TEDxChennai 2012 - Life by design

Chennai city hasn’t seen a more power packed day in the recent times as it did on 30^th September 2012 at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Concert Hall, when people rose and roared throughout the day, so much so that the roar was more thunderous than the blitzkrieg in Chennai during the sudden rains last week.

The word exhilarating would be an understatement to capture ones feelings during and at the end of the event. The theme and the line up of speakers was so apt that the 1200 odd people, who spent the larger part of their Sunday at the event, living one experience after the other, feeling touched and awed by the inspirational thoughts and stories, couldn’t have asked for more. Spellbound by the enriching performance of all the speakers and organizers, the audience got to sing, dance, laugh, applaud, squat, almost cry, shout, and also whistle during the day.

(Photo Courtesy - Hari Balaji, Core Committee, TEDxChennai 2012) 

The key highlights of the enthralling day included the wonderful introductions and icebreakers by everyone’s favourite and Ambassador of TEDx in India, KirubaShankar. The day started off with the talk of Carol Talbot, who brilliantly conveyed how we coerce people to do what we actually don’t want them to do by using negative statements which she calls ‘foot in the mouth syndrome’. She made a fabulous statement to help overcome the same ‘Say it the way you want it’. Carol was followed by Neel Raman, Indian by roots, Fijian by birth and Australian by residence. Neel was very lucid as he put his perspective by raising just 3 simple questions, no big deal; ‘What do I truly love’, ‘What do I hate’ and ‘What touches my heart’ helping the audience understand their life’s true passions better. Just after Neel mesmerized the audience with his narrative, Sergio Sedas, the Mexican Robotics expert, directed the conversation towards education and emphasized on the fact that, how education system today throughout the world is failing at providing youngsters an understanding of what they are learning and is instead only focusing on knowledge, skills and dexterity. His thought on context based learning and the need to expand reality were well elucidated by the demo and examples provided by him.

Puja Gupta is one person from whom a lot of Indian females must take inspiration, as to, how though she got married at a very young age, she managed to bounce back, follow and achieve her dreams the way she did. Her philosophy of being selfish so that you can give back better and more is something that people must certainly think about deeply, with the context she laid in mind, as it requires neither sacrifice nor disregard.  Kristi Staab on the other hand thrilled the audience with her Starbucks – Rockstar story as to, how, her self belief helped her become a rock star and how we can rock our role. Prabakaran Murugaiah like most rags to riches stories shared his Tirunelveli to America story. His was one of the most inspiring stories, right from how he finished the 26 mile marathon pushing hard till the last mile, to, how his math teacher gave an ultimatum to his school management ‘Either put him in my class or put me in his class’, made him an instant hero.

JoyceRommelaar’s entry on to the stage was as awesome as it could get. Her thoughts on how we all (especially teens) should start having life contact instead of living a renewed virtual life as we have started living in recent times was timely. The idea of grading your loved ones and being graded by them on a weekly basis was inconceivable. I think I will start practicing the same soon, means a lot that I know how my loved ones feel about me and my behaviour towards them. I am sure that will bring a lot of positivity and closeness in and around our lives. Sawan Kapoor, the change management expert was unconventional with his ‘Law of the burning platform’. His examples ranging from the burning Oil Rig to Michael Jordan to Billy Martin to his own change meetings, were perfect match for his theory of fire, expectations and fish, as he rightfully ended his talk with ‘You will win when you want it as bad as oxygen’.

‘I cannot do all the good that the world needs, but the world needs all the good that I can do’, it’s been a little more than 24 hours since TEDxChennai 2012 got over, but I don’t think I have whispered any other song throughout the day, spreading my cheerful mood with everyone around me. I think JanaStanfield’s music; already a craze around the world is so meaningful and delightful she could sell 5 Million records in India alone. The 18 minutes she spent on the stage, she set it on fire, not just through her music but also by her message through her songs. CarolineRochon's talk was the calm after the storm; she cried herself and almost made the audience cry, with her gripping story. The way she has picked up her life in a very short span of time is not only astonishing, it’s also stirring as she appropriately revolved her talk around the ‘power to choose’. Seema Kohli, the contemporary artist, true to her profession conveyed her story using art as a platform using her paintings, poetry and dance.

JaneRansom’s, feel it, share it, and make it contagious, on gratitude, is I must say the need of the hour and she conveyed that eloquently on a platform as vibrant and powerful as TED. Her daily Gratitude exercise is another thing on my ‘to do list’ for everyday henceforth.  Mykola Latansky’s Power of transparency came as a conclusion of a long story on perfectionism and how he learnt that ‘trust is what people are looking for’ and only by being transparent can you win over people not just by being perfect. He summed up his talk with a brilliant statement, ‘Who I am is awesome, what I did so far is awesome and I can use some improvement’.

As, the one person the Chennai crowd was impatiently looking forward to hear from, entered the stage, a neighbour commented, ‘she must still be 16’, and I couldn’t agree more. It was Gautami Tadimalla, the legendary actress of south India who not only delighted the audience with her rare presence but also shared her life’s journey briefly emphasising on how she became an actress by chance while studying engineering and aspiring to do her MBA in International Business and Finance. JillDouka’s talk on embracing failure provided a much needed perspective about how understanding and accepting failure could make us better prepared for future success. Her thought provoking question, ‘What can I do to have the challenge work for me? ’ and her idea of making a personal failure card were futuristic. Nazee (Behnaz)Mirshamsi was remarkable, though this was her first talk in front of a group consisting more than 30 people. Her realization of how not loving yourself could mean not being able to love others around you was noteworthy.

Every show has to come to an end at some point or the other, some of them end notably, and some of them end ordinarily. This was TEDx, how could this end in a typical way, it had to be thunderous; it had to be defining and more! When Romeo Marquez Jr. entered the stage as the final speaker of the day, the entire 1200 strong crowd held their heart in their hands, and why not? It was Romeo. I think this was the tipping point of the day; Romeo acted, laughed, mimicked, danced, shared stories, also cried and did everything that a true entertainer would do. But he did far more than that; he connected so well with the audience that though this was the last talk of the day, it only made us crave for more, as if the day had just begun. With Romeo’s insights on childish things like imagination time (which he picked up from his nephew) and tapping our passion, a life defining talk and event came to an end.

(Photo Courtesy - Hari Balaji, Core Committee, TEDxChennai 2012)

As a wrap up of my experience at TEDxChennai, I would quickly like to mention, I wasn’t certain about attending the event till 24 hours before the event as I had other important commitments which I had made well in advance (not sure of the date on which TEDxChennai was happening). I can say this now without any regret that I had cancelled not one, not two, but at least four prior commitments to attend TEDxChennai 2012 and I believe I made a life defining decision. It was rocking! Now eagerly awaiting TEDxChennai 2013! Bring it on!