TEDx, a platform to think differently
CHENNAI: Did you know that you can learn life lessons from the sport of rowing? Or that there are people who could flute beat box? Or, instead of thinking out of the box, you could erase the box entirely? This ecletic mix of ideas and people got together at TEDxChennai, held recently at the Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Hall. “We looked for speakers who had truly innovative ideas and would resound with the theme of ‘Erasing the Box’,” said Kritika Jain, licensee and curator of the event.
The tone for the day was set with oarsman and adman Krishna Mohan Ramachandran, who elaborated on his passion for rowing. Writer Manu Joseph popped in for a quick talk about friendships in the modern day. Historian Pradeep Chakravarthy showed audiences, through examples, of how much we can learn from history.
Entertainment came in the form of experimental musician Sudhir R showcasing his skills with flute and harmonica beat boxing, and Sarvesh Sashi, founder of Zorba, engaging the audience in an impromptu dance before his talk!
Other speakers included Kirthi Jayakumar, who talked about her peacebuilding initiative through storytelling, artist Parvathi Nayar who dissected her own work Astro/Lab for the audience, technologist Rashmi Mohan, who talked about the lack of diversity in STEM fields, nuclear desalination scientist P K Tewari, artist Subhadra Kalyanaraman, dancer Aparna Nagesh and healthcare pioneer Nandha Kumar.