Inspiring Change
TED (abbreviation for Technology, Entertainment & Design) is a non-profit organisation born with the objective of providing a unified platform to people who could to share their life experiences with the general public making small as well as large scale impacts in people’s lives. Since it’s inception in 1984, people from various backgrounds have made appearances in this iconic event and shared their success stories.
Soon after, TEDx was born. Here, ‘x’ stands for ‘independently organised events’. TEDx events are organised by private organisations at a regional level aiming to provide the local people with the same platform that TED provides to people whose talks could have global implications. Although focusing mostly on regional speakers, TEDx successfully maintains the standards and objectives set by TED. TEDx events are mostly based on a particular theme with speakers addressing their talks around the decided theme.
Similarly, at TEDxIITGuwahati, it has always been our aim to provide a stage to the people of the north-east whose voices are mostly unheard. At the 2nd edition (2019) of TEDxIITGuwahati, the theme was decided to be ‘Changing Faces of Taboo’. Mankind has evolved greatly and throughout this process, several misconceptions commonly known as Taboos have been created as well as broken. Taboos are social restrictions, prejudices that hinder the path of development. And society can only progress once these taboos are broken. Let’s take a look at how we along with our speakers decided to go about this task -
Zoma Sailo (TEDx IITGuwahati)
Zoma Sailo, a music enthusiast shared his journey from a little boy with severe lack of confidence to a successful music teacher working with the disabled children to bring melody to their otherwise monotonous and tough life.
In his talk at TedxIITGuwahati he shared his struggles to becoming a mentor for the specially abled and eventually his journey to forming the all-blind band ‘Light after Dark’ with Lyngdoh (19, bass guitarist), Khongpai (21, drummer), Pajuh (23, guitarist), Nongklhaw (25, drummer and singer) as it’s members. The talk is followed by a mesmerising performance by the band members.
Through the talk and performance, Zoma and the band members hoped to inspire the others with physical disabilities to step out and make a mark for themselves while requesting the rest to give equal opportunities to everyone.
Go to video (Zoma Sailo — TEDx IITGuwahati)
Binita Jain (TEDx IITGuwahati)
Having your husband kidnapped suddenly and having to earn bread for your family is not easy. In our male dominated society, there are various restrictions and taboos that prevent women, especially single mothers from progressing. But here, we have Binita Jain, a lady who’s husband went missing and the load of the entire family dropped on her shoulders.
At TEDx, Binita shared how she faced opposition when she started teaching children to earn money. People in her neighbourhood did not believe that she as a women was capable of earning bread for the family. But she stuck, she was determined and is now one of the most sought after teachers in her region. Later, Binita also went on to win 1 crore rupees at the ‘KBC’ contest.
Go to video (Binita Jain — TEDx IITGuwahati)
Arup Kumar Dutta (TEDx IITGuwahati)
It is no hidden fact that the north-eastern states of our country are geographically such placed that the Indian Standard Time (IST) becomes highly inaccurate in the region with respect to the position of the sun overhead. Sunrise and sunset occur much earlier compared to other locations. This leads to various biological and economics problems in the region such as inefficiency of the human body system to adapt to the working hours , a much greater electricity consumption in the area. But this topic has essentially become a taboo since people don’t really understand the depth of it and often regard it.
Arup Kumar Dutta, has been constantly working to make people and the government aware of the various benefits of having a separate timezone for the north-east thus leading to the overall development.
Anamika Barua (TEDx IITGuwahati)
For most common people, climate change doesn’t seem like an issue big enough and hence this subdues the minority who believe in spreading word about environmental protection. Anamika Barua, a researcher at IITG has been studying this exact topic since the past 20 years. At TEDx, she took the opportunity to reveal some interesting and mind boggling facts that she discovered and also the solutions to prevent various forms of environmental destruction.
Go to video (TEDx IITGuwahati — Anamika Barua)
Even before TEDxIITGuwahati, various TEDx events and speakers around the globe have tried to combact such taboos. Some of the most prominent ones are -
Sam Berns (TEDx Mid Atlantic)
“Disability is not a brave struggle or courage in the face of adversity. Disability is an art. It’s an ingenious way to live.” ~Neil Marcus
There is a reason that physically challenged individuals are often referred to as ‘differently-abled’ human beings. They don’t need empathy or consolation, what they need is an opportunity. At TEDx Mid Atlantic, we witnessed Mr. Sam Berns, a sufferer of progeria (a rare but extremely fatal disease) narrate his story of courage and determination which propelled him to design special drums fit for a person weighing about around as less as 50 pounds to play in his school marching band. It is no lie that the life of a person suffering from progeria is full of challenges, but he has found his peace in the right things and leads an extremely happy life!
Go to the video (Sam Berns- TEDx Mid Atlantic)
Onkar Kishan Khullar (TEDx Ramanujan College)
People often talk about love, they give advices and fantasise about the concept but no one ever talks about the heartbreaks and break-ups. Mr. Onkar Khullar gave the TEDx talk ‘The Power of Break-ups’ at the Ramanujan College making people aware how great people have done exceptional things by accumulating their emotions and concentrating them towards a single direction. He explains, how determinant people could become after suffering heart breaks and give rise to majestic things by controlling their emotions of love.
Go to the video (Onkar Kishan Khullar- TEDx Ramanujan College)
Ashley Graham (TEDx Berklee Valencia)
Our world has been transforming into a very body conscious society which on the up side is great because obesity can indeed cause huge health issues but on the down side body shaming has been becoming so prominent that people suffering from obesity due to various reasons have started losing self confidence putting several of them into depression. In her talk Ashley takes the audience through a journey where she gives them a reason to love their bodies irrespective of it’s appearance.
