TEDx IMT Hyderabad

Hyderabad, 31st August, 2019:

“To accomplish the perfect perfection, a little imperfection helps.”

-- Dejan Stojanovic

Institute of Management Technology, Hyderabad organized its Third edition of TEDx event. This year the theme chosen was “The Imperfect Blend” in tune with the college’s belief that it is a person’s little imperfection that makes them unique. The college, specially the faculty that overlooked the event have always encouraged the students to enhance their creativity rather than trying to mould everyone in the same shape. IMT-H believes that real learning happens outside the classroom and makes sure it provides the students with enough avenues to get the same. The organization of TEDx in the campus is an initiative towards meeting the same.

The event started with an impactful speech by the designer duo Riddhi and Siddhi, owners of MapxencaRS. The twin sisters are a well-known name in the fashion industry and have dressed the likes of Alia Bhatt and Kareena Kapoor Khan. Their talk emphasized on the importance of the way a person dresses and how it affects the way others perceive you. They stressed upon how power dressing is imperative to leave a lasting impression. The duo defined power dressing as being professional, owning one’s body, wearing one’s confidence, expressing one’s unique style and reflecting one’s higher aspirations. Their talk was especially focused on how dressing affects success in the corporate world.

“With authority you can go far, but with humanity you can go far and beyond"

These were the words of Mr. Amarpreet Singh, Director Khalsa Aid, who opened his speech imploring the students to think about what humanity means to them. Trained to be a pilot, it is Mr. Amarpreet Singh’s diligence and devotion towards serving humanity which sets him apart from the crowd. He has worked extensively around the world in disaster hit and civil conflict zones. He talked about how passion is the most important thing when you set out to help others. Even at times when Khalsa Aid did not have sufficient resources they never backed out and did their best to help the ones in need. His talk delivered the inspiring message that even a problem which might look insurmountable can be solved if you have your heart in the right place.

An Oxford University graduate, a Goldman Sachs’s Global Leadership Award Winner, an Author and a Public policy specialist and an analyst at the UN, these are a few things which our next speaker, Nabila Jamshed has to her credit. A true inspiration, she said that nothing short of a blood lust for peace can bring about a change in the world we live in. Throughout her speech she kept re-iterating the fact that we live in a world where we are constantly under catastrophic risks. She defined catastrophic risks as those risks which have the potential to push humanity to the brink of extinction. These catastrophic risks include but are not limited to weapons of mass destruction, smart wars and artificial intelligence. It was interesting to note that a peace keeping activist was urging the future generation to wage war in order to obtain peace. Her speech provided the students with a new perspective in the peace keeping arena.

TEDx for many is synonymous with inspiring stories of people who have seen the darkest side of life and have come out of it stronger than ever. Pawandeep Singh, the next speaker had one such story to tell. He talked about his picture perfect life and how one unfortunate event almost took it all away. A former pilot, he lost his ability to walk in an accident. Despite feeling like his life was over he pulled himself out of this depression, went on to study at IIM Indore and today runs a successful business. He stressed upon the need to make our society more empathetic towards differently abled people and the need to make our infrastructure accessible to all. His grit and never say die attitude redefined the meaning of bravery.

Dar Gai, a Ukrainian born theatre actress with a master’s degree in Philosophy, connected with the audience by sharing her own experiences of dealing with fear of rejection, awkwardness and the struggle to come out of one’s comfort zone. She cited instances from her own life to beseech the students to at least try something even if they’re scared that they might fail.

“Fear will always be there, why not accept it.”

The audience was completely enamored by her speech and was motivated to try her approach towards life.

The last speaker for the day, Mr. Rahul Tyagi, the co-founder of Lucideus and one of the top most thought leaders in the field of Information Security, introduced the audience to the threats a highly digitized world poses. He talked about how the biggest concern of Cyber Security World is the human error as stated by him - “You can patch any technology but there is no patch for human stupidity”. He presented various demonstrations to show just how easy it is to fall prey to various cyber-crimes. He closed his speech with a few suggestions which could relatively decrease these risks.

The event came to a closure with the presentation of mementos to the speakers by our esteemed faculty and a short address by TEDx Mentor Professor Tulika Sharma. The event was a success and left everyone looking forward to the next edition.