Hyderabad FT Meetup #2

(Reported by Sarath Somina)
Date & Time: 07-October-2012, 4:30 PM to 7:30 PM
Venue: Jana Vignana Vedika Office, Khairatabad, Hyderabad

When we planned to host the meetup for Hyderabad Freethinkers, we were a bit skeptical about how much interest it would generate in the group and how many people might like to turn up for the event. Moreover, since it’s the first meetup with the newly added members organizing it, we wanted to discuss the bigger picture of Objective, Preamble and what to present in the meetups for the group. We decided that it would be good if the meetings have a touch of professionalism and agenda to carry out, so that we can make the best of the time and have a qualitative discussion among the members.

Mr.Shariff Gora, the renowned rationalist, was kind enough to attend the meeting, despite his busy schedule. He was very inspiring, working tirelessly at an age of sixty plus, opening up to us about his life, path towards rationality and the challenges he faced to sustain his ideology, and ironically, to live in the way he wanted to. He is an epitome of simplistic, yet powerful humanism, encouraging us throughout the session to make a difference in the people around us.

This meet saw an attendance of 7 members, which is decent, and we started off with our Introductions – About oneself, Profession, Interests & Hobbies, journey towards Rationalism, and any affiliations/membership with other Rationalist or Secular Humanist bodies. Mr.Shariff’s introduction was so intense, that others also started to open-up with their stories in detail, bringing a deeper level of interaction among us.

During the introductions, we discussed on Relativism, Objectivity of Truth, role of Empiricism in fact-finding, Inspirations to create a cult/religion, Literary significance of religious scriptures, Purpose of human life, role of Arts in improving quality of life. Nice and Well-though points were made, and all of us were impressed by the level of thought our members have been putting into the discussion. We also discussed on how to expand the group to a more global level, getting affiliated with existing national-level Rationalist and Secular Humanist bodies.

From left to right - Varun, Ikram, Sarath, Nayeem and Prashanth
Arun and Mr.Shariff are not in this picture

During the conclusion of the meeting, we agreed upon the following points

• To put a specific day (like the 2nd Sunday) for the Hyderabad FT group meetup
• To dedicate some meetups exclusively to screening documentaries and discuss on them
• To make greater and deeper efforts to take the group to a more global level and getting it registered

All in all, it was a very good meetup with Mr.Shariff giving us nice pointers, and interesting discussion unfolding in the group, turning out to be a pretty interesting evening. This report is just a brief gist of what exactly happened, and it is in no way a substitute to a physical meet and won’t explain in detail to the members who missed the meetup. So, join us for the next meetup and experience for yourself the stimulating discussion and debate happening in the group