The Indian community of Singapore is a mix of diverse cultures, heritage, and languages. While Indians form about nine per cent of Singapore’s population, their achievements and contributions to the city-state’s progress are by no means small.
Against this backdrop, there is a wide range of events and activities organised by various community associations and organisations every week, and even more so in festive periods such as during New Year celebrations and Deepavali.
As most such events are organised on weekends, the issue of overlapping events is also a common predicament for us. Suggestions for creating an Indian community calendar to deconflict events have been tried, tested, and failed many times.
Another common gripe is that many people who want to know what’s going on in the community can’t easily find out about these events. This is especially so for youth who aren’t yet plugged into the various WhatsApp or Facebook groups – very often, they find out about these happenings only after the fact, on social media or in the news. We must find a way to reach out to these youth who are keen and get them involved as much as possible.
tabla! aims to plug this gap by creating a central platform for organisations to share their plans with us, both before and after their events. For a few weeks now, tabla! has been running its “WHAT’S ON” listings on both its weekly print and online website (under the lifestyle section). It will also strive to share these happenings via social media, specifically on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Beyond creating awareness in the Indian community, the listings on tabla! can also reach out to the wider Singaporean community who may also be interested in attending these events – playing a wider role of integration both within the Indian community and outside of it.
In the coming weeks, tabla! will create an online form for community partners or individuals to upload details pre- and post-event for our consideration. We request that organisations submit their requests to us at least two weeks before the event.
The same idea applies to post-event coverage – submit the post-event write-up to us at least two weeks after the event so we can run the story in a timely manner. These stories may appear online, in print, or both.
Over time, tabla! can play a central role in both shouting out and bringing awareness to the Indian community happenings, reducing overlaps and engaging the community in our various events in the best possible manner.
