BANGALORE: A recently held conclave in Bangalore had some of the best design and entrepreneurial minds from across India and overseas come together with a single mindedness of purpose — to capture dreams from across the country and turn them into reality.
The core group behind this initiative consisted of Carlos Teixeira, professor at Parsons School of Design, New York, Kishore Biyani, CEO of Future Group, Dr Ranjan Pai CEO of Manipal Education and Medical Group and Sonia Manchanda, Director of Idiom (a design company).
The programme was kickstarted a month ago when 101 ‘dreamcatchers' (viz: students hand picked from different disciplines and different institutions from all over the country) divided themselves into 11 teams and travelled into Indian cities, towns and villages. Their mission was literally ‘to capture dreams of every kind’.
They covered 25,000 kilometres and recorded on film over 3000 ‘dreams’ collating a wish list of people from different strata of society for a better tomorrow. The ‘dream catchers’ were trained at the Dream-in Center in Bangalore before embarking on their journey by ‘dream gurus’, a team of sociologists, anthropologists, ethnographers and professional filmmakers who taught them to listen, absorb and capture dreams. The dreamers they met ranged from Natraj, a fruit seller from Bangalore who wants to change the corrupt political system from within to Shekar, a fisherman from Chennai whose dream is to buy a dress for his daughter’s birthday, get a speed boat and give his children a better education.
“Many of the ‘dream catchers’ were from privileged backgrounds. They spoke to all kinds of people — young professionals at IIT’s whose dreams are larger than life to children from poor sections of society who want to ‘become bank managers so that they can give loans to people'. Their experiences were quite life changing,” says Rahul Vijaykumar, a young member of the core group.
Over four days, delegates from India, Italy, Brazil, USA and Sri Lanka at the Dream-In conclave worked at converting thousands of Indian dreams and ideas into workable, life changing scenarios. The outcome being, a pool of fifty investment opportunities ranging from education to healthcare, sports to women empowerment. The next phase of Dream-In will be to channel investments into developing these opportunities. “Our big game plan is to create viable and sustainable solutions for everyone to succeed.” says Manchanda. The conclave ended with the announcement of Dream-In Brazil — a replication of the project for Rio De Janeiro, Brazil in 2012.
jackie@expressbuzz.com