TEDxKCG

Waking up obscenely early one lazy Saturday morning, travelling 30 kms down the OMR,shelling out 1k just to get a student’s pass to watch some random people talk and hoping to God that atleast the food makes up for all that money spent.

These were the thoughts running through my head as I sipped some refreshing coffee just before TEDxKCG on March 3,2012 was scheduled to begin. Chocolate boy Marti Bharat was there interacting with some other speakers(I mistook him for a student organiser, he’s only 22). Anita Ratnam came striding in with all her elegance and persona. Mansoor Khan stood talking animatedly to his TEDx buddy.

So now I'm thinking, this can’t be that bad.

The emcees for the day introduced the first speaker for the day, Yuvraj Pandian aka Yuvi Panda. He’s following me on twitter, so I’m going to say nice things about him. He started with a hilarious presentation on how not to be a zombie. Zombies according to him are the kind of people who don’t ask “Why?” to everything they are asked to do. They just do it because a hundred other people do it. He started coding when he was 9 and thinks coding is the purest form of creativity. He’s taken a 1 year break from the very same college KCG and has worked for some of the biggest names in the computer world. He hacks for Wikimedia Foundation and lives life out of a suitcase. We think he will get his degree from KCG very soon, not that it makes a difference to him except for better marriage prospects."If you haven’t figured out what you want in life, go do something fun. You might just find something you like doing" he says. First step to undo being a zombie is to admit that you are one in the first place. Very casually dressed, and simply delivered, his talk was just the starting of some powerful inspiration at the aptly titled TEDxKCG theme Ekavira- Be original ,Be different.

                                                           Off-stage speech

Yuvi Panda sure had set the standards high for the rest of the speakers. Next up was Dr Kumaraswamy,Chief Medical Officer at YRG Medical Care Centre. He started with an eye-opening presentation into the world of HIV. Shockingly, marriage was the primary reason for the spread of HIV in India. The slides dived deeper into how major breakthroughs in the science world have led to reduction in HIV positive cases by reducing the HIV transmission in the first place. From being one of the most dangerous incurable diseases in the world to reaching a stage where we can prevent the disease itself raises hopes for the future.

Mansoor Khan ,the man behind the success of Aamir ‘s Qayamat se Qayamat Tak was up next. He also part-produced Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, a superhit romantic movie starring one of his nephews Imran Khan and is currently into organic farming (????).

We thought he might talk about his awesome Khan family.
Or maybe about film direction.
Okay, atleast organic farming?

Fortunately or unfortunately Mr Khan dived into a sea of economics and explained life through a series of curves and graphs. Bell curves, concept curves, reality curves etc came and went, while he engrossed the audience about the importance of ‘The Third Curve’. Concept curve meant the infinite desire of man to make money grow exponentially until it reached the sky. But reality brings us down to the ground. Reality curve has direct relation to the energy on the earth which is finite. Hence reality is a little more bell-shaped. If that didn’t make sense to you, you are not alone. Math being my least favourite subject, you should know better to google to find out more about his talk.

Anita Ratnam didn’t speak a word. Yet, she captivated the audience with a performance that depicted her life. She enacted the goddesses in her life – Saraswati,Lilavati and Arya. From her grandmother Saraswati who oiled her hair,her mother Lilavati who was hell-bent on her learning dance, French and cooking  to her daughter Arya refusing to have anything to do with dancing, her entire life unfolded before us in 18 minutes. Definitely one of the best performances for the day, no one dared tear their gaze from the amazing array of expressions on her face least they missed something exceptional. From her rendition of her mother’s “Anita ! Stop dreaming about boys .” to her daughter’s love for rock songs and Harry Potter , she herself looked like a goddess on stage.

Up next was Uma Prajapati and boy did she surprise ! Originally from Bihar she had only one dream  , to go to Delhi to learn fashion. Her father told her to learn all that she wanted from the next street tailor but this young woman had her heart set out for Delhi. She graduated from NIFT and worked as a fashion designer . But something wasn’t right. She didn’t feel happy, she wasn’t satisfied. Then Auroville happened.  Very simple and down to earth , her talk made her still seem like a little girl ready to take on the big bad world. Her own start-up Upasana has started many a social project for the betterment of society. From Tsunamikas which are little dolls that represent the Tsunami that changed the lives of so many to ‘Small Steps’ where bags stitched by women are distributed across the country, Uma made everyone in that auditorium believe that no matter who you are;if you want to make a difference, you can.

Next up was a speaker whose video you have to; just have to get hold off after reading this article. Ashwin Ramesh started his own server project to fund his addictive yet expensive gaming habit. He would tell his mother that he was going to the tuitions and spend it on “15 minutes of tuition, 45 minutes of gaming”. The people around him telling that he couldn’t be an entrepreneur without an MBA leave alone a degree just spurred him on to prove them all wrong.  He started his company in his uncle’s godown, his first employee was his house maid. He thought her the MMC’s (Mouse, Monitor, CPU) of computers and today she works as a programmer at Infosys. His entire family has stood by him, fanning the servers when they got too hot, cooking lunch for the entire employee team when they demanded lunch and he himself has cleaned his toilets. An extremely candid talk, he said that being a CEO was not a bed of roses. Fail spectacularly, go broke, go to jail that is better than getting married – this was the advice coming from the man who hired anyone with 2 hands, 2 feet and 2 eyes ( one and half would also do)

Notwithstanding the fact that so far the speakers had been mind-blowing, even the food was pretty much A-class,except for some suspicious phirni that didn't look even a little bit like phirni. Enter the Mirza auditorium post-lunch and notice a bearded man conducting a choir. Dressed in pearl-white,the choir was getting ready to put us to sleep or so we thought.George Mathew proved every last person wrong by showing what went behind the working of a choir. The choir ,we learnt has the sopranos, the bases and the altos. The job of the conductor is to ensure the perfect combination of these sounds to get the perfect symphony. He made the different sections of the choir communicate among themselves in stages, and by the end of his 18 minutes he got the choir singing their song without the slightest help from the experienced Mr Mathew.

Sebastian Cortes being presented with his caricature

Some spoke, some performed but Sebastian Cortes decided to let his pictures speak for themselves.  With a little help from him, the visuals were a treat for unused eyes. From sensual fashion models to ethnic shots of Indian villages, he believes that a photo isn't just a photo but a glimpse into the character of a person.Another Auroville resident, he said that a photo should reflect a story. People better start realizing that photography isn't just about clicking away with a really expensive DSLR.


Jitender Sairam was one of the surprise speakers for the day. A first year Aeronatical student, the level of his intellectualism made me feel little a dumb witt. His fascination with flying and space had led him to design a space station that is soon going to become a grand reality. Titanium, uranium and copper ruled the presentations as he explained every gory detail about its design and construction. So young and yet so much passion!

The man with the kondai Dharmesh Jadeja ,a civil engineer by qualification spoke about his two most passion-est things - Architecture and Calligraphy. Another Auroville resident , he said "Discovering Auroville is reconnecting with where you come from. To make you think about where you want to go. What you want to do." Bizarre fact of the day came from Dharmesh. He told us that the Ambanis live in a 1 billion dollar house with 5 inmates and 300 workers and consumed a few lakhs worth of electricity bills. Ironically titled the Greenest building in India. He also told us that Gujarat never has any power cuts. Ever. Something TN has to learn from Gujarat.

According to Preetha Pulsani , CEO of DeepTarget Inc there is a lot of difference between invention and innovation. There lay the difference between India and many other countries of the world. She said that even if a regular college student had a brilliant idea that could change the world, there is no proper system in place that give the student a pedestal to work on it. This large gap between the thinkers and supporters has led to a stagnation in innovation in our country. Parts of her talk reminded me of a school teacher urging us to do better, work harder and come out as the best of the best.Maybe her caricature had more to do with that feeling than the actual speech.

The beautiful Ujjaine Roy and the man with dreadlocks Edward Degenaro took the audience on yet another musical journey. Ujjaine’s sweet as honey voice, coupled with the acoustic tingles of Edward’s guitar and some help from Tapass, she sang a well-known Kollywood number and a Bengali track. What a couple !

Everyone saves the best for the last. Marti Bharat was the icing on TEDxKCG’s yummy cake. For once, he wasn’t a college dropout , he wasn’t even a CEO but a regular guy who just loved his music and his gadgets. After a summary on the day’s morals that he had picked up from the other speakers, the lights went off to show us what Marti was known best for- creating music. Looking suave with an LED jacket which kept switching colours, he churned out some foot-tapping music that left the crowd chanting “Once more!Once more!”.

Hats off to the coolest college management I've ever seen as well as to a very professional student organiser team.

TEDxKCG trended on twitter all over India that day.

Surely,they must have done something right.

Pics: Courtesy someone on the Internet