Want to read by the lake? Join Chennai’s new silent reading community

Lake Reads in Chitlapakkam gathers residents every Saturday morning for silent reading by the lake, fostering a sense of community.

When you catch sight of the hustle and bustle around Chitlapakkam lake on Saturday morning, it becomes evident that the weekends are for anything but sleeping in. There are large groups of people going on brisk walks, runners warming up, and many others sitting and chatting. Even the cormorants here seem busy, bobbing around the white and pink water lilies.

A group of readers seated right in the middle of it all, on the steps of the amphitheatre by the lake, remains engrossed in their books. This is the second meeting of Lake Reads, the city’s newest silent reading chapter. Silent reading communities in Chennai, and the world over encourage readers to bring in books of their choice, and read quietly as a group.

After having regularly made the trek to Besant Nagar beach to be part of Bessy Reads’ busy Sunday mornings, Arvind Balasubramanian, a Chitlapakkam resident says he was inspired to start a similar initiative in his locality. “There were so many readers from Tambaram, Chitlapakkam, Chromepet and Pallavaram who wanted to be a part of a reading chapter like this, and I thought that there was no better place to start than here,” he says, pointing to the lake and its sylvan surroundings. “This lake, is our beach,“ he laughs.

The chapter schedules its meetings every Saturday, from 6am to 9am. People are free to join and leave at any time.

At its first meet up on April 6, around 18 residents showed up to quietly delve into their books.

Apart from the allure of this sense of community coupled with the lack of pressure to socialise, Nithya Nagarajan, a Tambaram resident who made her way to the second session of Lake Reads says she loves the idea of setting aside time to do nothing else but read.

“I like having this one hour on a Saturday morning to unwind with my book, and get some fresh air. There is so much happening through the week, and I have hardly find the time to catch up with reading otherwise,” she says, as she settles down on the steps with a copy of the Korean bestseller I want to die but I want to eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee, translated by Anton Hur.