Friends Fiesta 2009

Friendship Day is internationally celebrated on the first Sunday of August every year to honour one's friends. It is celebrated in different ways, to the place and age group. In 2008, a creative group of Nepalese web designers who founded an independent group called Hamro Chautari, a unique concept to mark the special day in Kathmandu. The group has already announced that like last year, they will be organising a brand new episode of their highly acclaimed event, Friends Fiesta - a dance party.

Last week got a chance to chat with some of the members of Hamro Chautari and was instantly with them. They invited me to the upcoming event as well. Though I have never been to a dance party before, I accepted their invitation. I know I won't be dancing there, but I think I will be taking as much snapshots as I can.

A few days ago I asked Dijup Tuladhar, one of the founders of Hamro Chautari, "What is the main idea behind the dance party?" He replied, "We simply want this event to bring friends and friends of friends together at a place where they can spend some quality time and cherish the true colours of friendship. Originally, we had started this event as an informal gathering of our own circle of friends, mostly the IT professionals like Web Designers, Programmers etc. who we once used to work with. However, we have now decided to open this programme to everybody who would like to have a light-hearted session of entertainment with likeminded people."

Friends Fiesta 2009 will begin from 7 pm onwards, on August 2nd and at Club Platinum, Hotel Yak & Yeti. Take your best friend or friends to club, get indulged in the celebration with hundreds of other enthusiasts and if you want to take a step further, you can get acquainted with some of the emerging talents in the IT arena of Nepal. For further details, search for the groups "Hamro Chautari" or the event "Friends Fiesta" after logging in to Facebook, or simply visit the "Local Events" section of www.KathmanduHotel-Link.com. To try your luck, simply tune in to Hits FM 91.2 and see if you can win some free tickets to the dance party.

According to Sudish Shrestha, another founding member of the group, "Hamro Chautari is a non-profit group of IT professionals who, despite working in different companies, share the same ideals, the main being a burning desire to bring about some positive changes in the IT sector of Nepal. We organise several events and activities every year mostly on weekends so that our members get a chance to release their work stress, have ample time for rejuvenation and brainstorming. It is encouraging to see how well they get involved every time, forgetting individual differences and building respect for each other, which, we believe, is the key element for success of any sort of Social Networking."

I wish all the best to the organisers and to all the attendees, I wish a great time and lots of fun. And if you expect the event to run without any media coverage, you're utterly wrong, for there will be professional photographers (not me!) plus the TV crew of Image Channel. So rest assured, you'll get noticed! See you there.