Asian News Blog

I am shattered this morning. After climbing into bed at 2am I almost feel like going back home and sleeping for the rest of the day. Of course this could have been avoided if it wasn't for Asian timing, or to be more precise Bangla timing and the fact that more than 10 people gave speeches and each one said exactly the same thing.

You see I was invited to a cultural evening thrown by the Iqbal brothers at their brand new Ibco factory in Manchester. The turn out was great, nearly 700 people came and I was glad to see so many women as well, of course the fact that some of Bangladesh's top artists including Habib and baby Nasmeen were there last night also helped!

I arrived on time, 7pm to be exact, but had to wait for another hour before the speeches even began and by that time I was getting fidgety and I was starving.

Before the speeches started, Mr Iqbal first presented awards and gifts to long standing employees as he officially marked the opening of his new cash and carry. After which so-called special guests went on stage (I've actually lost count of the many so-called "dignitaries" that “inspired” the crowd with their words of wisdom).

Nobody had anything really of importance to say. I mean why can't people stick to a maximum of three guests speakers, tell them to keep it nice and short so the crowd won't get bored.

Well you can imagine what happened next, the crowd did get bored and everybody started having conversations with each other, me included, it was great time to network, I saw many old faces, got told off by many people for not coming out more often and then finally about 9.30pm the entertainment began with Ferdous singing some classic Bengali filmi songs.

Music producer and now singer Habib then came on stage and he was definitely worth waiting for as he sang all his best selling remixes.
The best was of course left till last as Baby Nasmeen came on stage and bowled everybody over with her great voice.

By the time it finished it was midnight. As I was leaving I managed to get hold of Habib (pictured in the middle here with me and Oldham based actor Ahad Ullah). Habib told me he was working on another album which he says will be out next year. He also told me that he wanted to thank his British fans who have inspired him to create Bangla folk song remixes!

Even though the entertainment was great, I still want to make this point about time keeping. This is the third event I have been to this month and at each one organisers didn't start till at least an hour later and the amount of people giving speeches makes me want to bang my head against the wall, it drives me mad having to hear each person say the same thing.

Sometimes even I to want to turn up late because I know events never start on time but then I'll be doing exactly what everybody else is doing, turning up late and irritating those who have turned up on time.

So if your thinking of organising an event, please please read this carefully, if you tell people something is going to start at 7pm then stick to it. If people miss out then that's their problem not yours. I just feel after eight years of going to hundreds of events it's about time I spoke out about this because better organisational and time keeping skills will take you a lot further than waiting around and wasting time.