A silent reading movement for calm, connection, and mental wellness
Launched by The Book Turf
On October 10^th 2025

Take the Pledge: Read for Yourself, Read with Your City

This movement begins with one quiet choice: to read. We invite every individual to take the pledge to read for 20 minutes a day, for yourself, your wellbeing, and your clarity. To read with your community and your circle as often as life permits. And to read with your city once a month, in gentle solidarity.

This is not a fad. It’s a civic ritual. Done sincerely, it can strengthen families, ease anxiety, and help Bhubaneswar become a city where emotional wellness is visible, valued, and shared. Let’s build a better place one book, one hour, one reader at a time.

Why This Matters

In a noisy world, silence heals.
Reading together quietly, in homes, clinics, schools, cafés, community spaces, and offices helps reduce stress, ease anxiety, and build emotional strength.
This movement offers one of the simplest and most powerful approaches to mental wellness.
It’s screen-free, inclusive, and deeply human.

What It Is

A citywide silent reading movement where people read side by side without speaking. No loud events. No performances. Just the quiet joy of reading and gentle sharing on mental health awareness.

Each session begins with silent reading for a minimum of 20 minutes, often extending to 40–50 minutes followed by circle time for reflection. Anchors may use wellness prompts shared weekly or invite a learning partner or guest speaker to gently guide the conversation. The tone remains quiet, inclusive, and rooted in emotional care.

Who Can Join? Everyone can join in

• Individuals and families
• Schools, colleges, clinics, cafés, offices, and large corporate or manufacturing employers
• RWAs and residential communities
• Libraries, educators, and publishers (Knowledge Allies)
• Clubs, foundations, and institutions (Anchor Institutions)
• Anyone with a space or a community

Benefits

• Reduces anxiety and improves mental wellness
• Builds quiet connections across generations
• Honours your space with a placard and certificate
• Adds your presence to Bhubaneswar’s reading tracker
• Brings curated books to your doorstep through our mobile library

Our Founding Partners

Bhubaneswar Reads Together is proud to be anchored by partners who believe in emotional wellness, civic care, and the quiet power of reading.

• NHRD Bhubaneswar Chapter Our corporate engagement partner, bringing reading-led emotional wellness into workplaces. Through NHRD’s network, the movement reaches professionals, HR leaders, and organizational spaces that value reflection, dignity, and mental clarity.
• RCM Bhubaneswar Our institutional partner for student-led civic engagement and the venue for the city’s first public reading circle. RCM empowers young readers to carry the movement forward through campus circles, public events, and emotional wellness advocacy.
• Asha Wellness is our wellness partner holding the heart of the movement with gentle care for minds, hearts, and communities. By guiding Bhubaneswar Reads Together’s emotional well-being track with quiet strength, Asha Wellness is supporting students, families, and circles across the city. Through reading and reflection, safe spaces are created for mindfulness, resilience, and mental health awareness, one breath, one book at a time.
• L&D Global Our learning and leadership partner, embedding emotional wellness into professional growth. L&D Global frames reading as a tool for clarity, reflection, and inner development affirming that care-led learning belongs in every workplace journey.
• Bocca Books Our literary curation partner, bringing soulfully selected stories to every gathering. Bocca Books reminds us that books are bridges between generations, emotions, and ideas sparking dialogue, nostalgia, and pride in Bhubaneswar’s reading culture
•  The Book Turf Our founding host and movement anchor, holding every space with reverence, intention, and care. The Book Turf brings mobile libraries to communities, bookshelves to workplaces, and reading rituals to wherever they’re needed most. It selects partners with discernment, co-designs custom interventions for professionals and institutions, and embeds emotional wellness into HRM frameworks. Through CSR collaborations, it extends reading to hospitals and underserved spaces ensuring every circle is gentle, every presence dignified, and every gathering rooted in care.

Together, these partners help seed a citywide ritual of calm, dignity, and collective healing—one book, one hour, one community at a time.Subscription Plans (for Mobile Library Access)

Coming to communities that need the support soon.

Monthly Public Reading Circles

Public reading circles are vital because they transform solitary reading into a shared ritual creating visible, collective moments of calm that ripple across the city and remind us that healing can be quiet, communal, and deeply human.

Join Us for Bhubaneswar’s Monthly Silent Reading Hour

Every First Saturday & Sunday of the Month Across homes, clinics, cafés, offices, schools, and community halls

Silent reading circles, gentle sharing, and mental wellness reflections continue citywide—online and offline. Circle Anchors are invited to host one-hour sessions at a time that suits their space and community.

Suggested slots: Saturday or Sunday | 11:00 AM–12:00 Noon or 4:00 PM–5:00 PM or a time that works best for the circle.

Anchors will receive a starter kit, placard, info poster, and on boarding support. Each Circle receives a Certificate of Participation honouring their role in anchoring quiet care and civic pride. Our mental wellness activity centre at The Book Turf Library and at all requested venues will always keep the circle gentle, the presence dignified, and the care visible.

To register your Circle, share your chosen time, venue, and follow-up photos at info@thebookturf.com

Let’s keep the city reading quietly, together, every month.

Don’t Miss the Ripple

Reading silently together is changing Bhubaneswar one circle, one book at a time.
Your space could be next. Your presence matters.

Join Now

• Why Take the Pledge. Why Join the Channel. Because Bhubaneswar deserves spaces that read, reflect, and restore. Because quiet care is a civic strength—and reading is its gentlest ritual. When you take the pledge, you become part of a citywide movement that anchors emotional wellness, dignity, and intergenerational pride. When you join the channel, you stay connected to monthly prompts, circle updates, and a growing community that believes in calm, clarity, and collective care. This isn’t just about books. It’s about belonging. Let’s build a city where every corner holds space for silence, story, and shared healing.
• Take the pledge for the movement: https://forms.gle/F4YXD5iLXwncwN9DA
• Join the whatsapp channel : https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6l9v4KwqSOUP0CQC14
• Tag your ripple: @thebookturf | #BhubaneswarReadsTogether

How to Create Your Own Circle

Starting a Bhubaneswar Reads Together circle is simple, gentle, and deeply impactful. Whether you’re hosting in a home, clinic, café, school, office, or community hall, your space can become a quiet anchor for emotional wellness.

Steps to Start Your Circle:

1. Choose a space where 2 to 20 people can sit quietly and read together.
2. Pick a time first Saturday or Sunday of the month, 11 AM to 12 Noon or 4 PM to 5 PM, or a time that works for your circle.
3. Invite readers from your family, workplace, neighbourhood, or community.
4. Host the hour in silence, with optional gentle sharing at the end.
5. Register your circle to receive on boarding support and a digital placard to honour your space.

Circle Anchors receive:

• A digital starter kit with guidelines and sample invites
• A digital placard to display online or print (a printed poster and certificate can be collected from The Book Turf)
• Monthly updates and curated book lists
• Visibility on Bhubaneswar’s reading tracker

If your circle wishes to invite a resource person to speak on the monthly theme mental wellness, emotional literacy, or reflective leadership you’re welcome to reach out. We’ll help guide and support the session with care.

To get started:

• Respond to the invites shared via WhatsApp Channel or social media
• Or write to us at info@thebookturf.com to request on boarding support

Join the WhatsApp Channel for updates and anchor support: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6l9v4KwqSOUP0CQC14

Let your space become part of Bhubaneswar’s quiet revolution one book, one hour, one community.

Social Sharing Guidelines: Help Ripple the Movement

Help ripple the movement! If you’re posting about Bhubaneswar Reads Together, please tag us and use the hashtags below to help others discover the joy of silent reading.

Tag: @thebookturf (movement anchor) @asha.wellness @lnd_bhubaneswar @bocca_book_store @rcmbhubaneswar @nhrdbhubaneswar

Hashtags to use: #BhubaneswarReadsTogether #TheBookTurf #SilentReadingMovement #PauseWithPurpose #CareIsCivic #ReadingCircle #BooksAndBelonging #OdishaReads #WellnessThroughReading #CityOfReaders

Your post could inspire someone to pause. To read. To ripple. Thank you for being part of this quiet revolution

Let Bhubaneswar read. Let the silence speak, One book One hour One community.

The business will be a private commercial library, operating multimode as physical, Mobile, and an online library with strong backend support and POS using a mobile app. A hub to connect the community with workshops, wellness, food, networking, business center, women entrepreneurial support, senior citizens, food, travel, and books creating an urban village of interconnectedness.
The concept of tying a community together through books and activities related to learning, community development, NRI connect, workshops, knowledge exchange and share a mobilization of urban manpower resources through generating employment and employability to lesser privileged sectors. Also, creating a network of interconnectedness within the community through the mobile services of the library van (unique) that will take the services to different localities, establishments, and educational institutions, and other smaller communities amongst others.

The Customer Profile

Urban families, women and kids, senior citizens all looking for a community connection and a love of books along with activities and classes that support extracurricular learning and development that revolve around books, upskilling self and others, and family connect through joint activities. Community CSR activities connecting with underprivileged sectors and sharing the books and workshops along with time.

The idea behind this was the loss of community within the new generation and the detachment from a physical reading of books due to technology and gadgets, thereby creating a lacuna and disconnect between the generations. The library will act as a hub to reconnect people, books, services, hobbies, and second wind to women and senior citizens while creating outreach to lesser privileged and extending the services to orphanages and remand homes, and smaller schools that have no libraries. It will also be a reconnect base for returning NRI’s and their parents in India by connecting them to a community of like-minded people and trusted service networks.

The wellness sector will take care of the physical and mental wellbeing of children, adolescents, youth, senior citizens, and families with workshops, seminars, consultations, and outdoor and indoor activities with a community.

The fully computerized backend facility supports seamless transactions like the exchange of books, subscription renewals, registrations, etc. at the point of activities and at the doorstep thereby making the services more accessible and user-friendly through a mobile app.

Supporting Middle-Level Schools (community CSR connect with members)

Adopting two to three schools in Year 1 and supporting them with library and SUPW services where kids are guided in art and craft out of waste, reading, and confidence-building activities and at the end of the academic year, an exhibition is held where the created items are displayed and kids display their spoken skills.

• To be able to provide quality family entertainment and learning activities connected with books and reading.
• Provide successful experiences that include authenticity, fun, and participation with learning and sharing as people need experiences that help give a bigger satisfaction as against just buying something.
• Strong and seasoned management team and aggressive marketing plan to be able to project a consistent and minimum annual growth of 5%.
• A service-based company that exceeds customer expectations.
• To increase the number of customers through superior customer service and word-of-mouth referrals.
• Have a clientele return rate of 90% by end of the first year.
• Established community destination by end of the first year of operation by educating the community on what the company has to offer.
• Aim to become the industry leader in privatized community services by offering superior customer service, a clean upscale environment conducive to giving professional trusting service.
• Convenience by offering clientele a wide range of services under one roof.
• Location –easily accessible location for customer convenience. Mobile van for outreach to communities.
• Credibility, integrity, dedication, and transparency in all operations and services.
• Indoor and outdoor activities for year-round entertainment and community connect.
• Initial capitalization for the company to sustain operations for one year.
• Low overhead through the use of multiscale employees and continual training.
• Strong community ties and involvement of NGOs and other community centers.
• Establishing the library as a place to jumpstart cultural, Educational, and Entrepreneurial growth by being partners for boosting local entrepreneurs, advancing community economic health by increasing support for small entrepreneurs especially women and senior citizens.
• Creating a business referral database to integrate the local community.

Fostering Urban Women through the online platform that was created called Mumpreneurs to reignite their dreams, connect with other women, and with platforms that can help support their ideas, network and rebuild their confidence and reskill for the market as required. Currently, the platform has 400 members on the FB group and about 11 members on the WhatsApp group and they are a cohesive community helping each other.

The workshops will provide new learning opportunities through various in-house and external service providers both online and offline for both professional and recreational sectors. An in-house business center will provide small women entrepreneurs (through the homegrown online platform of Mumpreneurs) with a safe operating space and amenities without overheads to restart in life.

The monthly meetups foster a sense of sisterhood and networking and product display opportunity. Invited speakers in addition to in-house support add value to each meeting with topics of interest and importance discussed.

The shelf space hire helps in the market acceptability of created products and feedback from users aids product refinement. (Mi –Tea, Aroma Symphonies, Arubas Handmade soaps, Bling Bag, Type a Bite are some of the entrepreneurs’ ventures currently supported)

The physical premises also provide training space, meeting space, and hiring of resources like hourly hire space, equipment, and other requirements for members and small business owners, teachers, entrepreneurs, and freelancers.

A small kitchenette will act as a community kitchen providing members healthy refreshments along with classes to learn the same.

The Mobile van is a unique feature that is a mini library on its own and creates a sense of community where ever it is parked. It facilitates the exchange of books, services, and small community meetups when the van is stationed at a community creating an atmosphere supporting community interaction through workshops, storytelling sessions, book reading, and author support along with book clubs, hobbies, travel, and activities clubs, and other community bonding events and includes a sale point for small women entrepreneur homemade/handmade merchandise and small weekend stalls around the van were permitted.

Subscription-based membership (short and long term) that provides the end-user experience with a hub for all recreational, wellness, and learning possibilities within a community and under one roof thereby generating employment possibilities for skilled and semiskilled professionals in the running of the enterprise and classes that will generate employability for the semiskilled.

Assets currently in place include a 3 bedroom flat converted to a library, a mobile van, and a fully furnished facility to run the above mentioned for a minimum of 100 subscribers, to begin with, skeletal support staff as operations are being set up and further expansion will be need-based.