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It’s Saturday morning in Bengaluru, India and Bengaluru natives are taking advantage of the weekend and the sunny weather to go shopping, meet up with friends, or catch up on chores, according to the SOCIALSTORY website. Dozens of locals make their way to Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, each with a book in hand.
The readers find a comfortable, sunny location, spread beach towels or blankets on the fresh, green grass, and curl up in the Great Outdoors with a good book and some good friends.
These locals are participating in silent reading, a movement that began in Cubbon Park with just two readers. Founders, Shruti Sah and Harsh Snehanshu began in December of 2022, spending their Saturdays reading quietly together in Cubbon Park. They shared their experience on their personal Instagram, which sparked immediate interest. A few weeks later, in January, 2023,they opened an Instagram account for the trend called Cubbon Reads and the first Cubbon Reads meeting was held 99 weeks ago and has since mushroomed into a nationwide trend spanning across 70 cities in India.
What is Silent Reading
Cubbon Reads, and its copycat reading clubs, are not like traditional book clubs. For starters, not all participants are on the same page – literally speaking. Everyone who joins brings their own book and they all read quietly while sharing space with each other.
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“We wanted to build a community of readers that read their own books together, not discuss or dissect one book together,” Sah told SOCIALSTORY.
Snehanshu,told the Times of India, that,“The whole idea of reading in a park is crucial for us. A park is an informal space, unlike a library, and people can lounge, laze, and even sleep with no policing whatsoever, which is reminiscent of home.”
Copycat clubs
HSR Reads started on a Saturday around a year ago in the mainstreet park in HSR layout. They used the guidelines that were posted on Instagram to start their club. The reading group is growing.
The original community has now grown to 500 members and has spread to other parks across India,
Ridwan Ul Haq who started a reading club in Srinagar told SOCIALSTORY that, “I read a lot, but I missed having a community to share that with. I learned about Cubbon Reads through friends and was inspired. Harsh and Shruti helped me bring the idea of Srinagar Reads to life.” Ul Haq’s club meets on Saturdays in Sher-i-Kashmir Park.
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Bandra West, a neighborhood in Mumbai, also has a silent reading group called Bandra Reads. Abhimaynya Lodha, the club curator, explained why he started the group. “Even before Bandra Reads, we used to read in public spaces often,” he said. “The idea behind Bandra Reads was to make the solitary activity of reading a community initiative and also make it a regular habit,”
Of course it’s much more pleasant to read in sunny weather, surrounded by the sea, but Lodhi Reads’s curator, Ritika Chawla, has facilitated the trend in bad weather as well. She explained that nine readers showed up to the group’s first meeting, but so did the rain clouds.
“It was drizzling and so we read inside the Bada Gumbad and also outside on the lawns,” Chawla said. “Since then, it has expanded and we have had 70 editions so far, and have an average attendance of 50-70 people for each session.”
Not just about reading
Readers get more out of silent reading than just finishing their books. Omkar Bharamgunde, a Koramangala Reads participant, told Times of India that, “When I first tried to read books, I used to be very slow. When I started going to reading communities, I began reading a lot more, mainly due to peer pressure that motivated me to read for longer. I used to take two months to complete a book, but now I take around two weeks to finish one,”
Durgesh, a reader at the Bengaluru-based HSR Reads explained to the Times of India that he’s also made friends at the weekly reading meetings. “We come to HSR every Saturday for the session, after which, we generally go out for a meal. I have forged some great friendships here.”
In addition to the friendships and book exchanges that take place before, during, and after silent reading, according to SOCIALSTORY, Cubbon Reads attendees and followers have started dozens of other interest-based silent social clubs modeled after Cubbon Reads. These include e Cubbon Paints, Cubbon Knits, and Cubbon Writes. Cubbon Reads' followers even created a dating app — Bookmark — for book lovers.
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Next steps for silent reading clubs
District governments have taken some interest in the movement as well, Sah told SOCIALSTORY. “Last year, a district magistrate from Sikkim visited Cubbon Reads to understand how silent reading sessions are conducted and she replicated the format across several districts there for school students.”
He hopes the movement will continue to thrive and grow, encompassing not just public parks but also public and private institutions.
“We wish to see them happen across more cities in India, in all possible public spaces like parks, meadows in the hills, beaches, monuments, open libraries,” said Sah. “Wherever possible we would love to join hands with corporate brands and even governmental institutions to host such community meetups to their offices and owned spaces. And inevitably, make public spaces feel more welcoming, hospitable, and safer.”
Combining reading with nature is easy. Just pick up a book and head to a park. You can silently read or strike up a conversation. The choice is entirely yours.
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