INKtalks

INKtalks salon at HP

Jul 26th, 2012 Leave a comment

When I joined INK, I always found it intriguing that everyone said that I absolutely need to attend an INK Salon to fully grasp the quintessence of INK.

So here I was, in a huge auditorium, geared up for my very first INK Salon at HP to see what all the fuss was about.
The auditorium was completely full and brimming with the INK spirit, with people even sitting on the stairs. The same atmosphere prevailed in the hall outside the auditorium where there was a live streaming feed of the salon.

The INK team with the speakers take the stage at HP

The event started and we were all warmly welcomed by the VP of HP, who saw the salon as an unique opportunity for his company to learn from our amazing innovators. Lakshmi Pratury then took to the stage and highlighted how everyone at INKtalks tries to see the world from different perspectives, instead of simply complaining how bad the world is and doing nothing to change it.
‘’I collect people,” said Lakshmi, ‘’people across the world from different disciplines, who are doing their own bit to change the world- people who are valued for their ideas and contributions for a better world.’’ This beautifully depicted the essence of INK.

Anupam Mukerji, founder of The Fake IPL Player blog, was our stunning host of the day. He introduced our  first speaker, Mansukhbhai Prajapati, who is a  rural entrepreneur. A clear message seeped out from Mansukhbhai’s talk– if something is wrong, one can come up with his own solution with whatever resources one has to solve the problem. After starting a ‘tawa’ making factory, he went on to create a water filter and a refrigerator – with clay! He now aims to create a ‘mitti cool house’ that would run on solar energy.
Clearly awed by our first speaker, the audience were waiting in anticipation for the next speaker to sweep them off their feet, which is exactly what Naganand, co-founder and president of Embrace did. As one of the creators of the ‘’infant warmer’’ – a low-cost product that keeps premature babies warm without using electricity.  He believes that ‘’social enterprise is 1% production and 99% distribution.’’ This is why his team is now aiming at empowering rural mothers by making this easy-to-use product accessible to them as well as decreasing the infant mortality rate in India.

Naganand Murty from Embrace

“The number 1 reason people don’t follow their dreams is that they settle for something good,” highlighted our next speaker, Karthik Naralasetty, founder of socialblood.org. His organisation came to life on Facebook after he realised that it was extremely difficult for people to find blood donors in time. Socialblood.org allows people to post requests for blood as well as donate blood, and already has presence in 20 countries.

Prasad Balasubramaniam, employee at HP, was announced as the winner of the ‘’Ideas Under 99 Seconds’’ competition organised by INK in association with HP. He gave a brief talk about his initiative for empowering women by enabling them to earn a living by selling apparel they designed themselves.

The next speaker on stage was the gaming revolutionary, founder of IndiaGames, Vishal Gondal. His talk focused on his team’s efforts at popularising games for people of all age, locality and profession- from the ‘rickshaw-wala’ to housewives and elderly people in India. His team has been to villages with tablets to give children the opportunity to discover and explore the gaming world.

However, Chris Kirchhoff, our next speaker, questioned the efficiency of technology. Having worked with the chief of military of US and having been part of the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster Commission,  and he showed the audience how one should proceed with care when dealing with technology. We should all learn from the disaster of the Columbia Space Shuttle so as to prevent such technical failures from happening in the future, he said.

Christopher Kirchoff

Our final speaker, Raghava KK, artist and TED speaker, spoke about his unconventional approach to art and technology.He explored how art and technology could be merged to create different perspectives. One such initiative is an innovative application that he created – a children’s book for all children, including children in single-parent or single-sex families.

‘Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the number of moments that take our breaths away.’ concluded Lakshmi, as she closed the event.

I can say with certainty that each and every moment of these 90 minutes were truly breath taking moments. Each and every member of the audience left with a determined spirit and renewed motivation to bring about positive changes in their daily lives, inspired by all our speakers.

by Anshu Beeharee

Intern

 

Amit Singhal visits INKtalks : “Beliefs make organizations…”

Jul 3rd, 2012 1 Comment

Amit Singhal

As we were winding down our week on a Friday, we had a visitor who brought a fresh dose of energy and enthusiasm for Team INK. Amit Singhal, Senior VP at Google, Inc. and the man behind Google’s ranking algorithm, dropped by at the INKtalks office in Bangalore. What followed was a spirited discussion on topics ranging from internet penetration in India and China, to what makes Google the company it is.

He was pleased to meet all our Google-INK ambassadors and felt that what the Google-INK Project aims to do ( to bring the next billion Indian people online ) is one of the most important things that need to be done in this day and age.

He spoke about how people use search differently in different countries and his observations on how the online population in India has a lot of potential to grow. So what is keeping many Indians from coming online, when we have such a large middle and upper class population with access to affordable devices and Internet service?

We explored the possibility that the reason might be in the deep rooted beliefs of the people. One of our young staff members said she observed that some older generation Indians treat their gadgets as sacred, fragile showpieces to be touched and operated by the man of the house. They are mostly kept covered to protect from dust, and the opportunities and possibilities of the internet are never explored. A growing number of teenagers are online, but the older generation just doesn’t feel the need to be online. Those who can afford have their secretaries or office-help do the work online for them.

Amit talked about how in the India he grew up in, each town used to have an indispensable post-man who would read out and write letters for everyone. He fears that we might see a time when each town will have a computer-operator-person who sends emails for everyone, because people are not comfortable with using computers yet.

We all agreed that something has to be done and people, old and young, must be made aware of how they can be benefited, empowered, and more informed by using the web.

The most fascinating part of the conversation was when Amit talked about how values and beliefs shape organizations. And how beliefs and convictions continue to define and shape organizations and even countries in the long term.

As a part of his job at Google he has to make big decisions every day.He said that at crucial moments, alongside data, their beliefs help them in making the final decision. For Google, the priority is to provide fair and just information to everyone, profits and market share come second.

So even when under intense pressure form groups who would like to see Google results changed because they don’t like the results for a query, Google stands its ground and refuses to change search results under pressure.

In the early years of Google, they had an opportunity to earn a large sum by placing an ad on the homepage. The question that they asked themselves was if an ad on the homepage would make the user experience any better and when the answer was “no”, they turned down the amount even though they needed the revenue. Profits and money were never the motivator; it was giving the users a great search experience and building innovative and intuitive products. This might be the reason why Google has the trust of millions of users and are generally perceived as the ‘good guys’.

Amit Singhal is also an Inner Circle member of the INK conference. And when asked about what he feels about the INK conferences, he talked about how in life we are constantly struggling each day, and for those 2-3 days of the conference or even 15 minutes of watching a talk online, we slow down, expand our minds and are refreshed with new ideas.

Amit Singhal at INKtalks with Lakshmi Pratury , Google-INK ambassadors and INK staff.

by Vaibhav Mathur, 
Intern 

Heena Patel from Talavya writes about “Getting INKed”

Jul 3rd, 2012 Leave a comment

When we received the invitation to speak /perform at the INK conference 2011 (formerly TEDIndia), there was no question about accepting.  Several of us had been following both INK and TED for some time now and we were more than happy to be apart of the experience.

However, after accepting the invitation, we were faced with a dilemma.  What would we perform? For those not familiar with the INK and TED formats, each speaker is given a maximum of 18 minutes. 18 minutes to share your ideas, your work. Unlike most bands, Talavya does not have individual songs, we perform a group tabla composition which is about an hour in playing length without any breaks or speaking.

Talavya performing at the INK conference 2011 in Jaipur. From L to R: Kaumil Shah, Rahul Shrimali, Rushi Vakil, Sahil Patel and Heena Patel. Photo credit : Varsha Yeshwant Kumar

So what would we perform?

The obvious answer would be one segment of Tabla Ecstasy (the composition we currently perform). After all, Tabla Ecstasy is divided into four parts based on speed and each segment is between 7 to 18 minutes in length. It would be easy to speak for a minute or two and then perform a section of the composition. However, this would not reflect one of the primary purposes of Talavya – to showcase the depth and breadth of classical tabla playing. Tabla Ecstasy and all of the previous works of Talavya follow the format of a classical tabla solo performance. Playing one segment would only highlight one aspect of the instrument as each section is comprised of one or two types of tabla compositions.

It was not as if this was the first time we would be performing something less than the entire composition, but just minimal time allocation for an Indian classical music performance is largely unheard of. Thankfully, the INK team were agreeable to give us the maximum time possible of 18 minutes, but this still presented a challenge. The shortest length we’ve played was 25 minutes – a time length that left little room for explanations, but included the more serious and light-hearted aspects of the composition. Going back to the composition with scissors was not an option as it could not be furthered shortened while keeping its essence intact. Our work had to be reframed.

But how would this be done?

The beauty of Talavya and the work we perform is that our compositions are living compositions, in that, they are continually modified. Our composer and guru, Pandit Divyang Vakil (fondly known as “Guruji”), is always making changes to what is known as Tabla Ecstasy based on our inputs, improvements in playing, etc. A few months ago prior to the INK invitation, Guruji had created a new experimental piece for Talavya that brought together world rhythm patterns and Indian classical rhythms.This work was compositionally presented in a different manner than previous works and provided an ideal framework for an INK talk. Using the base compositions (ie. specific kaidas, relas,) of Tabla Ecstasy, Guruji recomposed Tabla Ecstasy to 14 minutes, leaving a couple of minutes to share the idea behind the work (given that it is the INK conference) and technical explanation (which we feel is integral to a Talavya performance). Ultimately, the performance segment incorporated three segments of Tabla Ecstasy (slow, medium and very fast tempo) and multiple types of compositions. Our objective was achieved – to showcase the breadth and depth of classical tabla and that too within the INK time limit, which you must believe us when we say is no small thing from the perspective of an Indian classical musician.

By Heena Patel 

Talavya

Tabla Ecstasy Album Cover

Follow Talavya as they journey around the world sharing the art of tabla by joining their facebook page at www.facebook.com/talavyatabla and /or signing up on their mailing list at talavya.fanbridge.com.
Talavya is soon releasing their album Tabla Ecstasy that comes with free downloads and more.