It could’ve been a disaster, it could’ve been the first yet final nail on the coffin of Debunking Myths.

“Great program. Can’t wait for the next episode.”
“The program was powerful and thought-invoking, everything we’d hoped for it to be and more.”
“A great kick-start to the series. Can’t wait for more to come.”

Only it wasn’t.

This was the reaction we received from the audience, who were much more involved during the debate session than we could’ve hoped for. But of course, we didn’t know where we’d end up when we started.

A few hours prior to the event, one of our keynote speakers had cancelled because of an injury she picked up during an unfortunate accident.

Well.

I panicked. I raced back and forth, up and down, around circles trying to untangle the million knots the news had tied around my brain.

A little while and a couple hundred steps later, I drew a couple different scenarios in my head to play the program out as one of the best cases.

First thing to do: Confirm the presence of the other keynote speakers a final time.

Second thing: Divide the rest of my fellow volunteers into groups to take care of each detail in the program.

Third thing to do: Breathe.

We’d finally finished setting up. Only that we hadn’t. 12 on the clock and one more hour to go until our audience started arriving. Panic time again? Not really. Between trying to set up the camera in the perfect place and asking the other volunteers to not make a mess of the room they themselves had just cleaned, and trying to arrange seats, and then taking calls from the attendees, panic? Maybe later.

I’d already felt myself getting a little under the weather at this point, and by the time we were ready to welcome our keynote speakers and begin the program, I knew I was running a fever.

No matter though, because Bhushita Didi helped do much of the work from here. As we tried to balance and coordinate the mediator role, the program begun with our address to the audience regarding what Debunking Myths stands for, and what we look to achieve.

The idea is simple, really. Gather, have a few well experienced personalities speak on the topic, and debunk some popular myths in our society, and then move on to a debate session where the audience reveals some of the myths they’ve brought and we discuss a way on how to tackle it. Simple.

Mr. Pradip Giri started us off as he explored the ancient myths of our culture and how they still dominate our image of women. For the 15 minutes that he was given, he went about exercising the audience’s minds regarding the topic before he handed over his spotlight to Miss Samjhana Phuyal.

Samjhana ji had an intensively thorough presentation, and her own experience revolving around the myths of sexual harassment to share with us. As Pradip ji had done before, she tried to involve the crowd and make it feel as though it was a great place to share, and it was.

At the end of our keynote session, during, and even after the debate session were a flurry of raised hands one after another wishing to challenge the myths of today and share their own share of stories regarding right violations.

All in all, it was and a success. It really was, given the short space of time the team had gotten to work around the obstacles.

We hope the next episode of Debunking Myths is an improvement on this.

No. We know it will be.