A Lesson in Connections at Zeitgeist Gallery
"She's got the connections"
The BOSTON GLOBE, Globe Calendar,
By Kristen Paulson, Globe Correspondent, 12/12/2002

"Besides singing, my favorite thing to do is to connect people for business, romance, or just because," Manisha Shahane wrote to me.

Perhaps it was her final earnest set of parens that grabbed my attention: "(Ask anyone who knows me!)."

Shahane, who is single, performs at the Zeitgeist Gallery - where she's also the board's treasurer and secretary - and recommends its programs as a good way for singles to meet interesting people. She produces the Vocal Vibrations Concert Series and the Sing-A-Song Series; others are the Ritual Word Art Series (curator: Regie Gibson), Fishlung Piano Series (curated by Gill Aharon), Subconscious Cafe (curated by Rob Chalfen).

Shahane's series concludes Dec. 19 with "World-Folk Feast," featuring the debut of the eight-member Guy Mendilow Band. Mendilow is known for his ability to sing with two, and sometimes three, voices simultaneously - a technique called overtone singing.

Shahane will begin the evening with an original set that embraces folk-rock, jazz, and Indian traditions, and draws upon her roots in southern Virginia and her Maharashtrian heritage. Go to her Web site to hear her song "Clumsy."

"There's no date requirement at the gallery," explains the singer-songwriter-musician, for whom connecting people is a way of life.

"I want people to get to know each other in the audience, and feel like they're in my living room. . . . Take your blinders off. Wander in and see who you might come across."

Shahane practices what she preaches, and meets a lot of interesting people solo - four-hour-long train conversations are par for the course, as is people e-mailing requests for connections to her, and asking her to find them a Latin band, for example. Typically, Shahane introduces people via e-mail.

She can't help herself, attributing her urge to connect people to a childhood of switching schools every few years, one of them spent in India.

We all know somebody like Shahane, someone who is gifted at connecting people (and who, thank God, doesn't charge a percentage). There's my friend Todd, who lives in Philadelphia yet somehow knows more people than I do in Boston. Then there's Josh, who casually hooks people up. If he knows you're interested in a certain topic, job, man or woman, he'll say: "Have you met my friend X? You should really talk to X." And I know if I call Vinh's cell, he'll connect me with the kind of person I need to speak with for a story.

Be aware that the connector-connectee relationship is subject to implicit rules. For example, once the connector has delivered the phone number/e-mail/name, the outcome is up to you (the connectee). The connector isn't responsible for what ensues, and may not necessarily be part of the subsequent relationship.

Maybe the date doesn't work out, or the job doesn't come through, but what's important is making the connection. Single people should cultivate - if not emulate - connectors. After all, we need them, these walking Rolodexes.

As a single person, the informal networks you build will most likely make your life more meaningful, whether you join a book club (Josh the connector invited me along), a pickup soccer team (Bruce signed me up without asking if I were interested), or take a chance on going to Zeitgeist solo.

Look around. Whom can you include when you go out? Whom can you connect? And what are you waiting for?