Calling All Thinkers

Can you guess a tab that’s always open on my laptop?



It's huge! I must have read it a hundred times and yet, I couldn’t tell you any one rule by heart. You have the usual - Speakers must not have a commercial agenda or talk about bad science. But do you know what my favorite is?

“Special care must be taken to avoid using polarising us vs. them language.”

It's refreshing, isn't it?

In today’s social media age, where you are constantly surrounded by extremes in opinion relating to politics, religion, and even music taste, you can choose to spend an afternoon listening to unbiased ideas?

I regard myself as someone with an open mind who embraces contradicting opinions. But what if we’re living in bubbles created by the infamous algorithms that only expose us to thoughts we already agree with? Can you imagine the abundance we are missing out on? Not the black or white but the grey, the ‘in-between lines’ our English teachers warned us about.

You can always put away your phone, talk to your grandparents and go on adventures that stimulate your curiosity, intellect, and creativity. And here’s why a TEDx event is a great addition to that list:

You already know it's not organized to earn or for charity. So there won’t be any cringy “Buy my product” or “Join my pyramid scheme to get rich” speeches.

Although educational, it’s not an endless lecture, just 18mins for every speaker.

What sets it apart though?

A TEDx event isn’t merely a stage or a plethora of speakers and an over-enthusiastic marketing team. It aims to create a community of thinkers and doers, and so as an audience, you hold the major responsibility of spreading the ideas, the grey, and the emotions you feel once you get out of the auditorium.

Some might disagree and ask -

“How will I feel as passionately about the idea as the speaker to spread it?”

To answer that, I would like to tell all of you about an activity we did in school once.

Our teacher took us out of class, onto the ground and carried with her long pieces of cloth. She divided us into pairs and then covered someone’s eyes, tied a leg to the thigh or an arm to the shoulder in a way that normal function became extremely tough. The partners then guided each other through a maze.

The hurdle devised by this activity sowed a seed of understanding the people around us with disabilities.

So to answer your question, spending an afternoon listening to speakers might not result in a personal eureka moment or an immediate passion for their idea but it will surely alter your perspective. It’ll make you ponder about the universe and its unique ways.

So my dear readers, welcome to the first TEDxDYPatilUniversity blog and if you relate to any of the above, your weekly contemplation is


“Do I belong to the TEDx community?”