Media Coverage

Hindustan Times has agreed to send in a correspondent to cover the launch and TARA Bangla has also shown interest in reporting the event either through TARA Bangla or TV South East Asia.

Bedatri D.Choudhury
25.6.2009.

The Third Panelist

Pratim D. Gupta has agreed to sit in the panel for the launch on July 1st. He is an eminent film journalist in Calcutta and has conducted quite a few quizzes in the city.

He added as a post script that he'll make it to the launch unless something drastic happens - something like the death of Mr. Bachchan.

Here's wishing many more years to Mr. Bachchan :)

Bedatri D. Choudhury

Meeting 4

Date: 15. 06. 2009

Location: The office of the Dean of Arts and later Bonami (Monida's Canteen), Jadavpur University, Kolkata.

Time: 1 pm - 2 pm

Attended: Monidipa Mondal, Rohit K. Dasgupta, Anomitra Biswas.

Happenings:

We have our meetings at the unlikeliest places, though Monida's Canteen over a plate of dubious chicken fried rice I think is favourite.

This was a good-news meeting. Things announced at this meeting are:

- We have got permission to use the Seagull Bookstore for our magazine launch on July 1.

- We are having a panel discussion at the launch. The discussion topic is 'Representing the Global South Asian.'

- We have also got confirmations from two panelists to speak at the discussion: Samantak Das and Kavita Panjabi, both professors of the Comparative Literature department of Jadavpur University.

Things we discussed at this meeting are:

- contents of the July edition, this being the day of the deadline,

- submissions we have received so far for the August edition,

- the launch programme in further details - exact time, calculation of costs, where to get laptop, internet, projector, screen, furniture etc. from,

- who to invite as the other speaker(s) for the panel discussion.

Monidipa Mondal

Meeting the third

Date: 29. 05. 2009
Location: Cafe Coffee Day, Golpark, Kolkata
Time: 6 pm - 7:45 pm


Attended: Monidipa Mondal, Rohit K. Dasgupta, Anomitra Biswas, Priyanka Nandy, Bedatri Datta Choudhury, Diviani Chaudhuri

Happenings:

First meeting since all the out-of-station tentative board members came to town. A rather more formal meeting, this, than the last two (if by formal you mean not at someone's house or a college canteen, and we do).


i) Priyanka, Diviani and Bedatri were updated on whatever had happened,

ii) new things discussed:
- inclusion of Ramanuj Mukherjee in governing body,
- policies of the magazine,
- initial calculations of money required to set up the magazine,
- discussions on how the money is to raised,
- discussions on possible donations, collaborations, advertisements etc.,
- how long our out-of-town members {bedatri, diviani and rimi (priyanka)} are staying in kolkata,

iii) discussions were continued about:
- the registration of the magazine,
- the possible collaboration with Open Space and what can transpire,
- the planning of the magazine launch,
- invitees for the panel discussion at the launch and the topic of discussion.

Anomitra Biswas

Meeting 2

Date: 27. 05. 2009

Location: Bonami (Monida's Canteen), Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Time: 1:30 pm - 3 pm

Attended: Monidipa Mondal, Rohit K. Dasgupta, (Anomitra Biswas).

Happenings:

Rohit having come back to Kolkata (he wasn't in town during the first meeting), the three of us met up at Monida's canteen at JU after Anomitra and I had written an extra-departmental examination in Sanskrit.

i) Rohit was updated on the discussions from Meeting 1.

ii) We talked about:

- the inclusion of Omair Anwar in the Editorial Board,

- details of website-building,

- a possible collaboration with Open Space (Pune),

- beginning to plan a physical launch programme for Kinaara,

- more discussion on the date, location, costs, kind of programme, people to be invited for the above,

- interactions happening at the Facebook group for Kinaara,

- submissions we have already received,

- the next meeting that would include the other tentative board members of Kinaara.

Monidipa Mondal

Meeting the first, slightly truncated.

Date: 23.05.2009.
Location: Anomitra's place, Kolkata.

Attended: Anomitra Biswas; Monidipa Mondal.

Discussed:

• Progress with art.
• Progress with website.
• Magazine launch. ( date, location, events)

Anomitra Biswas

First public appearance

The Kinaara project was made public yesterday (May 20, 2009) at a number of online platforms. The Facebook group was created, and along with it the existence of this blog and the email address (kinaaramail@gmail.com) were announced. Notices were also put up on a number of journals and relevant communities on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. The people who wrote and put up these notices are Anomitra Biswas (Rhea Silvia/Rhea) and me (Monidipa Mondal/Mandy). Has anyone else written, forwarded links/emails and/or invited friends? Would you like a mention in this space? Please let us know. 

The logo we are currently using for all purposes is a tentative iteration created by Karno Guhathakurta. He may want to make minor changes to it before the final website goes up, or we'll use the current model. Opinions and suggestions on the logo are welcome. 

The last time I checked the Facebook group - a few minutes back - we had exactly 100 members. 100 members in a little less than two days! That's very, very encouraging for everyone who's working behind the scenes at Kinaara, and I hope it makes us remember the responsibility to not disappoint so many people when we finally deliver. Thank you for all your support and belief in us!

Submissions have started coming in, which is another very good sign. I suppose I'm not allowed to talk about what we've got till now, or how many. Trade secret sorta thing. You'll have to wait till the magazine launches to find out about that little intrigue.

That's all for now, then.

Monidipa Mondal