I was first introduced to TED talks about a year and a half back. I have since then seen a lot of interesting talks through the videos on their website. Exploring more about the events, I saw that there are quite a few independent events associated with TED that happen around me in cities like Pune and Ahmedabad, and of course in Mumbai. I missed out on the events organized at Gateway and Bandra and the one at ASB is invite only. Anyways, it was an awesome experience never the less. The event was well organized within the campus of IIT Powai.
The event started off with the talk from Nipun Mehta, who is the founder of service space. He shared his story of how surprised he was when he took a tour of Gujarat and found people who generate generosity. He showed examples of how you don't need to have things to give. He shared examples of people who have spread the generosity. The focus of his talk was about an inner transformation that happens when people indulge in an act of generosity.
The next talk was from Gaurav Gupta, who is the leading advisor from Dalberg, gave a very practical talk on the work that is going out there to provide the basic necessities of life to those who live "off-grid". Off-grid is the term used to describe those who are "unplugged" from the urban infrastructure that provides us water, electricity, sanitation, LPG for cooking and other basic needs. His presentation introspected into the fact that how innovations in one field make it possible to develop other solutions that can be used for development. He also talked about how these off-grid communities are spending so much money for these basic necessities money model and how they can get better facilities at a much cheaper cost with some innovation. A very practical solution to problems that seems insurmountable.
Then there was a stage performance. It was a play from a group of young and talented girls from Reality Gives, that showed the plight of life in the poor slums of Dharavi from the stand-point of a little girl growing up in a family in those slums.
The last item before the break was a video screening of a ted talk exploring the 4a.m. mystery that cracked up everyone.
The session began after the break with Rahul Hasija, taking everyone on his quest for learning. He started with exploring what importance a degree holds in the eyes of those that work hard for it. Then he went on to explain what learning really means to him and how he tries to make his learning more interactive. How he travels to get the opportunity to connect with people and understand what they do and how he tries to bring more within the boundaries that the society has created around him, making him more of an individual.
Next up was a dutch artist who has been in Mumbai since 2010 exploring art as a medium of self expression. She described how art has helped everyone to express themselves in a manner that is easier for others to understand and how bland the interactions would be if the society didn't develop art.
Then there was another screening of a ted talk, david damberger speaking about why it is important to admit mistakes to be able to learn from them and make the efforts more effective. He shares stories of how well directed development projects failed to yield results for the beneficiaries. How they started the culture of admitting mistakes and publishing failure reports on an annual basis.
The next person to take the stage was Harish Iyer, who is a human rights activist. He was a victim of sexual abuse in his childhood and talked about how he never could talk about it to anyone, because no one talks about sex in the society. He explained why more open talks about sex would make children aware about the ill intentions of the molesters and would deter the molester from carrying out these heinous acts.
Then we has a small talk from Nickoley Kinni, who tried to ensure that she brought smile to atleast one person every day through out a month in december 2012.
Finally, it was time to rock the house. It was courtsey a band assembled by NSPA, that played the poems by Kabir with a reggae-rock sound. It brought down the curtains to an awesome event.
Of course, there was a networking event later that I didn't attend. It was for interesting people to talk about the interesting things that they do. So I skipped it, as after all I am just a boring guy that fills spreadsheets sitting in a corporate office. ;)
The event started off with the talk from Nipun Mehta, who is the founder of service space. He shared his story of how surprised he was when he took a tour of Gujarat and found people who generate generosity. He showed examples of how you don't need to have things to give. He shared examples of people who have spread the generosity. The focus of his talk was about an inner transformation that happens when people indulge in an act of generosity.
The next talk was from Gaurav Gupta, who is the leading advisor from Dalberg, gave a very practical talk on the work that is going out there to provide the basic necessities of life to those who live "off-grid". Off-grid is the term used to describe those who are "unplugged" from the urban infrastructure that provides us water, electricity, sanitation, LPG for cooking and other basic needs. His presentation introspected into the fact that how innovations in one field make it possible to develop other solutions that can be used for development. He also talked about how these off-grid communities are spending so much money for these basic necessities money model and how they can get better facilities at a much cheaper cost with some innovation. A very practical solution to problems that seems insurmountable.
Then there was a stage performance. It was a play from a group of young and talented girls from Reality Gives, that showed the plight of life in the poor slums of Dharavi from the stand-point of a little girl growing up in a family in those slums.
The last item before the break was a video screening of a ted talk exploring the 4a.m. mystery that cracked up everyone.
The session began after the break with Rahul Hasija, taking everyone on his quest for learning. He started with exploring what importance a degree holds in the eyes of those that work hard for it. Then he went on to explain what learning really means to him and how he tries to make his learning more interactive. How he travels to get the opportunity to connect with people and understand what they do and how he tries to bring more within the boundaries that the society has created around him, making him more of an individual.
Next up was a dutch artist who has been in Mumbai since 2010 exploring art as a medium of self expression. She described how art has helped everyone to express themselves in a manner that is easier for others to understand and how bland the interactions would be if the society didn't develop art.
Then there was another screening of a ted talk, david damberger speaking about why it is important to admit mistakes to be able to learn from them and make the efforts more effective. He shares stories of how well directed development projects failed to yield results for the beneficiaries. How they started the culture of admitting mistakes and publishing failure reports on an annual basis.
The next person to take the stage was Harish Iyer, who is a human rights activist. He was a victim of sexual abuse in his childhood and talked about how he never could talk about it to anyone, because no one talks about sex in the society. He explained why more open talks about sex would make children aware about the ill intentions of the molesters and would deter the molester from carrying out these heinous acts.
Then we has a small talk from Nickoley Kinni, who tried to ensure that she brought smile to atleast one person every day through out a month in december 2012.
Finally, it was time to rock the house. It was courtsey a band assembled by NSPA, that played the poems by Kabir with a reggae-rock sound. It brought down the curtains to an awesome event.
Of course, there was a networking event later that I didn't attend. It was for interesting people to talk about the interesting things that they do. So I skipped it, as after all I am just a boring guy that fills spreadsheets sitting in a corporate office. ;)
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