[Reader-list] Why say no to Kitab festival

[mahmood farooqui]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Dan Husain <dan.husain at gmail.com>
Date: 19 Feb 2008 20:36
Subject: Kitab 2007
To: Mahmood Farooqui <mahmood.farooqui at gmail.com>, Ambarish Satwik
<asatwik at gmail.com>




Date: Mon, Feb 18 2008 1:40 pm
From: "peter griffin"


Passing this through from a friend who is one of the signatories. And I can
vouch for the very different treatment of the Brits as compared to the
Indians, having seen it first hand. Don't take my word for it; it was also
written about in the media.

====

We, the organisers of Kitab 2007, write to you in order to inform of the
unprofessional practices of our employer, the owner of Liberatum, organizer
of Kitab, Pablo Ganguli.  We write to register our protest against his
actions, to demand that he resolve his outstanding dues, and to urge you to
all to consider these factors before lending support to Kitab 2008.


>  Some of our main concerns are listed below
>
> 1. Kitab 2008 is poised to take place next week, yet we are still owed
> thousands of pounds in salary and expenses from the last event. We have been
> communicating with Pablo for the past 12 months, requesting our full
> salaries, to no avail. We also paid for expenses out of our pocket, and to
> date have not received all this money back.
>
> 2. In emails and draft programmes sent to staff, invitees, and potential
> sponsors, Pablo was misleading about those participating in the festival.
> This indirectly compromised the integrity of those working on the project,
> who passed on false information to potential guests and sponsors.
>
> 3.  The bias that he showed towards the British guests over the Indian
> guests made it difficult for us to hold an inclusive and relevant festival,
> and to give all our participants the respect they deserved. British guests
> were given top priority for all VIP events. Indian guests who were not
> already based in Bombay were discouraged from being invited. Transport and
> accommodation was offered to guests from the UK, whereas guests flying in
> from other parts of India were not offered the same facilities. *This bias
> was also noted and pointed out by many of the invitees and participants*.
>
> 4. Pablo's frequent unavailability, both physical and via telephone,
> notably in the week preceding the festival, during the event itself, and
> afterwards. A refusal to take responsibility for problems often left us to
> pick up the pieces.  An example of this being taking a holiday in Goa
> immediately after the festival without informing any of the staff. We were
> left to make outstanding payments out of our own pockets, as Pablo's
> reassigning of allocated funds without consultation led to sponsorship money
> falling short.
>
> 5. Overt emphasis on self PR over interest in the content, ideology or
> logistics of the festival. Evidenced further by the fact that Pablo Ganguli
> referred to himself as a Cultural Impressario in the media and gave the
> impression that the festival was a one man show. The disproportionate
> emphasis on PR hindered the progress of an already severely understaffed
> team by not allowing staff to work as a team.
>
>
> 6. Despite requests to the contrary, Pablo maintained secrecy, discouraged
> cooperation, and encouraged a segregation of duties amongst us, including
> the separation of Indian and UK participants, so we had to trust him, at the
> helm, to keep us abreast of relevant information. He completely failed to do
> this.  There was also unfounded vilification of staff's hard work.
>
> 7. We were initially told that we would be given accommodation in Bombay
> in the months leading up to the festival (since none of us were based
> there).  However, we were unable even to visit the city that the festival
> was taking place in, unless it was on our own expense, to the detriment of
> the event.
>
> To sum up, we feel that we were misled by Pablo Ganguli and are very
> disappointed by his behaviour prior to, during, and subsequent to the
> festival. We urge you to express your disapproval for this unjust behaviour;
> to email Pablo on the address above and not to lend your support to Kitab
> 2008.
>
> Lastly, we would like to apologise to all the participants who were also
> left inconvenienced and disappointed by Kitab 2007 - those who were
> cancelled on at the last minute, those that were misled, and those who were
> given lower priorities than their British counterparts - and we assure you
> that we expressed our concerns about all these factors throughout.
>
> Sincerely
>
> Kavita Bhanot (bhanot.kavita at gmail.com)
> Ayesha Siddiqi (ayeshaemail at gmail.com)
> Shazia Nizam (shazia at presstopcreatives.com)
>




==============================================================================

- -- 
Dan's Blogs
http://shamethepoem.blogspot.com
http://proseonama.blogspot.com
http://dastangoi.blogspot.com
http://writersagainstterrorism.blogspot.com
http://www.kafila.org
http://www.caferati.com
http://cookingcinema.blogspot.com