Through their weekly BoTCasts and a range of book-related engagements, Sharin Bhatti and Anuya Jakatdar have discovered like-minded individuals who love to read and talk about books
Did you know stand-up comedian Kaneez Surka couldn’t go past the first page of Fifty Shades of Grey? Or that ad-man Neville Shah didn’t really read a lot of comics while growing up? Or that writer Vivek Tejuja thinks that Leo Tolstoy’s classic War and Peace should be used as a doorstopper? If you do, then you have probably seen, and are hooked on to the weekly BoTCasts by Books on Toast.
Started by 34-year-old Sharin Bhatti, co-founder of The Hive and The Cuckoo Club and 31-year-old Anuya Jakatdar, a former editorial and content specialist, the weekly BOTCasts on YouTube see guests across entertainment and pop culture sit down to have a discussion on, what else, books! The self-confessed bibliophiles (Anuya reads four books at any given point of time), have hosted 19 editions of the BoTCasts so far, and have some other interesting segments on their online channel as well.
Building a community
For Anuya, the idea of starting Books On Toast, a second-hand book donation drive, came when she was studying for a year in New York. “One of my most favourite memories is of the local library that had a second hand book sale. I spent the whole afternoon there and bought 23 books for just eight dollars, which was amazing because I was always broke,” she smiles. Anuya decided to replicate the model once she returned to Mumbai and donated the proceeds to charity. Later, she organised a book festival and it was in the course of organising one, that she got in touch with Sharin in 2015. “Sharin herself is a crazy reader, so it was just a match made in heaven,” she states with a laugh.
Adds Sharin, “We were really inspired by the passion Anuya brought to the table. She was really motivated towards building a community around books and to do something about book culture. So, we thought of creating a larger platform for young readers and like-minded individuals to discover more books and to give authors a platform to engage with real readers.” So far, the girls have hosted two editions of the book festival and held a multiple number of fun engagements. They started the weekly podcast in January this year and have added other segments, including Clueless Critic, hosted by comedian Kunal Kamra, where authors find themselves facing quirky questions and BoTShorts where they recommend books to readers. They also released a Game of Thrones song parody recently. “We are also putting together our website which will have a lot of articles related to books and reading. We also curate Stories on Toast, which is an open mic for unpublished writers. More than that, we both love to find books to read,” informs Sharin.
Making discoveries
While finding good books to read has been one outcome of the BoTCasts — Sharin discovered If On A Winter’s Night A Traveller by Italo Calvino and Anuya got hooked on to The Century Trilogy by Ken Follett, suggested to them by one of the readers in the comments section — the girls admit that it’s been a pleasant surprise to discover the reading habits of some of their guests. “We would not have imagined in our wildest dreams that Kenny Sebastian reads self-help books!” laughs Sharin, while Anuya adds, “He and Sharin love self-help books and I hate them. I told them to do the heavy talking. I was just there to be the a*****e and to have fun!”
Sharin Bhatti
Fav author: I love Shakespeare. Everything that we know about literature has been derived from his works. The prose, the poetry is moving beyond words.
Book you couldn’t finish: I know I will be judged massively for this, but The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
A book you keep going back to: Satanic verses.
One guest you want to call on the show: Ryan Gosling! We will let him talk about anything he wants to.
Anuya Jakatdar
Fav author: Neil Gaiman and Stephen King
Book you couldn’t finish: Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. It’s huge and so difficult to read. Whenever I am at my most determined, I pick it up.
A book you keep going back to: Cider House Rules
One guest you want to call on the show: Twinkle Khanna. I think she will be super as she has a great sense of humour.
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 "Sharin Bhatti and Anuya Jakatdar")
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