The guidebook · The Works

UPAGP

A house for a community of families from Uttar Pradesh, open to anyone who walks in.

In one sentence

The website of the UP Association of Greater Philadelphia, built as a house: rooms that tell where its families come from, a page for each of its four gatherings, and a room of its own for every family.

A moment

At a table, on the night of a gathering

A small card on the table says Come home, in English and Hindi, with a code to scan. A mother scans it while the music starts. Her phone asks who she is, then who is in her family, then where in Uttar Pradesh they come from. As she taps Lucknow, the district lights on a small map, and a rangoli (the coloured pattern drawn at a doorway) on the screen gains a petal.

She types one memory of home: the tea stall outside the station at dawn. On the big screen at the front of the hall, which shows only counts, her district glows. When she opens her phone the next week, her family's own page is waiting; from the next gathering they book here, each one joins it as a stub.

She told the house once, and it remembered.

Why I made it

Why not a members' page and a ticket link?

Because a list and a ticket don't make anyone feel they have arrived. The association already had a member list, a ticketing page and a group chat. I wanted one house where a family is known once, books in a minute, sees who else is coming, and finds the land it left drawn back for it, region by region, in the language it grew up with.

What's inside

What is inside it?

1 · The courtyardHome, and the menuA courtyard, the aangan at the open centre of a house in Uttar Pradesh, drawn for Philadelphia's hour and season, with three doorways. The menu shows the house from above: five wings and every room.Like stepping into the aangan before you choose a room.
2 · Our StoryWhere we come from, and how we beganKeepsakes of Uttar Pradesh drawn as you reach them, the long crossing, a lamp for every year since 2001, and the presidents who carried it.Like an album passed around after dinner.
3 · Uttar PradeshThe land, region by regionA map that lights eight regions as you scroll, each with what is spoken, celebrated, made and tasted there, and photographs. The Sangam, where the Ganga and the Yamuna meet, and Lucknow have rooms of their own.Like a grandparent pointing at the map.
4 · GatheringsThe year, and each eveningThe year as a ring of months. Each gathering's page has its story, the evening's program, prices, who's coming, and, afterwards, the evening remembered.Like the notice on the community board, but it answers your questions.
5 · Join and giveMembership, sponsors, the Youth GroupLifetime membership in one step, the sponsors' wall of lamps, and ways to support the children's activities.Like the table by the door where you sign up.
6 · Your familyA room of its own for every familyYour people, your tickets as a row of stubs, your year as a ring, how others find you, and an invitation to bring another family. Families who have come home can find each other, see a map of where they come from, and see the Web of Welcome: which family brought which.Like your own shelf in the family home.

Use it

The house, in the order you will meet it

  1. Open the front door. The first visit opens with a short scene that ends where we live now; you can skip it. Return visits take one breath.
  2. Open the menu. Top left, a lamp in a niche. It shows the house from above, and your settings: the hour, Hindi or English, text size, and calm movement.
  3. Walk Our Story and Uttar Pradesh. Scroll; the drawings and the map follow you. Where there is a Listen button, a voice reads the room.
  4. Choose a gathering. From The year, open its page: what it is, when and where, the evening's program, prices, and who's coming.
  5. Book. Say who is coming. If your phone or email belongs to a member family, the member price applies by itself. Your ticket opens at once with a code for the door, and comes by email once it is paid.
  6. Come home. Seven short steps, once, for the whole family. After that, sign in with a link by email, or your phone and a birth date.
  7. Open your family's page. Everyone in your family, your tickets, your year, a memory of home, and how other families can find you.
  8. The morning after a gathering, open its page again: who came, the photos everyone added to the evening's album, and a word you can leave.

What it won't do

  • Show a home address, anywhere, or anyone's date of birth.
  • Show your email or phone to other families unless you choose to.
  • Show your family's name on a gathering's page if you choose to be counted without it.
  • Ask a family for a password, or write words for a real person.

What's real, and what isn't yet

  • Every room is built and stands on a test address, with sample families, while it is walked.
  • Card payments and real email are built and switched off until the house moves to upagp.com.
  • This year's Diwali is booked on the association's existing ticket page; the house takes booking from the January meeting on.
  • Photographs of past gatherings are being gathered from the association's albums.

If you want to try it

Can I walk it?

The house stands on its test address, open to anyone. Anyone can also read how every part of it works.

Walk the house How it works →