Why Ze Salon?

Let's begin at the beginning. Why this endeavor, why 'Ze Salon', why 'Salon' and most importantly, why 'Ze'?

Like with all things in life, this didn't come to me overnight. A host of things had to happen - movies, books, Ted talks, conversations and friends - for me to become me.

And this me realized that while we go buzzing from place to place, armed with to-do lists and communication gadgets of every size and shape, the moments we enjoy the most, feel our most creative are the ones when we actually Converse.

Conversation - that most uniquely human of all activities, that which let's us harness the wisdom of centuries past, for what are books if not extended conversations, that let's us give passage to our half formed ideas and create tangible shape out of them, that brings us one crucial step closer to understanding a completely different point of view, or that which simply let's us vent, let off steam, feeling more able to apply ourselves thereafter to our chosen pursuits.

I would go as far as to say that conversation - Inspires. Every conversation holds a kernel that has the potential to expand one's mind, bring in a new perspective, and in its best form, lead to a solution that can change the course of one's life.

So, Ze Salon is all about Conversation. About anything and everything, from Bollywood to Bertrand Russel, from Pet Peeves to Politics, from Snoop Dogg to Spirituality.

Now why the name Ze Salon? Well, a salon is a living room, or a reception room and as that, quite ordinary but I remember coming across the magical concept behind it for the first time in the movie 'Midnight in Paris'; in that film it is shown as the focal point, a regular gathering for authors, painters and other interesting folk. The creativity and the drama that would have filled the air with people such as Hemingway, Picasso, G. Stein, Fitzgerald and the like gathering for bakchodi, shorts my imagination.

But then I think that we are the thinkers & creators of our time in a world that has succeeded in the democratization of ideation and that, today, we are all potential innovators.

Ze Salon is then an ambitious attempt at creating a shadow of that Salon, a meeting place for people who want to understand, learn or even create, where ideas are currency and conversation the medium.

And why Ze? Just.

The team comprises myself and Kavitha, with inputs from our loving and supportive husbands, who frankly don't have a choice.

Many more to come,
Shreya,
On behalf of Team Ze Salon.