TEDX at IIMB - Rating it 3 out of 10. What's yours?

Recently I attended a TEDx event organised by the Indian Institute of Management at Bangalore, and I must say that it was a huge disappointment all the way. I was pretty critical about the previous TEDx event in my blog post that I published last year, but honestly, the IIMB event made that event look like a rock star. My 5 reasons for why I hated the TEDX IIMB event are,

1. Starting late - common problem with both the TEDX events. I thought this one 'managed' by India's premier management institute would be different, but alas, we are all Indians nevertheless.

2. Selection of topics - there was absolutely no theme to the event. Each of the speakers came on the dias with their own random topics and made their speeches. The least I expected that each session/section would have a theme and some level of focus.

3. The speakers, barring one senior journalist, the rest of them were all low impact and not befitting the TEDX quality. I was surprised that they were unable to find speakers outside the IIMB network of alumni and faculty given their apparent clout in the industry. And yes, I am one of those who believe that getting a degree from a premier institute is one thing, and what you use it to achieve is another. So an IIMB degree or being a faculty there is not synonymous with success. It was pretty evident either that was the prerequisite for making the choice of speakers, or to make up for their inability to find someone else better, the organisers had to settle for this convenient quick fix. Hence, the quality of the talks suffered and added no value to the audience. However, there was one talk I enjoyed. It was on this organization named RangDe. Real impact story and an idea worth spreading. Clear example that brand IIM does not always sell.

4. General administrative issues - the stage was still being setup while we were waiting for the program to start, frequently defaulting sound and video equipment, very average registration experience all added to the agony. It just brought to the fore the clear lack of interest by the organisers to put up a good show. Seemed like everything was a last minute rush. 

5. For the same ticket price,  TEDXBLR served up a really scrumptious lunch. However, here, the audience had to settle for a meagre menu of samosa and tea.

In conclusion, a disappointing experience at TEDX IIMB. I had to force myself to survive the duration of the program.

In the 'buyer beware' age,  I have my share of mistakes I made to land at this mediocre event too. I bought a ticket to this event which had no website and no speaker information whatsoever. Purely had the interest to attend on the basis that IIMB was organising it and had a bare minimum expectation on the quality. Well, that's not how things turned out exactly. 

It now makes me ponder, in one of India's most premier management institute, how are graduates going to manage big organisations in the future while failing to even organize an event of this small a scale. Call it hype or marketing stunt! Or is the industry falling into the same trap as I just did?

IIMB Board meeting - we need more courses to increase our fee collection
Professor - sir,  we can start an MBA in event management.

5 out of 10 for TEDx Bangalore! Whats your rating?

When I bought the ticket to go to TEDx Bangalore that was held on 3rd August 2014, I was thrilled and overcome with excitement to be part of such a high impact global movement. Well, but what can I say? It was a like eating a bowl of stale salad served in gold china in an ultra luxury hotel. Read on for what I mean.....

Let me start with the positives!

Thoughtful categorization - 7 out of 10 

The whole event was divided into 3 sections, BLR to Bangalore, Down South and Outsourced. There was clarity in what the organizers wanted to portray to the audiences bringing together a nice flow of thoughts to the audiences.

Novel Initiatives - 9 out of 10

The paired lunch box wherein the lunch packet is received in pairs thereby encouraging sharing of the lip smacking tucker as well as "food for thought". Also the awesome informal type of seating enabling networking activity in comfort and leisure.

  

The drone 10 out of 10 :-) 

Also, who could not have observed the drone that was used to record the event. Just a kiddish observation, but I would like to put it down as a like. 

The anchor of the event, Sriram Sullia - 9 out of 10 

By far the saviour of the event! He kept pace with the slips and tumbles of the organizers by engaging and entertaining the crowd, while the organizers troubleshot. As usual, his wit was unbeatable while he charmed the audience. Well done Sriram! But I was shocked to hear that he even got a barely audible thank you, and whoever was doing that did not even know his name. There was a loud blurb in the microphone that we "we thank the anchor" (zero marks for that). Guys, he has a name and if there is one person you had to profusely thank, it had to be Sriram for holding the show together.

The Negatives....

The content curation - 3 out of 10

With all due respect to all the speakers and their causes, I feel the selection of speakers, except a hand few, could have been way better that what was mustered by. The best and most invigorating of the talks were those that were beamed on the screen from other TED and TEDx events. I explain why further along this post....
I must say the content curation was way off the mark, especially the BLR to Bangalore category. The selection of speakers brought to fore the blatant lack of knowledge on the issues the city faced and the history of Bangalore. Except the Ugly Indian and Naresh Narsimhan, all the other speakers in the category disappointed. There were no impact stories nor any take away inspiring messages from the others. Abhishek and Nitin Pai had nothing new to say, period. Why were truly high impact stories such as the Akshaya Pathra from ISKCON or individuals like Ashwin Mahesh overlooked?

The Down South segment was a total let down! Also, it was a almost a misnomer since 3 out of the 5 speakers surely were not from the South (Debarghya Das from Kolkata/USA, CREA based in New Delhi, Jadav "Molai" Payeng from Assam). However, the lone shining stars of this segment and arguably in the entire event were Mrs. Shobha Murthy and Sanusree Gomes from HelpDesk. Truly awesome, yet simple solution to a problem that existed for decades. The curator probably turned lucky with this find.

In the highly anticipated Outsourced segment, the audience as I observed were fighting hard to stay awake due to the lack of invigorating talks and the awesome meal. Ibrahim Nehme and Tamadher saved the grace with some impact stories to say. Adnane could hold my attention in patches purely because of his humorous narrative. Wonder why Zac Greene had to fly half the globe to read his talk from a piece of paper, or Jon Walls to make a sales pitch on behalf of Swiss startups in India?

The Delay in Starting the event - zero out of 10

Although scheduled to start at 9:30 AM, the show never got underway till 11:15 AM. While I came into the convention centre at 8:45 AM, I could see the organizers painting the decorative blocks right near the registration counters. I knew I was extremely early and I immediately braced myself to the ensuing long delay. Events of this caliber don't start late and I felt let down right from the beginning.

The broken promise of the Uber Rides - 5 out of 10

I received an email in the morning of the event that mobility partners Uber were offering free rides 'to and from' the venue. There was promptly a discount code sent along with it and it worked great for me to get a taxi to get to the venue. We realized that promise was broken only when we decided to Uber ourselves back from the venue and were surprised that the discount coupon was not working. And then all of those who Ubered in were to crowd ourselves in the buses on our way back!

The ever-breaking Microphone, Visual Systems and Slide Clicker - 1 out of 10

All through the event, that one thing that had a high irritability value was that every time a speaker came on the stage and tried to start talking, the microphone would not work. Then one of the sound crew members would come on stage to fix it. Then when the speaker starts his talk, its the slide mover's turn to not work. The speakers were struggling and taking wild jabs at the slide mover in vain. Nithin Pai had to actually continue his talk without the slides. And somewhere between the talk, its the huge LCD screen's turn to flicker and make it even more embarrassing. Guys, this is a global event that the world is watching, and what a sorry figure we were cutting! And to everyone's dismay, none of the organizers decided to fix the problem although it was persistent throughout the event. Anyway, less said the better on this.

I would like to provide an overall rating of 5.3 out of 10 TEDx Bangalore. I was wondering if I could have spent that scarce Sunday in a better manner. Hope its better next time around, because we have Bangalore's and TED's reputation to preserve. Your ratings are welcome in the comments section.

Unequal Celebrity Power! Moving Mandya to Singapore.....

Its always a fact that celebrities, especially those from filmdom and cricket, get their share of disproportionate attention all the time. And this is not from their fans that I am talking about, but this is from government agencies that bend backwards to accommodate, many a times what are undue expectations. Remember the tax waiver for Sachin Tendulkar's Ferrari for which he did not even pay for, and easy paroles for Sanjay Dutt to name a few in recent times.

One such event that is currently in the news involves actor turned politician Ambarish in Bangalore. The man with a massive fan following was admitted to the hospital in Bangalore in a critical condition. Many days of treatment showed only marginal improvement. With fan and family anxiety running high over his deteriorating health condition, the government of Karnataka took a decision to shift him to Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore for further treatment and better facilities. He is now recuperating and recovering well and we are happy and glad that he is. 

On the other hand, there are celebrities of a different kind. Social activists who do a whale of good to society without expecting any kind of public attention. These people are driven purely by passion and act with a mission of larger good to society. More importantly, such individuals spend their own resources and go about their benevolent activity without any financial gains or incentives. One such person is Salumarada Thimakka, an environmentalist from Karnataka known for planting  and tending to 285 banyan trees on a highway near Bangalore. Contributions such as her's has an extremely high inspiration value and her contribution, given her financial background of coming from a daily wage labourers' family, can put any one of us to shame. But Thimakka is also ill now and was seeking government support for her medical expenses. Given this situation, the best the government could do was admit her in Victoria Hospital. With the sad state of affairs that our government hospitals are in right now, you can imagine the quality of care that she is a recipient of for her illness. 

Between Ambarish and Thimakka, I am not going to squabble on whose contribution is higher or more prominent and impactful, but putting forward argument why our elected representatives and the associated bureaucrats discriminate between two notable achievers. I believe that both of them need the respect and warrant the same level of attention due to their notable contributions. It is not fair on the part of the government to blatantly discriminate based either on their political affiliations, their financial standing or their familial backgrounds. 

It saddens me that while tax payers money is being spent to treat both of them, while one relaxes in a ultra luxury suite in swanky Singapore, the other one is forced to spend one more night in vicious Victoria Hospital amidst a pathetic system put together by the very same people who are getting treated elsewhere.

I hope this public and government apathy stops and equality will prevail amongst all citizens of this country.

At an election campaign....
Politician: I am going to transform this badly maintained city into Singapore....then all of you can enjoy super dooper facilities
Suresha: Hey Ramesh, how will he do it man? is it even possible?
Ramesh: C'mon man Suresh, of course its possible and very easy dude!
Suresha: What its easy? How?
Ramesh: He will just change the name of this town from Mandya to Singapore!!!!!!!

Be a Spongebob during criticism.....

The web is peppered with articles of the nature of 'Traits to know you are an entrepreneur' and I have always read such articles to see whether I fit the bill. Articles cite qualities such as not being able to work for someone, being innovative, not being able to take instructions and not being able to digest feedback and criticism among others. But I always find that the last in the list of traits is not always true.

One of the biggest challenges I face everyday in my entrepreneurial journey is the ability to handle 'feedback', that transcends the boundaries into easily being 'criticism'. Everyday, I am faced with endless oceans of feedback, rivers of criticism and trickles of appreciation if I am lucky. I am faced with critics both inside the company and my customers and I am found wanting in my ability to first absorb it and second make something from it.  

There are ways that one can handle this and I have found my own home based recipe for this. A disclaimer is that the management gurus may beg to differ on this (for which I will be criticised again !!!), but I will still go ahead with it. 

Panic a little first - this reactionary response actually gets my brain thinking of what happened. I quickly run through the sequence of events leading to the situation of my customer being unhappy. I just feel it helps me understand the enormity (or the lack of it) of the problem.

Undermine the problem - don't take the literal meaning of the words here, I have used them for the lack of anything better that could describe it. Basically, I deal with every criticism heaped upon me as a situation I feel that can be solved. I break up the problem into tiny bits and I prioritize what needs to be done first to salvage whats left of my reputation!!. 

Take Action - Well I may sound like a seasoned professional here, many may argue that its the obvious thing to do. But my definition is not as enormous as it sounds. First either me or my colleague associated with the project will start a dialogue with the unhappy individual. My tardy experience has been that if we show ourselves up at a time our customer needs us the most, that helps build a lot of credibility. Because guys, there are a lot of vendors out there who don't even answer the phone at the sight of a customer crisis, and thats really annoying.

Take the beating buddy - The moment you show-up at the customer's office or over the phone, do not resist the outrage from the other end. Absorb it like a sponge and if possible, refrain from saying anything at all, irrespective of whether you are right or wrong. If you have no wrongdoing, atleast you will gain a lot of goodwill from your customer for having the patience to withstand it all.

Promise - Now that the dust would have settled, assure the customer that you will fix it. Promise him an outcome with a timeline and tell him that you will do anything it takes to fix the problem. 

Now really take action - Now put your best people on the job and get it fixed. Keep the customer updated on even the most silly progress you have made on the problem. That will cool their nerves and provide an assurance that you are on the job.

Now a real scenario     

Phone Rings - Chinmay what have your people done? Its completely messed up....

Me - Sir, I am coming there with the project leader

I then put on my Spongebob costume and dash to the car......

Time of my life

The past weeks of my life have been different and interesting. I have been encountering too many changing scenarios and definitely way too many people’s opinions to comprehend. But the bigger lesson I have learnt is the essence of time.

I eagerly wait for the weekends for a purpose, make the most of the time I can muster and hope that there is no travelling plan for the next week. My carefree life where time did not find too much importance has all of a sudden become a major mental exercise. Well talking about exercise, I, after long times have also found time to do it now in the wee hours of the morning!

I now care about when I get up, when I could actually plan a night out, and the most bizarre being that I care about the time I get back home from work. Sometimes I have heaps to do and too little time, the other spectrum being that I have way too much time and have very little to do.

I have also learnt to share time now. Being the selfish one with all for myself previously, I have found a meaning to the saying “sharing is good”. There is never enough time to spend with the people you want and I recirculate the question about where it’s all gone so fast.

My bland weekends comprising of lazing around have transformed into pretty moments. The element of time kicks in the fact that a lot of minute to minute planning goes into it for rest of the weekdays. And then I get ready to plunge into the weekend hoping that it will all work! It’s almost like a diving competition at the Olympics, where there can be only one of the outcomes, I have either made it or not.

I feel the clocks turn too quickly when I want them to crawl, or they take excruciatingly long when I want them to fly. I wish god had given me the boon to control the pace of time wherein I could design its velocity.

But lemme tell u all, there is never enough time when you need it !

Friend : Hey chinnu I want to buy a watch, do you want to come along?
Me: Dude, no WAY....
Friend: Whats the problem?
Me: Never mind bud, I don’t have time to explain that now......

Non stereotypical, hidden talents or just daring passion?

What is common between Praveen Tagodia, the Secretary of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, musician Raghu Dixit and the multi-talented and good friend Meiyang Chang?

First Dr. Tagodia, I always thought he displayed an honorary doctorate to be honest. His radical views and his path of advocacy of his ideologies have been noticeable in the media. Some condemn it, some endorse it, but my opinion on Praveen Tagodia is " like him or hate him, you cannot ignore him". Something about his personality intrigued me and wanted to know his life a little more clearly. And as always, Google came to my rescue and I happened land up in the non-curated encyclopaedia, Wikipedia. That’s where I was struck with the fact that he is a "Cancer Surgeon" by profession. That totally beat me, and not only that, I was totally impressed. But knowing Wiki, where one can pretty much post anything he or she likes and if no other user objects or edits the facts, the myth can be the total truth. So head off to some more references, and yes..... the same facts reiterated. Bookmark your thoughts right there as I have another example for you.

I have been an ardent fan of an Indian rock band called Antaragini, now rechristened as the Raghu Dixit Project with some tweaks in their composition!! Hailing from Mysore, a gold medallist in Microbiology and a proficient Indian classical dancer is known more for his self taught musical skills than the ones he was formally trained and academically excelled in. I was extremely fascinated by his work in a regional kannada movie I watched recently and I thought Raghu has displayed his brilliance again.

Lastly but in no means the least, good friend and my senior in university, Meiyang Chang. I know him best as the bubbly, friendly and multi-talented student in dentistry. He used to always be a stage performer and a creative guy. But now is famous not for his root canal treatments but for his clinical singing and acting skills.

That said enough, you must have figured the point I was trying to make at the beginning of this blog entry. I have quoted examples of persons whom we know very well, yet very little is known of their background qualifications. What I think puts personalities like them in a league apart is the daring quality in them to do something outside their comfort zone and stand by their choice with integrity. The passion and integrity within automatically propels them towards excellence. They have been successful in defying the odds and proving our very stereotypical society wrong. This is an eye opener for everyone at large where we draw our boundaries and limit ourselves since we are bound with our university degrees. Don't despair if you are unable to find that perfect job, maybe you are here to achieve something larger than just writing code or crunching numbers.............

"Hey mom, where are those papers that were on my desk yesterday?"
Mom - "threw all the clutter out"
"Wow mom, that was the draft copy of my first attempted book" Sigh

Theology trouble.......

I have had an experience in the last few days that I find a bit difficult to analyse and digest. I have just finished reading a book titled “Death of a Guru” written by Rabindranath Maharaj. It is supposed to be an autobiography of a person born into a staunch Brahmin family in Trinidad who eventually becomes a Christian pastor. Well, religion always being a contentious issue is a tricky conversation to make or write about. We all have our loyalties to the religion we endorse and in a way show our unquestioned faith and dedication to it. And this emotion is fine with me and it is absolutely understandable. Here I am writing this blog purely based on what I thought about the book and the presentation of its facts and content.

The author first writes about his rise to being a pundit as early as 11 years of age and how people would bow down to him and touch his feet and give him money. He then writes about the caste system and all the popular history that come attached with Hinduism. He mentions that he practiced yoga and meditation everyday to bring him closer to god. Then the book shifts gear to how he picked up smoking and how violent he had become all of a sudden. He speaks about how certain gods like Shiva and Kali brought a chill down his spine, and an incident where the cow he had worshipped for a long time as god had attacked him. The first half of the book where he is hindu is filled with negativity and dark shades.
Then he and his family endorse Christianity and things started falling in place. He miraculously got some money to go to England and his grandmother was cured of arthritis that she had suffered for more than a couple of decades. The transformation from not being able to walk to actually able to squat without support was seen only in a matter of weeks! He recounts enormous number of such case reports that has proven beneficial to him, the highlight being him quitting smoking overnight and him getting through a spinal surgery.

He then becomes a pastor and travels around the world; most of his time spent in criticising Hinduism than promoting his new found faith. He also claims that he had cured a girl of an untreatable blood disease (HIV) through religion. Since Christianity does not have a restriction on eating meat, he attributes it to his improving health which could Hinduism could not provide.He blames eastern religious influences like Hinduism and Buddhism to being the cause of the increase in drug users in western countries. He equates the experience of practicing yoga and meditation to being the same as using addictive drugs like LSD. He also goes to the extent of ridiculing certain hindu gods like Ganesha for possessing an elephant head and the violent nature of Shiva, the destroyer of the evil. He then finds Hinduism as the root cause for India’s problems of poverty and underdevelopment. He criticises great saints and personalities like Swami Vivekananda, Dalai Lama and some eastern missionaries to be the cause of misery, drug abuse and to the growing popularity of yoga and meditation, in his opinion the greatest trap of the east in the western world. The opinions and the innumerable personal examples provided here seem so contrived that it is hard for any sane person to believe.

It is one’s personal choice as to which religion he or she wants to follow. But the point I am trying to make is; promote a religion based on its positives and not by criticising the others that are around. If one has the ability to analyse other religions, then do it ethically and not through concoction of stories packaged as facts. India today is one of the world’s greatest emerging economies with a large mix of different religions in its population. Religion and development have little relation and it is outright idiocy to state that a certain religion has a negative effect on its economic progress.

There have been social and political revolutions that have taken place against certain practices of Hinduism like in the 12th century lead by Basaveshwara and by Swami Vivekananda in the 19th century. This is a phase that religions go through leading to its metamorphosis and its ever-changing interpretation to suit the prevailing social and intellectual ability of its followers. Hinduism and Buddhism are very different today, unlike the way described in this book which is very dark and unethical in its criticism.

The author tries to salvage credibility to his book by saying that he has been a guest speaker in universities like Harvard and Oxford. Making a speech in Harvard, if it is true at all, which I really doubt, does not justify the book’s unethical and blasphemous nature. I need not remind my readers about the beneficial effects of yoga and meditation that now have scientific backing to them. Choosing to use drugs of abusive nature is the prerogative of the individual and he has to deal with the consequences of making a lethal and unlawful choice. He criticises gurus of the east for accumulating vast amounts of money. But I think the Vatican is the richest religious place on earth!! The author himself now lives in Switzerland in a comfortable country home like the loads of other Christian preachers who own private jets. Flimsy arguments like these he poses in the book, and mine that counter them is a list that could see no end. It is not about who is right or who is not; it is just a matter of secular co-existence. Every religion has its positives and negatives, and the big picture lies in relating to a higher cosmic power that we call god, be it any form or conception. The bottom line is to keep away from controversy by not touching the livewire called religious sentiment.

Publisher: “your last book was a total failure and we are thinking of not renewing your contract”
Failed author: “my next book will be a mega seller for sure”
Publisher: “what are you writing on?”
Failed author: "Panacea to untreatable diseases, Religion". I will feature some (not so) real examples in it”