Get your storybook ending

No time to read? No inspiration? Screen taking up all your free time? Silent reading groups are becoming a chill way to get back to books. No pressure, no judgement

- Christalle Fernandes

Like the butterfly effect, it starts with a flutter. For Bengaluru residents Shruti Sah and Harsh Snehanshu, book pages fluttered in the wind when they began reading together under a giant peepal tree in Cubbon Park in December, 2022. It made them start a reading group - a way for people to gather, bring a book and read it silently. For those looking to get back to reading, it offered a social push. For those too distracted to read at home, it created a dedicated space. For everyone, it's a silent challenge to put away the phone and dive into the pages instead.

Cubbon Reads has been meeting every week since January 2023 and now has 500 readers. It's inspired similar clubs in other cities. "It's a great way to make friends as an adult," says Abhimanyu Lodha, co-founder of Mumbai's Bandra Reads, which hosts 50 to 60 people every Sunday morning in Jogger's Park. Pune Reads is now 40-members strong and meets every Saturday morning.