“Having a good discussion is like having riches 

On Friday 24 September 2021, Books and Beyond Kumaraguru conducted an online book discussion session named “Tug of Words” between 5 pm and 6 pm. Tug of words is a space where people can come along and share their views, perceptions and perspectives about a specific book or an article or a short story. The session lasted 1 hour hosted on Google meet and had a broad and extended discussion on the short story Eve’s Diary, by Mark Twain. Eve’s Diary is one of Twain’s best stories, in which he addresses gender equity issues, using his iconic wit and satire. 

The story mainly revolved around two people Adam and Eve who according to the bible are presumed to be the first humans on planet Earth. The event started around 5 pm an introductory note was delivered followed by a short and comprehensive summary of the story, later we proceeded with an open discussion on each and every person’s thought and perception on the subject of love, relationship and personal identity as mentioned in the story particularly Eve’s view of herself, her life and everything around her through the lens of her affection towards Adam and their relationship.

With the active participation of 11 students from various departments each and every personal view was indeed unique which displayed various angles of perspective through which we can look into the subject of a man and women and their relationship. It was interesting to see that one story can be interpreted in more than one way each being unique depending on the person reading it and his/her values and characters. The event can be overall summarised as a very insightful and fruitful discussion. Even though many contradicted with one another, and opinions diverged at a point when Eve insisted that she should be the one who will die first. And her reason, because she couldn’t live her life without Adam, we came to the conclusion of the fact that Eve shouldn’t have seen Adam as an extended self of her instead should have had preserved her identity as an individual person.

In conclusion, we all agreed to the point that we should have an identity for ourselves and should retain it regardless of any other factors, whether we are in a relationship or we like someone a lot. The session came to an end by 6 pm with a conclusion address and a vote of thanks to all the student participants, opinions about the event and overall rating of the event was collected through Google forms circulated post-event.

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