My first TEDx! Physical participation that is, after so many ‘virtual’ participation!
– The theme was definitely, positively TED-type, ‘All or Nothing’. Why settle for anything less, in any area? There is after all enough abundance for all our needs… (‘Not for greed’)
– Reached few minutes after 9 AM. Was pleasantly surprised to see a serpentine queue. The participants were mostly young, educated & urban. We all stood in line, patiently, even as the progress was just fine. (Can be faster in future?).
– The kit was good. With profile of few speakers (not all!) compiled, also a notebook and some other goodies, incl a chocolate. (Very thoughtful). The ‘green Bangalore – garden city’ print was a grim reminder of a greener past of our beautiful city… (can we reclaim?!)
The session got off to a ‘quick’ start (thanks to the delay)… MC was superb throughout…
– The first speaker was Chandni, who spoke in simple, ‘street’, Hindi! She is a reporter at Balaknama, a newspaper for & by the street children! ‘Do media think what a child thinks? Do you know what children want? Do you ever consider these questions? They want our empathy, not sympathy…’
– Rohit Varma shared his passion for ‘wilderness’ & photography and appealed ‘to walk’ more, ‘half-flush’ and most importantly, ‘individual conservation responsibility’ (a la individual CSR)
– 1.3 billion children were born since YouTube was born! (Yonatan)
– Natasha’s (landscape to sound scape, every structure has its sound, monument & music, etc were nice). The buildings around us have a Soul too… like everything else in the creation…
– Devina’s reminder of diabetes going to epidemic level in India was timely. ‘Innovation for a cause’ is the way to go… Her award-winning ‘closed loop insulin delivery system’ was cool! #ScreamingSilence!!
– Vani Murthy’s life is her message. The way she manages & help others to manage trash was very inspiring. Her request to stand up & make a pledge to ‘compost one week’s organic waste’ was a good way to get us to ACT. (She thanked for ‘standing’ ovation☺)
– ‘If we don’t handle our trash, the beautiful blue earth will look brown’ was a strong reminder. Susmita’s session on space-entrepreneurship was superb. ‘You can reach out to anyone in the world if you want to’ was speaking from her effort & experience.
– Waka Tree, Dew Ponds, Lotus Effect to collect water – we need to be mindful of water consumption, were brilliant. We need these innovations & back-to-nature initiatives in India.
– We all know too well about Aadhaar. But Dr. Pramod threw some more insights into this huge initiative to give us all an e-identity.
– Running is becoming increasingly popular in India, incl Bangalore. Anu Vaidyanathan’s session on running was very inspiring. She touched upon Avvayyar to Nala-Damayandi. ‘Whether we finish or not does not matter, first step is what matters’. ‘Life is indeed a series of chances’, a la bus stops!
Stephen (OpenWorm), Weimer (sexuality), Atma Band (linkage of music with art of cooking), Vicky Arora (bhang!), musical offering by Gopal & Geeta, etc were brilliant too.. The sheer variety of topics was like a South Indian special thali @ good, old MTR!
The volunteers were very good, friendly, courteous & trying their best to make us feel comfortable. Food was fine (too much of panneer in veg option!) God bless organizers & volunteers.
Looking forward to future innings. Rain God smiled with a heavy (auspicious) showers in the evening… !
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