Rajasthan Forum meeting
July 29, 2012: Today afternoon I attended the meeting of `Rajasthan Forum’. Many decisions were finalised during the meeting. It also set the pace for planning out events to be held next year.
On the 24th of July Rajasthan Forum member Prerna Shrimali would hold – `A Conversation with Pandit Girdhari Maharaj’ – an event lined up for the next and continuing series of Rajasthan-specific events initiated by me called the Desert Souls.
Further, the Forum members also took a decision to organize a two-day event on Meera Bai at her birth place at the Merta City in Nagaur district of Rajasthan. Merta city is famed for its 400-year-old Meera Bai Temple which attracts lots of tourists and pilgrims.
I had suggested that instead of Merta City we could do the event in Puskhar which isn’t very far from Merta and, being a bigger city, is endowed with better logistics for holding any event.
The whole idea behind organizing the event is to have a session of discussion on Meera Bai and her relevance in today’s world along with a musical program on the same theme. It was decided that the event would be held on 8th March 2013 – the World Womens’ Day.
The Forum also decided that a financial assistance of Rs 51,000/- would be given to a needy artist. A five-person committee has been formed for the purpose along with the formation of another committee that would to execute the Meera Bai event.
Prior to the meeting, the members, who are prominent names from the world of art, theatre, literature, music, fine arts and performing arts, had a Sunday brunch at Hotel Rajputana.
In the evening I went to the Polo Club to attend a farewell party of a head of a prominent English daily who has been transferred from Jaipur to Delhi.
I did get to meet quite a few people known to me and also some of the new journalists and bureaucrats.
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