The Second Floor

The most dreaded question I am unable to answer these days is “When exactly is T2F reopening?” It’s heartwarming that so many people want T2F back in their lives and it’s aggravating beyond belief to not be able to give them a straight answer. If you’ve ever built a house or an office, you’ll know why.

In May, I said, “Oh, definitely June.” In June, I realized the enormity of the task at hand and said, “July for sure.” Well, July isn’t over yet, but it will be, all too soon. I now tell people, “As soon as there is electricity and I can guarantee that cement blocks won’t fall on your head.” Naturally the next question is, “So when do you think that will be?”

Unfortunately, this particular situation involves painters, masons, air-conditioner installers, plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, each of whom move to the beat of a different drummer, and no, not in a nice, esoteric way. Adding to the trauma is the fact that the building we’re moving into has still not been granted an electrical connection by our favorite utility company. So each time someone needs to drill a hole in the wall, a generator has to be rented!

It became fairly apparent, somewhere in June, that we would not be blessed with an electrical connection any time soon. I sent out an email asking for donations to help us buy a generator. Thanks to some absolutely wonderful individuals, we were able to raise enough money to pay a down payment on the generator. We were several lacs short of being able to buy one, so I had to sign my life over to the leasing firm :)

The good news is that we got the lease and the generator will hopefully be installed by next week. The painters have started painting and the carpenter is doing the best he can in the dark. Thanks to the generosity of our amazing donor, we have not one, but two floors of space. Events will now be held on the ground floor and no musician will ever have to lug equipment up two flights of stairs again, ever! Our upcoming project, Faraar – a playground for creative expression, is also downstairs and we are super excited about our first exhibition featuring three, talented young artists. Music and dance classes will also be held downstairs. The coffeehouse will be upstairs (during events, coffee will also be available from a counter downstairs), along with offices for us and some new spaces. We now have a dedicated conference room that we will rent out for meetings, and a co-working studio for letting out to aspiring entrepreneurs, writers, designers, researchers – well anyone really, who needs a quiet, furnished space with access to various forms of mentoring, free wifi and a funky vibe.

Other exciting new PeaceNiche projects are brewing and we’ll share them with you very soon. Right now, the focus is to get T2F 2.0 up and running. The last four months have been very tough but we’re too pig-headed to let adversity get in the way. There are tons of things that need to get done but once the bare essentials are in place, we’re going to throw the doors open for beta testing. Uhhhh, don’t ask when exactly!!! Some time in August. Yes, this year!

Cheers!
Sabeen

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