Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Blog Thought For The Wanderers: They Say It Isnt Possible

Hasan and I were seated across from each other at the Gelato Affair on that warm June Karachi night in the year 2000. He was worried like had never seen him before.

Hasan: "Do you think we can do it?"
I: "Do you have any doubts?"
Hasan: "Its big man and august is barely two months away."
I: "But you know that this is the best time to do it. We can focus all our energies before classes start."
Hasan: "I spoke to BS today, he wasnt sure if it can be done, he was quite skeptical about the whole idea."
I: "BS is a techie professor, if he could do it he wouldnt be where he is."
Hasan: "I spoke with the IBA guys too, they said it was a long shot."
I: "Dude, you know them, they werent supportive of the festival either. We have a good base to build of from."
I took another sip out of my chocolate shake while Hasan toyed with a spoon in front of him.
I: "Whats Ali saying?"
Hasan: "He is in it if we are."
I: "We can rope in Sunny too."
Hasan: "yes"
I: "I am in it to win it man"
Hasan looked straight into his cup of coffee and possibly thought about all the thing in his own Hasan way. He looked back up, with his trade mark grin
Hasan: "Lets do it then"

On August 29, Hasan, Ali, Sunny & I stood at the Karachi Marriott as the organizers of the National IT Expo 2000, the biggest and most diverse IT exhibition to be held thus far (Dawn and Jang hadnt jumped into the picture and the Expo center was barely complete). We had our share of nay sayers and detractors. We were hearing "it isnt possible" from all quarters. It took us a little over two months, unmatched motivation, a few strokes of luck and support from a handful of friends to use Rs.10,000 and hold an event with a budget of around Rs. 700,000.

In the words of Adidas, Impossible is nothing!

4 comments:

Kat said...

way to go.....! like i say, never doubt your instinct!

amna said...

its the best feeling in the world to achieve something that others think is impossible...

jammie said...

i remember this!!!
i think i designed an invite for it or something- hasan gave me this whole wouldnt you like to be associated with the pioneers shpeel hehehe. :)

M K Abbas said...

folks it truly is a great feeling to have done something that was thought to be impossible.
To this day, that event continues to be the elixir of my hopes.

Jammie - you did design the invite - it was the invite to the opening ceremony. those were good times. :D