Fifth (and last, for now).

We are planning to have some sessions which will be different from what we have been doing the last two years. These will be in-person events that do not adapt well to an online format — for example, nature and heritage walks, guided tours of museums and galleries — and so will be only for people in particular locations. As far as we can see, we do have sufficient numbers of people in Bangalore, Bombay, and of course Goa, so we’ll start with those first. We’re calling these TGP Communities,

This is volunteering that will not take up much of your time. These events will be, at most, once a month, on a weekend. We’ll need you to physically present on the day, of course, and for a meeting or two on the phone or via Google Meet.

If you would like to volunteer to organise these in your city, please write to thetgpsessions@gmail.com with ‘Volunteering for TGP communities in [your city name]’ in the subject line and your contact details. If you have suggestions for these local community events, do include them in your email.

If you don’t have the time to volunteer but you’d like to attend these in-person sessions, write to thetgpsessions@gmail.com with ‘Interested in TGP Communities in [place name]’ as the subject line.

Siddharth has walked over 6000 kilometres across India, especially along rivers, trying to document and bring stories of marginalised people and the environment into the mainstream. The documentary Moving Upstream: Ganga, from his 3000 km walk along that river, has been doing the festival rounds, and is slated to be released soon. His organisation Veditum India Foundation hosts some of his work, along with efforts towards environmental research, documentation and accountability initiatives.

Vidushi is a lawyer and researcher who investigates the societal implications of artificial intelligence (AI). She works at Article 19, where she leads research and engagement on the human rights implications of machine learning. Her work has been cited by the Supreme Court of India in a seminal ruling on the Right to Privacy, and by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, among others. She is a member of the Expert Group on Governance of Data and AI at United Nations Global Pulse. Her recent work investigates predictive policing in New Delhi, emotion recognition in China, CCTV surveillance in Myanmar, and more.

We start in 5.

Coming up on July 17th, a hybrid TGP Sessions. This one is in Bangalore. And we’re putting this out early so folks in the ’Luru can let us know in advance whether they can make it. Which, in turn, is because our venue has limited seating and requires us to submit a guest list in advance. (Folks elsewhere, no worries, it’s hybrid; that is, you can participate via Zoom.)

What will you be signing up for? Here’s something to help you decide.

Many of us — urban, educated, living in metros, comfortable with English — may assume that we will choose our own domestic / romantic partners and, while finding that significant other, gain a lot of experience and fun stories. But we are a minority. A very small one. As data journalist Rukmini S wrote for the BBC — https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59530706 — in a piece about marriage and relationships in India, 93% of Indians said that their marriage was arranged. There was a slight change in the data for younger people, but marriages are, almost entirely, within caste and religion boundaries. Individual choice, by and large, is not a significant factor.

But, in the same article, a Dalit man Rukmini interviews — someone in a secret relationship with a girl from another caste — says, “Your data shows you there's very little inter-group marriage. But it doesn't show you about love.”

He, and those among you over 30 and still single or who have picked or are picking their own partners — and everyone living outside the cis-het binary — are harbingers of slow, but steady change. But still outliers. And outliers mostly have it tough.

So, on the 17th, we’ll dive into dating, relationships and just meeting like-minded people in a society that expects and tries to enforce conformity. We’ll ask what happens when you don’t want to go to marriage brokers or rely on religious and caste networks. We’ll investigate what singles are doing to find fulfilling relationships and navigate a world where the norms of such interaction are yet to be fully established.

The venue is almost certainly going to be WeWork Galaxy, Residency Road https://goo.gl/maps/46WoB8huTtX9ATLd9

Presenter details in our next email, but if you are in Bangalore on the 17th and want to make sure you have a seat at the table, please let us know via this form. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdI5xUK8hZtATcNsPMOG9Svmoqer5ptOjLYlU5ZYYc-Eu7vcQ/viewform

Hello. We made an error in the registration link for in-person attendees and posted the one from our previous in-person event in Bangalore. It is corrected now, but just in case: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdI5xUK8hZtATcNsPMOG9Svmoqer5ptOjLYlU5ZYYc-Eu7vcQ/viewform

(If you have already registered there, no worries; the team will check that form too.)

A quick note to tell you that we are shifting the next TGP Sessions from 14th August, the middle of a long weekend which we think might see many of you wandering off the Internet, to 21st August. This will be an online session.

On the 21st, our discussion will be about new ways of feeding the planet. We’re finalising our presenters, and will mail you soon about it, but you can sign up right away. https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMrfuisqTMpHdfsrdBIR_X3KhIAVbny8GoJ

Hello. A reminder that we meet in about 45 minutes.
Do join us.

This week’s #TGPSessions will be about work:life balance.

If you spend time on LinkedIn, you’re very likely to come across posts by successful founders and senior corporate folk that recommend ways of working, of achieving success in the workplace. Some of these have genuine insights and wisdom gleaned from vast experience, some offer obviousness wrapped in many layers of buzzwords from people hoping to ‘go viral’ and gain clout. Sometimes some of these can indeed go viral, but for reasons that the person posting them may not have anticipated.
This week, prompted by one such post that spilt over from LinkedIn to other social media and even on television — look up ‘18-hour day’ or ‘rona dhona’ in your favourite search engine or social network — and other similar wisdom from company founders and leaders, we want to talk not about that infamous post but about the debates it prompted on work:life balance and start-ups, with a particular focus on hard work and long hours in the early years of one’s career.
Badri Natarajan — lawyer, entrepreneur, police officer, martial artist, father, at different times and places — will kick off the discussion with a nuanced perspective born of first-hand experience, and Udhay Shankar and Peter Griffin will share some perspectives too. But we want you to come with your views, and we will make time to hear everyone. If you think you have a view you would like to share, please write to us at thetgpsessions at gmail dot com before the actual event, with a few sentences about what you would like to cover.

We meet in half an hour. See you there!

We’re looking to expand the TGP organising team. If you would like to help shape what TGP does in the near future, and think you can afford two hours a week, and would like to join us, please fill out this form. https://forms.gle/yD4ELEP6YEUrdohb8

Need more information?

Right, first, why a larger team?

More diversity, for one.

Secondly,, with the world now somewhat back to normal, some of us are busier now than when we first joined the team, so more people involved will ensure more people to share what needs to be done, or that if one person is super-busy, others can take care of things.

Third, if you’ve been keeping up with our emails, you know that we are gradually doing more (a) hybrid sessions — some folks in a physical location, other joining in online — which requires a bit more work, (b) we want to start local community events, which means we need organising volunteers in cities where we have a decent volume of participants (c) and we plan to eventually do a full-length in-person TGP, which takes a lot more people.

What’s the time commitment?

For now, we would want you attend all the Sessions, of course, which are now once every four weeks, on Sundays at 5:30 p.m. IST. If it is a hybrid event, and you are in the city that the in-person component is being hosted in, we would want you to pitch in with that. And we hope you will also join in creating the local community events.

As to meetings, at present, we do an online video call once every four weeks, on the Wednesday immediately following a Sessions, to discuss the one coming up next, take feedback, make suggestions, problem-solve if necessary, and generally to chat and hang out; these are anything from 15 minutes to an hour long. Now and then, we may do a second meeting in that four-week period, but that’s rare; most of our coordination is via a Google Group and a Telegram group. And of course the folks managing a track, a hybrid event, and eventually the community events, will call each other at mutually convenient times to plan.

Overall, we estimate this should take two hours of your week at most.