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A bakery made its first sale here
She wanted to start one from her kitchen. She took orders on the spot and went home with ₹800.
Home 05 full · prebooking Home 06
A cozy gathering for those who believe everyone has a story worth sharing.
We read, write, talk, laugh, and create a space that feels less like an event and more like coming home to people who understand you.
Open to everyone · date and place drop in the WhatsApp group
- Date
- In the group
- Runtime
- 2 hours
- Where
- Ahmedabad
- Cost
- ₹149
- Seats
- Prebooking
First, the short version
Ithaka is an app made only of words.
No photos, no video, nothing to scroll past. Just what people are actually thinking, written down.
People write things there they would not say out loud, and other people write back.
All of that is good. It is also all online, and some of it belongs beyond the screen.
Beyond the screen
So we started meeting in real life.
Ithaka Home is that meeting. Once a month we pick a cafe in Ahmedabad, or a bookshop, or a park, and spend two hours there with whoever turns up. Same writing, same honesty, out loud and in person. Home 06 is ₹149 a head, with food.
You do not need to have used Ithaka before. No account, nothing written, nothing to prepare. You download the app in the first ten minutes with everybody else, and we walk you through it.
Almost everyone walking in has never heard of Ithaka. That is normal, and it is most of the people there.
a cafe, a bookshop, a park · the exact place drops in our WhatsApp group and nowhere else.
Hour by hour
Two hours, five moves. Nothing here is a surprise.
Every Home runs the same way, and this is it. Each photograph is that part of a morning that has already happened.
10 minNames, out loud
- 10 min
Names, out loud
Your name, and one true thing about your week.
- 10 min
What Ithaka is, and what today is
Ten minutes on the app, on this Home, and on how the next two hours run. No slides.
- 25 min
Game one, on your own
A prompt goes up. You write. Then we read each other.
- 30 min
Game two, in threes
Same again, in small groups. Loudest part of the morning.
- 35 min
The Spotlight
Two people get the floor and everyone else goes to work.
- and then
Nobody is in a hurry to leave
Every Home so far has run over. Stay as long as you like.
The Spotlight
Two people get the floor. Everybody else gets to work.
The form asks what you are chasing. We read every answer and pick two.
They take the floor, say where they are stuck, and everybody spends fifteen minutes helping however they can. A contact, a customer, an honest question, a lift on Tuesday.
Be specific.“I want to earn a lot of money” gives us nothing. These we can work with:
- I want to open a cafe.
- I want a job in tech, in this city.
- I want my family to let me marry my partner.
- I want them to let me go abroad to study.
Two sentences is plenty.
What has actually happened
Three things that happened here.
The floor
A man who said he can't open up, did
He read his own writing out loud, to everyone. Nobody moved.
First time
People who had never written wrote something beautiful
Not since school, some of them. Everyone asked to hear it twice.
If you have been looking for people worth knowing, they are already here.
Before you talk yourself out of it
The seven things people ask us.
- “I've never written anything.”
- Neither had half the people there. One line, twenty minutes, no wrong answer.
- “I've never used the Ithaka app.”
- Almost nobody has. You download it in the first ten minutes, with everybody else, and we walk you through it.
- “I don't know anyone going.”
- Almost everyone comes alone. By game two you can't tell who came together.
- “My English isn't good enough.”
- Write in Hindi, Gujarati, however you think. Nobody is marking this.
- “What if I don't want to share?”
- Then don't. Passing is fine, and nobody gets put on the spot.
- “How much is it, and when do I pay?”
- ₹149 a head for Home 06, food included. You pay after we reveal the date, the time and the place, and all of that happens in the WhatsApp group.
- “The last ones were free. Why this one?”
- Because food is part of the morning now. ₹149 covers your plate. The circle, the writing and the two hours are exactly what they were.
The next one
Home 06. Date, time and place drop in the group.
- 01WhenAnnounced in the WhatsApp groupDate, time and place all drop there together.
- 02WhereA cafe in AhmedabadAddress drops in the WhatsApp group. Nowhere else.
- 03Cost₹149 per headFood included. You pay once we reveal the date and the place, in the group.
- 04FoodIncludedIt is inside the ₹149.
- 05BringYour phoneAnd one thing you've been meaning to say.
- 06SeatsPrebooking nowHome 05 filled up. This one goes in the order people prebook.
Not in Ahmedabad? Fill the form anyway. The next city comes off that list.
Prebook your seat
Home 05 is full. This is for Home 06.
Two fields, and then the WhatsApp group. The date, the time, the place and how to pay the ₹149 all drop there, and nowhere else.
One last thing
I made Ithaka because I had things to say and nowhere to put them.
It worked, and it was still a screen. People were writing honest things to each other and had never heard each other laugh.
Ithaka Home was never a plan. It grew out of the community, on its own, and now we show up in the real world too.
Come and see. It's two hours, and you'll leave a little lighter than you came.
Apurva RajCreator of Ithaka · Ahmedabad