Intro to 'An Evening with Ali'
Sunday 25th March 2007 11:15:53 PM
On Friday me and Abz made our way to London to attend "An Evening with Ali" which would be taking place at Imperial College. I have to say the college was absolutely huge and the best I've ever visited (maybe even seen).
When the event was originally advertised it was due to begin at 6pm, which they later changed to 6:30pm and a week or so prior the timing went on to settle at 7pm.
We arrived at 6:30pm thinking we'll kill 15 minutes ourselves and take our seats soon after. Walking through the college we asked an attendee where the event was taking place; he pointed us in the right direction and asked if we'd like to do wudu (in order to pray) which we kindly declined.
Further on, we saw a group of guys and girls standing aimlessly outside an entrance. 'Hmmm maybe its taking place here' I thought to myself and went on to take a closer look. How wrong I was, the group outside were (shall we say) 'observing' the guys and girls praying inside the hall. The guys were praying infront and the girls a metre or two behind them, maybe this wouldn't have been so bad if they didn't have an audience peering through the glass walls.
I gave Abz a concerned look; he knows what I think about things like this. "I wouldn't pray in there even if I wanted to" he said. I could see where he was coming from - this place was acting more as a deterrent than anything else. We put it to the back of our minds and walked on.
After going to the vending machine to grab a slight snack we decided to park our rears on the fifth row from the front. We were 10 minutes early and the hall was three quarters full, we were happy to have made it on time because we had been running on a tight schedule.
I looked at my watch and 7 o'clock chimed in my head. I, along with everyone else, waited anxiously for Baba Ali to make his appearance. There was a lot of hubbub and noise from the audience, ten minutes later I noticed the organisers walking amongst a room full of people. A further 10 minutes and still no sign of Baba Ali, I could sense the audience growing impatient (and I think the event organisers could too) so at twenty past a speaker decided to address us. He must have only spoke for a maximum of 30 seconds, trying to assure us that the talk will begin in 5 minutes. It didn't.
At 7:30pm there was still no sign of the host, no-one telling us when exactly it would begin or what was causing the delay (technical difficulties, etc) as a result my opinion of the event organisers had changed to highly unprofessional and Baba Ali was looking the comedian.
Me and Abz were so close to leaving despite travelling a fair distance to be here, their lack of punctuality was irritating us all.
Another speaker got onstage and told us the talk would begin in one minute, poor guy got laughed off the stage but could you blame us? That 'one minute' actually meant 15 minutes. Forty-five minutes behind schedule and a not so impressed audience, the talk finally began with some guy praying the Surah Maryam (from the Quran) with the translation shown on the big screen.
Soon after, Baba Ali graced us with his much awaited presence and we let him know how we felt – with a huge round of applause from all across the room. Needless to say, the show had just begun.
Posted by Piniyini
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Sounds like the event was organized by some desis...lol...glad you had fun...laters.
is that the guy with the videos on you tube - the "this is a reminder from ali" guy?
Yup Wayfarer thats the one, see here
http://www.toseef.com/200703-baba-ali-ummah-films-imperial-college-london
Assalamu'alaikum,
Thank you for your review, it was an interesting read.
Just to correct a couple of points in your post; after the second speaker got on stage and said "the event will start in one minute"... it actually did start 1-2 minutes afterwards (yes, we measured).
Secondly, and more importantly, the reason for the delay in starting was because the majority of the attendees arrived after 6.30pm, and it wouldn't have been practical to start the event with a large proportion of guests absent - because of the disruption/noise it would cause when those guests entered, and because many guests arrived from afar.
Our electronic booking system counted a large proportion of attendees coming into the Hall after 7pm. In fact, there were only about 250-300 people in the Hall by 6.30pm, which is just 1/3 of the audience!
That was the only reason we started late.
As for the comment above "the event was organized by some desis", there's no need to make racist generalisations.
(By the way, I know the above as I was one of the organisers of the event.)
Jazak-Allahu-khayr,
ohhh, toseef, tut tut, that terrible!
that's not very nice :(
Why did you not pray maghrib? :S
Mohammed, thank you for your comments. There's no point (initially) saying the event is going to start at 7pm then starting it 45 minutes later? Unless there was some sort of a disclaimer that I missed which mentioned something along the lines of 'Starting at 7 unless attendees arrive late' (now that would be funny). For peace of mind it would have been better if you had said a time when it would actually be starting, rather than us play the waiting game.
About the 'comment above' that you mention, it's not by me.
Oh, and I am one of those people who 'arrived from afar'. If I can do it anyone can!
Sara, welcome and care to elaborate?
Humaira, something I said or regarding the event? (or both?)
Rufaida, I knew someone would say this. Basically I don't pray at home so it wouldn't seem right going to London to pray (after all I was there for the event). Also, the situation with the prayer hall didn't help in any way.
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I thought this post was kinda dead and no-one would comment, guess I was wrong. I've yet to write the aftermath to this post (will do soon).
Toseef
Hey you don't have to apologise to me, I've known you long enough to know your (our?) sense of humour.
Toseef... man you nitpick and moan soooo much, like did you feel you didn't get your value for money for the £3.50 ticket price or something? come on man, apart from starting 35 mins late (by my watch, dunno how you got 45 mins), the event delivered everything it said it would, without any glitches.
it's very easy to sit there and criticise but a lot of us would've done the same if we were in the organiser's position...
if you've ever given a presentation at uni or wherever you know how distracting it can be when groups of people enter late into the lecture theatre and find their seat... and inevitably talking while they do it...
now imagine this on a huge scale with hundreds of latecomers, and bear in mind that the event had the biggest audience to date of any ummahfilms event.
basically, considering that baba ali has only done a handful of events so far and this was the biggest... i think the organisers made the right decision to delay until the latecomers arrived... but yeah i agree that they probably should've announced the reason.
besides, imperial college events usually start on time unlike other islamic societies... i'm sure the organisers were as agitated as you were about the late start
anyways that's my 2 pence... apart from the late start the event was amazing... actually i totally forgot about the late start til i read your blog today
Mb-7, welcome and yes that is what I use the blog for (moan and vent as I please). I haven't wrote the 2nd part to this entry but I have to say it was a good event.
You mention the price tag, I think it's a no-brainer to figure out this isn't about money - rather the time the event started (and yes it was 45 mins later, we had a couple of things planned afterwards so I was time conscious).