TEDxMumbai @ Bluefrog Part-2

In continuation with the previous post

Prelunch

I wished I could write about Mr.V Raghunathan in context of his book 'Why we are the way we are', which attacks the hypocrisy that is so domineering in the way we interact with and affect the eco-system.. and about the twelve segments that his book is layered into with the Prisoner's Dilemma as the frame of reference...oops I just spoke about his wonderful salesmanship at TEDxMumbai...how many copies sold in the evening? Shriram's listening?... but seriously V R spoke about some of his profound insights about how sheepish we are and how animalish we can get. V R is doing phenomenal work in education, employment at the grassroots and these insights in his book only testify them.

Kishore Rithe, President of Satpuda Foundation followed and spoke about his passion and the need for saving tigers. There are less than 1000 tigers left in India!!! Oye Aircel update your database...
He showed the relationship between tigers=forests=water relationship...and how saving and conserving tigers is important for all of us and is the most sensible thing to do! He also spoke about the work that they are doing to provide employment substitutes to the tribal inhabitants and how the young brigade army is gearing up to educate and propel a change in the very same direction.. 

Comments: The presentation was so full of small pictures, that I had to browse through it...but anyways bhavnaoin ko samjhoo yaar...

Who followed was Steven Baker...the bollywood gora ..I wondered if he was sharing any ideas ...which is why TED is? but since TED's E means Entertainment, I enjoyed his phirangi istiyle ...It was interesting to understand a foreigner's take on Bollywood and how glamour has wooed people from all nooks and corners to have one shot a the 80 mm screen. 

Post Lunch

I was surprised how TEDxMumbai could allow the sponsors to talk about their mashup. It was a datamining tool which fished XSLTed data from various...(specific) sources...and puts it at one place...there was no big thing in it.. .. I think it was not fair to use this opportunity to advertise... Let's change for a change from what west is using TED for, because we are a different eco-system altogether. Atleast you could have packaged it to look less advertised...go get some tips from Mahesh. 

Nisha Yadav from TIFR spoke about Indus Script. She spoke about how Machine Learning techniques are being employed to decipher the patterns, linkages in the Indus script characters. I liked and was intrigued by this whole idea because ML and datamining happen to be one of my like subjects and it was really exciting to see its application done so profoundly..I hope I get to tweak someday with Nisha on her MLs.

I am now writing about a very soft spoken person whom I met during lunch, Dr Ganesh Devy. He looked so withdrawn into himself (all greats look from distance like that only), that I couldn't control myself talking to him. I learnt that he worked with adivasis in Gujarat..What stumped me were his three revealations... 

1.Adivasis are far more educated and learned than we are,but they are not schooled

2.They are not employed but are engaged in purposeful work

3.They dont have money but they have resources that are sustainable and enable sustainance too...

Now, these three things threw all theories (financial inclusion, micro-finance, self sustainable model of business, vocationalised education (areas which I am primarily talking , and working on)) were thrown out of the bluefrog windows.

He in his talk spoke about how a language is killed? and how Indian language tally of 1652 in 1961 census has come down to 108 in latest census and will go down even further in the coming decades. He stated something like 'when language starts commanding authority other languages are killed' He urgently called for attention to preserving languages, because when a language is killed, it takes away a lot of knowledge that has   come through since ages.

Followed by Dhanashree Pandita Rai , a Hindustani Classical trained singer, trainer who blended and meld various forms of music in her soothing melodious talk. Though I dont understand any music and music is what soothes me, but she pointed out a difference between Indian Classical and Western. "She said that Indian Classical is more melodious while Western is more layered"...oh-okay...hmm!! never mind...

The last part is perhaps the best one that I could jot.. i have saved it for the next post.. and it also talks about how prejudiced our so called educated-civil society is ...