With development slated for November’s first week, a structural policy or something is needed imminently. A board member (we have an unofficial board of directors, comprising mostly of the remaining members from our original Orkut days – five including yours truly) recently stated that we need to make alliances with other desi oriented writing websites. And here I thought we were the pioneers (no, that’s not entirely true: I knew we weren’t. But our operations are so far from left field, it’s genius). To that extent, there are quite a few of them out there – desiwriters.com (name thieving…and this is quite literally true – the founder of the place was a former member, back in the days when we were still trying to narrow down a time and place for the creation of our own site), desilit.org, chowk.com, readitlive.com, t2f.org for related events, etc and probably a handful of others just waiting to be discovered. If we create alliances with these places, chances are it helps us both. So that’s something else on my list of things to do.
I’ve found an excellent example of how I’d like our debating platform, The Podium, to look like…it was something work-related but my God, it was brilliant. Of course, I have no idea whether or not there’s going to be a component with just the right amount of tweaking involved to get us going, but at least it’s out there. Somewhere on the global, webby, stratosphere, it exists.
The event calendar is just a handy little way to keep our visitors and members abreast of anything new on the cultural, literary, arty and theatrical scenes. To that extent, it may become something like a global adventure, with members from all countries posting their ‘flyers’ on the bulletin board. Of course, that it comes out exactly as I’ve envisioned it is key. It has to look “writery”.
To that extent, our header image of the writer’s desk will more appropriately be incorporated into the site…something original and not infringing on anyone’s intellectual property is what we’re looking for. I’m hoping the board will begin to split responsibilities for varying pieces of the pie…since although November seems ideal, it’s the time when my own work is going to step up several notches. No more lunch hour blog posts, in other words.
One of our members–Obi’s got a play coming up–starting, if my sources are right, on October 26th and no doubt stretching to the 10-14 days that now seem standard. All kinds of rumors have begun to spew forth from ‘it’s a twisted love story’, to ‘it’s a horror story…or so I’ve heard’. Whatever it is, it’s entitled The Good Doctor. Since it’s an Islamabad only event, tickets are available from Illusions and the Islamabad Club. Make sure you get yourself a seat–I’ve been hearing the events may be sold out. But hey, that’s the news on the grapevine.
The Inheritance of Loss is the book that’s scheduled to take me out of my recent reader’s slump, and it’s been doing a decent job of it. I may now have the courage to pick up Hugo again considering I heavily pushed for it in the Book Club, and have been largely (read: entirely), absent in its discussions. How tragic.
However, I’m hoping that with the right amount of activities, people will and can get their butts to the Lounge, become members and start posting. We’re looking for the talent–our scouts are out there as we speak–but in case they miss you, drop me a line and we’ll see what we can do.
Later amigos.