Events for the desert state
April 21, 2012: Today morning I arrived in Jaipur from Kolkata. I never take morning flights. As I had written earlier, there are few days of the year when I confine myself indoors and avoid travelling and 20th April was one of those days.
So, I skipped the 20th afternoon fight and instead took the 21st flight to Jaipur. I had a series of events already lined up in Jaipur.
Today later afternoon Desert Storm was flagged off and the first Guest of the event was, Sudhir Tailang, India’s famous cartoonist.
About three months ago I had initiated the Desert Soul event in Jaipur in collaboration with ITC Rajputana.
I never thought the response in the desert state would be so good and encouraging.
The local civil society in Jaipur is still somewhat confused about the difference of the two series that I have started, namely – Desert Soul and Desert Storm.
I launched Desert Soul to provide a platform to the talented people from different walks of life who have worked towards contributing to the state and the civil society. It also provides an opportunity to those whose talents and abilities have not been showcased properly.
Desert Storm, on the other hand, is a series aimed at providing a platform to those people who are originally from Rajasthan but made it big in their field anywhere in India.
Sudhir Tailang, one of the most renowned cartoonists of India, was the first guest of today’s evening.
The response was so overwhelming that our regular event lounge of the ITC Rajputana Jaipur property seemed small. Perhaps, the next Desert Soul or Desert Storm event would need a bigger venue.
Today, late at night, I’ll host a get-together over deserts and coffee to meet Sudhir Tailang, film director Sujoy Ghosh of Kahaani fame, the executive producer of Kahaani, Arindam Sil, and Saswata Chatterjee who played the character of Bob Biswas in the film.
Before the Desert Storm event I, along with Sudhir Tailang, also inaugurated the exhibition of Kiran Soni Gupta, IAS.
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