The 13th of November, 2016 is a date which will be always be remembered by the lucky people who got to attend TEDxShivNadarUniversity. It wasn’t just a conference, it was an event in itself. The conference started with a graceful classical dance jugalbandi by two of Shiv Nadar University’s own students and then began the real magic- all the speakers kept the audience on the edge of their seats throughout! From the start till the end, the atmosphere was raging with ideas, enthusiasm and heart-racing stories.

Which heart-racing stories, you ask? Every speaker shared with us a bit of their life or something which makes their life worth it. Laura Quinn was the first one on stage and she challenged the general conception of always being right. “So think wrong and go change the world!” she said this and the audience erupted into a wave of claps! How often does someone encourage you to take pride in being wrong and fall in love with the idea of it? And she was just one of all the other brilliant speakers. Isher Ahluwalia compared black money to Malaria- yes you read it right! She focused on the need for properly planned cities for urban development.

The audience was transported to the land of Benares to the war-stricken areas of Sri Lanka by speakers like Vaibhav Mehta and Ramesh Menon! Vaibhav Mehta, a film-maker and travel photographer talked about how travel had influenced his life and made him more ‘open’. He shared thrilling anecdotes- from witnessing the Babri Masjid judgement to canopying with a dislocated shoulder for a couple of hours! Could you believe that he quit his job which involved beer-tasting to travel the world? In another inspiring talk, Journalist Ramesh Menon talked about how he is being paid to enjoy since the last 40 years. He shared his near-to-death experience, how he spent a day with a child sex-worker and gave her the happiness of a lifetime, and even talked about how pesticides are slowly seeping in our daily lives!

Then to bury myths and uproot criminals, came Raul V. Rodrigeuz! He gave a live demonstration on how to un-arm criminals and he did a fantastic job in making the entire audience laugh their socks off! Interpol isn’t about hot foreigners and fancy cars, he explained, they have to work out like other ‘normal’ humans to maintain their six-pack abs. Raul wasn’t the only one who blew the audience away with his tricks! Psychological Illusionist, Karan Singh literally made everyone gasp from disbelief with his mind-boggling tricks! He sure does know how to detect lies and even make people say what he wants them too!

All the fourteen speakers brought out their own element on to the beautifully lit stage. As TEDxShivNadarUniversity’s first event, it went beyond the expectations and surprised everyone with the amazing speaker line-up, interactions and activities. The amount of buzz and excitement during the refreshments break, when the young audience got to interact with the speaker was absolutely enthralling and inspiring! Every single person was trying their best to get the most out of their time with the speakers and fulfill their heart's desires of learning from their inspiring lives. It was a day dedicated for the love of thinking, creating and changing the world in our own ways. In the words of Vaibhav Mehta, “I cannot change the world. None of us can. But we can change that one tiny unit that occupies a small slice of this earth – and that’s us.”

For more information:

Abeer Choubey
TEDxShivNadarUniversity - 2016
+91 9205958943

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