quite perfect!

The shares in this session were:

  1. An Un-necessary Woman, a novel by Rabih Alameddine
  2. Acquainted with the Night, a poem by Robert Frost
  3. They’re made out of meat, a science fiction story by Terry Bisson

Happy reading!