INKtalks & INK Conference blog | Inspirational Stories, Ideas, & Perspectives

INK FELLOW IN FOCUS: Vicky Roy on location at the LV Prasad Eye Institute, Andhra Pradesh

Photographer and 2012 INK Fellow Vicky Roy was born in West Bengal to impoverished parents. The cramped home they shared was too small to contain little Vicky’s big dreams, and he ran away at age 11 to Delhi, 800 miles away, completely penniless. After a year earning his living as a ragpicker, Vicky found refuge at an NGO for street children. Here he met with a photographer who introduced him to a whole new world and changed his life.

In 2007 Vicky held his first solo exhibition, ‘Street Dreams’, with the British High Commission. In 2009, he was chosen as one of only four young photographers worldwide to document the reconstruction of the World Trade Centre. Despite exhibiting internationally at venues like the Whitechapel Gallery in London and the Fotomuseum in Switzerland, Vicky remains committed to helping other children like him back home in Delhi. This year, he released his first solo book of photographs at the Delhi Photo Festival, titled Home Street Home.

INK’s Nirupa Rao caught up with him recently to hear about his latest project.

Marking the end of 2013, Vicky carried out a photo-documentation of the LV Prasad Eye Institute and its network of facilities across Andhra Pradesh. The Institute’s Associate Director, Dr Sangwan, heard about Vicky through INK, and knew he was the perfect match for the project—he wanted Vicky to capture the activities of their network through his amazing eyes.
The Institute itself is a remarkable example of medical care in India. With over a hundred primary and secondary centres across the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, the private-enterprise, public-spirited institute focuses on providing high-quality, no-compromise care to economically and geographically disadvantaged populations. It relies on 3 core values—Equity, Efficiency and Excellence.
We asked Vicky to share his insights from the trip:

What excited you about the project?

It was a good experience for me, because it was my first time shooting in a hospital—at least 10 different locations across Andhra. There were so many poor people who otherwise could not afford anything. Full tribal people … koi bhi paisa nahi hai. But the atmosphere at LV Prasad is so good, like a private hospital. The patient is the VIP … that’s how much respect they get there. The patient is sitting, the doctor is standing. I felt so happy to take photos here. I felt like, this is my work!

What were some of the highlights?

I met a lot of doctors in Vijayawada, who invited me into their homes. They even invited me to inaugurate a painting exhibition they were hosting for children. I felt like a celebrity, because they wrote articles about this in 2-3 newspapers, and I somehow seemed to have a fan following (laughs). Like, people knew in advance! One boy came with his father, with the Indian Express article in his hand, saying he is a big fan of mine (laughs again).

What would your dream project be, anywhere in the world?

My favourite city is New York, and exposure to other cultures helps a lot in your work. But for photography, there is no place like India.

What is your favourite photograph that you’ve taken?

This is a photo of the boys’ locker room at Apna Ghar, where I grew up. When I first started photography this was one of the first pictures I took. I also put my chaddis like this. It was like my life, my memories, in one photo.

What is your favourite photograph that someone else has taken?

I like Prabuddha Dasgupta’s Ladakh series.

What is your advice to aspiring photographers?

Just do the hard work. Everything comes with experience. There are no shortcuts.

Watch Vicky Roy’s INKtalk below:

More information on Vicky Roy’s monograph ‘Home. Street. Home’ published by the Nazar Foundation here
Vicky Roy was 2012 INK Fellow; More information on the INK Fellows program here

Vicky Roy’s portrait: photo by Nimish Jain

2013 Roundup: 10 Must watch INK talks released in 2013

Dec 30th, 2013 Leave a comment

2013 has been an incredible year for INKtalks, we saw exponential growth in views and pagehits, Varun Agarwal’s talk hit 1 million views in a month, and a few hundred thousands watched Usha Uthup and Arunachalam Muruganantham’s talks. Though all our talks do not end up being viral sensations on the web, they are all remarkable in their own right. These talk videos are an important instrument to realise our vision of “imagination to impact,” and to be a catalyst of change as we move from an industrial economy to a creative economy.
Here INK team picks out 10 noteworthy INK talks released in 2013 that are not to be missed!

1. Christopher Kirchhoff: Investigating disasters

Investigator Christopher Kirchhoff showed us how a broken safety culture at NASA was responsible for the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.(So interesting to know how desktop wallpapers with deadlines and countdowns could impact an organization’s safety culture.)

Crisis investigator Christopher Kirchhoff is more interested in not ‘how’ disasters happen, but ‘why’ they happen. Watch as Kirchhoff shares insights from the investigations of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident, and how learning from disasters is the key to our future security and prosperity.

2. David Rowan: A healthy disregard for the impossible

David Rowan shared fascinating insights into the mindsets of disruptive entrepreneurs — take Rowan’s cues and you could be thinking like Elon Musk and Larry Page!

What do disruptive entrepreneurs who are solving the world’s toughest challenges have in common? WIRED UK editor David Rowan breaks down for us the mindset that sets them apart. Watch to know what people like Elon Musk, Larry Page, and Peter Diamandis do differently to achieve seemingly impossible feats.

3. Will Travis: What fuels creativity?

From Will Travis came a powerful insight — You cannot just pull creativity and confidence from inside of you — it comes from doing things!

Creative entrepreneur Will Travis takes us on his quest to find the source of real creativity. He finds it in the fight for true survival — on the icy peaks of Antarctica, or when staring an African lion in the eye. Watch as Travis shares the relationship between creativity, fear, and self-belief.

4. Dianna Cohen: Rethink plastic

From Dianna Cohen came an eye-opening talk on the shocking state of the plastic pollution crisis.

Plastic doesn’t go away — it ends up in the depths of the oceans, the bellies of birds and fishes, and the bloodstream of babies. Visual Artist Dianna Cohen shares that cleaning it up might not be the best solution, we need to turn off the faucet and change our ways — towards a world free of plastic.

5. Ramesh Raskar: 6 formulas to help you innovate

Ramesh Raskar made innovation seem so simple with his Idea Hexagon framework. These simple formulas need to be in every creative professional’s toolbox!

Ramesh Raskar’s group at the MIT Media Lab is pushing the envelope in futuristic technologies and imaging for social innovation. Raskar believes that each one of us has intrinsic abilities to invent, and solve problems. Watch as he shares the ‘Idea Hexagon’ — a mental framework to aid the process of invention.

6. Francesca Rosella: The future of fashion

Francesca Rosella’s talk on wearable technology will make you want to have one of her creations. Who doesn’t want a shirt that can send and receive hugs?

Shirts that can send and receive hugs, a dress that doubles up as a phone, t-shirts that display your latest tweets, and dresses that dazzle with choreographed LED lights, Francesca Rosella is truly creating the future of fashion. Watch as Rosella sparkles onstage in one of her creations.

7. Vidya Shah: How women shaped Indian classical music

Vidya Shah’s passionate talk tracing the history of women in Indian Classical music and tales of the gramophone era will make you want to time-travel back to that era.

Vidya Shah traces the history of how it was the women who first took to recording classical music. Shah shares with us stories of legends like Gauhar Jaan and the cultural significance of the gramophone as she sings for us some iconic compositions from that era.

8. Usha Uthup: Skyfall in a sari

You just can’t have enough of Usha. The voice, the persona, the humor, and the music — just perfect!

At INK2013, the legendary singer Usha Uthup gives a performance of a lifetime. For the first time ever, Uthup is joined on stage by her daughter and granddaughter for some foot-tapping, soulful music.

9. Malavika Sarukkai: A tribute to Thimmakka

Malavika Saurukkai shared that you don’t have to understand classical dance, you have to feel it. Her tribute to Saalumarada Thimmakka, the planter of the banyan trees, will give you goosebumps!

Celebrated dancer Malavika Sarukkai shares that Indian classical dance is beyond just the visual presentation, it is something of an inner journey — you don’t have to understand it, you have to feel it. Watch as Sarukkai performs a riveting bharatanatyam piece as an homage to Saalumarada Thimmakka, the planter of banyan trees.

10. Aisha Chaudhary: Finding Happiness

Aisha Chaudhary showed us that happiness is all that really matters when death is the ultimate truth, and that it is important to create many happy memories, so that we can try to wipe out the sad ones.

The endearing Aisha Chaudhary returns to the INK stage to share with us how she finds happiness and continues to smile despite a life-threatening illness.

List by Vaibhav Mathur, INK Staff

ALSO READ: ’2013 Roundup: 15 Most popular INK talks yet’

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Watch more videos on our YouTube channel and INKtalks.com

2013 Roundup: 15 Most popular INK talks yet

Dec 30th, 2013 Leave a comment

Here is a roundup of the 15 most popular INK talks videos yet based on total number of views on YouTube.

1. Varun Agarwal: From failing in engineering to co-founding a million-dollar company

In a world where everyone around us want us to “think” and follow the conventional route to success, INK Fellow Varun Agarwal shares a very different mantra of success — “Don’t think.” Watch as Varun shares his fascinating story of starting India’s largest college merchandise company and becoming a bestselling author, while braving a certain ‘Anu Aunty’.

2. Usha Uthup: Skyfall in a sari

3. Arunachalam Muruganantham: The first man to wear a sanitary napkin

In under 12 minutes, listen to the fascinating journey of a workshop helper – from being rejected by the same women whose lives he wanted to change – to now gearing up to create jobs for a million women.

4. Aisha Chaudhary: Singing in the life boat

Like Voltaire, she believes a shipwreck gives us an opportunity to sing in the life boats. Little Aisha Chaudhary, the first INK Youth Fellow, teaches us a big lesson even as she is battling a life-threatening medical condition. All of 15, Aisha has taught herself to paint, take pictures, run with her dog and dance at her cousin’s wedding, not just once but twice. Aisha learned art at the American Embassy School. “You live every moment twice, once in your mind and once when you actually live it,” she said to a standing ovation.

5. Deepak Ravindran: From college dropout to going viral

What was the motivating factor behind developing SMSGyan, a wildly successful SMS based information delivery system in India? It was to impress a girl. Hear the full story by its creator and INK Fellow, Deepak Ravindran.

6. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev: Majestic chaos

During his spiritual journey that began more than 25 years ago, Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev observed that people leaving a restaurant after a hearty meal looked happier than those coming out of a temple! “Clearly, dosa was winning over divinity,” he recalls in this TEDIndia talk, peppered with good humour and wit. After a deep spiritual experience that he describes as “one majestic chaos, but utterly beautiful,” Sadhguru developed methods for people to experience inclusiveness. It is this feeling of inclusiveness that has the power for positive change.

7. Aisha Chaudhary: Finding happiness

The endearing Aisha Chaudhary returns to the INK stage to share with us how she finds happiness and continues to smile despite a life-threatening illness.

8. Ruchi Sanghvi: From Facebook to facing the unknown

Ruchi Sanghvi, Facebook’s first female engineer, decided early on to follow her intuition rather than let fear or convention dictate her decisions. From joining Facebook, to building Facebook Newsfeed, to quitting Facebook and embarking on her own startup, Sanghvi has continuously defied–and then surpassed–expectations. Her startup, Cove, was acquired soon after she gave this talk.

9. Vikram Bhaskaran: An inside joke for a billion (+) people

He is one big enthu cutlet but you will never catch him wearing a safari suit, mother promise! What started out as an exercise in nostalgia for Vikram Bhaskaran, has turned into a repository of rich cultural idiosyncrasies and lingo from South Asia called Samosapedia. With words, phrases and quirky usage examples that typically mix local slang and English, Samosapedia hosts a treasure trove of crowd-sourced entries that connect the past with the present, celebrating the ever-evolving nature of language and culture from this region.

10. Kalki Koechlin: Understanding identity

Bollywood actress Kalki Koechlin takes us through her journey as an artist and person, starting with being of mixed heritage in India to her acclaimed role in the movie Dev. D to her penchant for writing poetry, in this interview with Lakshmi Pratury.

11. Jaaved Jaaferi: “Eggjactly” why we love him…

One of India’s most versatile funnymen, actor Jaaved Jaffrey, in conversation with Google’s Amit Singhal, shows us his serious side while talking about his Indian Documentary Foundation. He then promptly launches into an absolutely riveting caricature of a certain Bihari politician that has the audience in splits.

12. Deepak Chopra: An experience of deep silence

Deepak Chopra shares, for the first time publicly, the true reasons behind his decision to cut off ties with his guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Also, a very interesting fact on how the Maharishi ‘walked into his death’. And finally, why he connects with geniuses like MJ, Lady Gaga and Oprah.

13. Amish Tripathi: The secret of the immortals

It took Amish Tripathi more than just a leap of faith to transition from a career in finance to fiction. And only after Tripathi learned to shift his writing strategy from the arrogance of the creator to the humility of the witness did his debut book, ‘The Immortals of Meluha,’ get published and immediately became a bestseller. Now his ‘Shiva’ trilogy is on its way to completion with the release of the second book ‘The Secret of the Nagas’.

14. Deepak Chopra: Hitting rock bottom

Deepak Chopra takes us through his journey as a young doctor, starting in 1968 with his immigration to the US and ending with the incident that almost destroyed his career. In part one of this interview with INK Host and Curator Lakshmi Pratury, Chopra shares how he successfully restored his medical career after hitting rock bottom, but was still left unsatisfied in life and wanting more.

15. Vikram Gandhi: The true story of a false prophet

Disillusioned by certain gurus, filmmaker Vikram Gandhi decided to impersonate a religious leader and made a movie about it. Watch this interesting talk on how Gandhi became Kumare in his search to make sense of religion and beliefs.