Architexturez Enaction wrote:
no! but ravi dragged me in, if that counts! so we went upstairs and there was a long queue of patient well-dressed people. talking in English.
so i asked who these people where and somebody said "well, they are people"; so i said ok, and joined the queue. people got their chai and snakes and ate them and made their way into the IIC well, where there are two rings of octagonal tables with plastic chairs, and more plastic chairs along the wall. some NGO/sidekick types were directing people (depending on a face that is known, a face that may be photographed, well-dressed faces and so on) to the inner ring, outer ring, or chair on the wall. a hung eight meter diameter space in the middle of the well was left empty even as chairs starting running out. this went on till all the chairs were filled up. ravi and i decided to evacuate. the smell of perfume (mixed with cheap scent and soap) was killing us.
i was standing near the door, and suddenly a whole lot of not-well-dressed people walked in. talking in Hindi.
so i asked the same person who these were, and he said "oh! these are The People". The People went and sat on the well-floor, the same NGO/sidekicks started to seat them facing the tables. So there they huddled. some guys were still waiting at the door, so i asked them if they spoke English, because this was going to be in English, and he said "no", if he knew somebody who had read the book "no", did he know what is in the book "they told us something", if he had tea and snakes "chai pilaya, no snakes", if he was invited for the cocktails afterwards "no, the bus will take him back".
a photographer with two camera was busy taking pictures, some NGO/sidekick (senior) was directing him. then the author, and three Illuminati were brought in, who all started talking on mic (one praised the author for her third book "she is having third child, it is a healthy child" was the phrase). the author was felicitated (thank god, they pronounced this one right, went to the other party, and some architect "facilitated" the guests with flowers)
wish i had taken my camera, an interesting arrangement, this was. People
and The People are segregated, and then seated so that people can only see other people (behind mic and water bottles) while The People huddle in a well, without mic and water bottles.
Architexturez wrote (full text at end, for cc mpisgmedia list):
wow! what-a-thought! did anyone charm snakes into iic hall-well on 20th?
or did the organisers fill it with their The People to leave no room for
disruption?
no! but ravi dragged me in, if that counts! so we went upstairs and there was a long queue of patient well-dressed people. talking in English.
so i asked who these people where and somebody said "well, they are people"; so i said ok, and joined the queue. people got their chai and snakes and ate them and made their way into the IIC well, where there are two rings of octagonal tables with plastic chairs, and more plastic chairs along the wall. some NGO/sidekick types were directing people (depending on a face that is known, a face that may be photographed, well-dressed faces and so on) to the inner ring, outer ring, or chair on the wall. a hung eight meter diameter space in the middle of the well was left empty even as chairs starting running out. this went on till all the chairs were filled up. ravi and i decided to evacuate. the smell of perfume (mixed with cheap scent and soap) was killing us.
i was standing near the door, and suddenly a whole lot of not-well-dressed people walked in. talking in Hindi.
so i asked the same person who these were, and he said "oh! these are The People". The People went and sat on the well-floor, the same NGO/sidekicks started to seat them facing the tables. So there they huddled. some guys were still waiting at the door, so i asked them if they spoke English, because this was going to be in English, and he said "no", if he knew somebody who had read the book "no", did he know what is in the book "they told us something", if he had tea and snakes "chai pilaya, no snakes", if he was invited for the cocktails afterwards "no, the bus will take him back".
a photographer with two camera was busy taking pictures, some NGO/sidekick (senior) was directing him. then the author, and three Illuminati were brought in, who all started talking on mic (one praised the author for her third book "she is having third child, it is a healthy child" was the phrase). the author was felicitated (thank god, they pronounced this one right, went to the other party, and some architect "facilitated" the guests with flowers)
wish i had taken my camera, an interesting arrangement, this was. People
and The People are segregated, and then seated so that people can only see other people (behind mic and water bottles) while The People huddle in a well, without mic and water bottles.