TEDxIETLucknow | ietwhiteboard

Theme: Transcending the Frontiers

This event was held on

October 5,2019

9:00am- 6:00pm IST

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

India

Soft hues of incandescent red bouncing off the stage. The brilliant voices, the ironically wonderful clamour, the laughter, the music. In regards to TEDxIETLucknow, those are the memories I carry forth with me. It was not because it was a highly impeccable event with no hiccups at all. To tell you the truth, it was far from it. It was special because it was one of the events which altered my perception of college life. I speak for all us freshies when I say that initially, the college life fate had turned us towards, was not the one we had aspired to. The TEDx event marks the day when a majority of the fresher population embraced IET's unique culture and dived headfirst into accepting it.

It was one of the first events which got everyone hyped up. After the announcement was made, everyone was soon in a rush to get tickets and T-shirts. There were squabbles about the prices, squabbles about why we should buy the T-shirt,squabbles about why we should go anyway? All this was soon forgotten.It goes without saying that almost everyone attended. Standing outside the auditorium, something which looked like it had been made to host the TEDx, there was a lot of impatience in the air. The passes were not being handed out fast enough, and it being a lovely sunny day, sweat was trickling down the spines of the people in line. Let's just say it wasn't starting out as we had expected it to. But that changed when we entered the auditorium. Or rather, the beloved auditorium, I should say.

There was a pointed shift in the atmosphere. The inside was in complete contrast to the outside. Hushed voices were maintained and there was this air of elegance which nobody had expected to be present.

As the audience settled into their seats, the enthusiasm of Mr. Vishnu, our emcee for the day, started seeping into us. He was the perfect anchor, funny and snarky at the same time. The audience was now warmed up for what was to come. The theme being 'Transcending the frontiers', it would be interesting to see how each speaker interpreted it.

Everyone was eagerly waiting for the first speaker of the day, when we were introduced to Dr. Kamna Chhibber, a clinical psychologist. Her discussion on mental well-being was followed by some brain-storming, as Mr. Gaurav Tekriwal took us through some concepts of Vedic mathematics.

After those effortlessly taught math lessons, we jumped to some financing tips lent out by Mr. Manish Bhattacharya. Taking his own example, he showed us how smart planning can lead to big profits and one doesn’t need to slog all his life to feed oneself.

I was listening very closely to his advice. After all, who doesn’t want to retire at 30?

The next speaker was the one our naive, teenage hearts were eagerly waiting for. We were staring at the stage with our eyes wide apart; the music started playing in the background, when suddenly we could hear cheers & hooting from behind us. There we had Mr. Prit Kamani, making a surprise entry from the back door of the auditorium, sliding on to the stage, leaving us swooning in our seats. Soon he delved into a talk, familiarizing us with his struggles and how never giving up has been his motto.

After that, we were greeted by the brilliant Dr. Rajamani Vijayaraghavan, who brought out the quantum physics nerd in all of us. It didn't go as smoothly as the former speakers though,owing to the microphone issues. No stage event is complete without them it seems.

This elaborate discussion on quantum computing was followed by some entrepreneurship guidance by the C.P. Milk CEO Mr. Anuj Agarwal, wherein he underlined the importance of accepting challenges, giving examples from his own life.

"Kahaniyaan isiliye toh rehti hain sabko yaad, kyuki yeh maksad, mazhab aur matlab se hoti hain azaad." Mr. Rakesh Tiwari was a poet after our own hearts. His slam poetry session included the recipe to making the perfect story. The ingredients were not rare, we only had to step out to find them.

We also had amongst us Mr. Dinesh Pathak, a senior journalist and a counsellor, who held a talk on how journalism should always strive to be public-oriented.

Next up, Ms. Deepshikha Kumar Anand, the founder and CEO of SpeakIn, took the stage to enlighten us on what makes a good speaker. After diving deep into the nitty-gritties of the skill of speaking, we had the fortune of having amongst us the director of 'Tashkent Files', one and only, Mr. Vivek Agnihotri.

Before we even realized, we had the last speaker of the day with us. Mr. Madhav Chavan stepped on to the stage.

And Mr. Chavan spoke. Spoke with the clarity of a man who has studied and thought long and hard about the underlying problems in our education system. He spoke of loopholes which everyone comes across but never really stops to consider. If I were to speak for myself,he had me nodding in agreement to every word he said. It was relatable. It wasn't star-studded. It was the truth.

The talks were followed by a Q&A session which was equally captivating as we witnessed the revered speakers answering our questions.

It wasn't all unicorns and rainbows. There were a few perceptible lags in between the speeches. The microphone would sometimes turn off randomly. Some of the food wasn't what you'd give a five star rating to. At the end of it all, everyone felt overwhelmed. But it's safe to say that it was alright. No bones broken. No injury caused. The day was bright and the evening light.

The event concluded with a mesmerizing performance by the band 'Yugm'. The thing about music is it makes you forget everything else and forces you to live in the moment. 'Yugm' is now synonymous with 'magical'.

In conclusion, this was the first time that IET, Lucknow hosted a TEDx talk. And yes, it did exceed expectations. Whether it be management, the speakers or the provisions - the hype was justified. It was TEDx, after all.