Today Lamakaan turns one month old.
Within a this month, we have had four plays, one qawwali, one dance performance, one poetry, two western classical music concerts, two hindustani concerts, two documentary screenings and just yesterday a ghazal mehfil.
Our first month of existence far exceeded the modest ambition of nervously dipping our toes in these waters. From the blazing poetry of Goreti Venkanna to the commemoration of theatre by Sanjogita Mishra, every event was extra ordinary in it’s own way. Visit http://vimeo.com/lamakaan/videos for a few recordings of the events.
The first month has been a hectic, exciting and tiring time. We had dollops of help from a large bunch of people who took time off their regular work to pitch in with their unique contributions. Ashish, Valli, Imran, Ranjeeta, Faraaz, Anwar Hooda, Ravichander, Rajaa, Raza, Ayesha, Satish, Satyanarayana, Narsing Rao are some names I can readily recall. They have done everything from laying out the chairs to convincing artists to perform at Lamakaan.
We are now taking a break for the next two weeks. The idea is to pause, look back and understand the short sprint that we made. I want your inputs now on how we can improve, evolve and extend Lamakaan’s reach.
There are two specific things I want from you:
1. Recommend ten of your friends to Lamakaan.
Take two minutes to think of ten names of people who live in Hyderabad and will be surely interested in Lamakaan’s events and activities. Send their emails and phone numbers to us on lamakaan@gmail.com or to Lamakaan Khabar on Facebook.
2. Write in your suggestions and comments
We critically depend upon feedback to keep ourselves aligned to our goals and objectives. So, don’t skip this, write in.
Lastly, Valli who has been our manager for the launch is now back to being a volunteer like the rest of us. We had coerced her into being the manager for the first month in spite of her having to manage two existing jobs and also a study course. Thanks Valli.
Until we find a full-time person to manage Lamakaan, Valli’s duties are now being equally shared between Farhan, Humera, Elahe and Valli. Humera looks after Facebook and emails, Imran and I (Farhan) take care of the event production itself, Elahe is looking after general administration. Hopefully, we shall soon have a full-time manager for Lamakaan.
Starting May, we will have an action filled holiday season of plays (Zoo Story, Gallows Humour and more), music (Warsi Brothers, Vitthal Rao and more) and also some Chai and Why series of lectures and talks on Science.
So, stand by for more.
