BHUBANESWAR: Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) hosted the fifth version of internationally acclaimed annual event TEDxXIMB Sunday. TED, as we all know is a non-profit organisation devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks.
The speakers for TED x XIMB 5.0 range from Lt. Gen. Satish Dua, working in Public Service (Army) to Divyanshu Damani, YouTuber and Social media influencer. The theme of the event is ‘Chakravyuh: The inescapable formation’. At first Lt Gen Satish Dua, an expert strategist with years of military expertise, shared inspiring tales from his life and divulged how positive attitude has always helped him to achieve success in life.
With years of experience as a military officer, Dua shared what it takes to keep the nation and its citizens safe. He described the life of a soldier, the challenges they face and how to overcome them. Social activist Sruti Mohapatra spoke about how disability is viewed as an impediment. She further spoke about how society should stop viewing disability as a disease and work towards accepting them for who they are. She said, “Each maze has a way out and even if the whole world gives up on you, one should not give up. All we need is focus, determination and a lot of hard work to succeed in life.”
Later, Sachin Das Burma, an avant-garde marketer by his own right, who has created unforgettable ads like ‘AamSutra’, ‘Thinking is such a waste of time’, and most recently, the campaign for Odisha Hockey World Cup 2018, explained that Chakravyuhs are present in all walks of life. One must realize its presence and work towards finding a way out of it. He said, “The three phases of chakravyuha are expectation, conventions and predictability and only way out of it is belief.”
Paul Wash, Founder, The Jungle Crows, an undirected rugby club which soon became instrumental in educating hundreds of children explained how sports can be used to connect with the younger generation. He elaborated on how sports speak to the youth in a language they understand and how it can be used to give them a proper direction in life.
The Indian at heart, Walsh spoke about how sports can be used as an amazing tool to provide a proper direction to the youth of this generation. He shared his experience of helping underprivileged children who merely scores 20% and helped them score 80% through his team’s educational endeavor.
L. Jagannath, a well-known marketer who currently leads the Dell-EMC Synergy is alumnus of XIMB, stressed that honesty and integrity are extremely important in life and nobody else will help us to trace the path out of the Chakravyuh. He encouraged the audience not to delve in the past but to move on considering the next shot as the most important shot.
Megha Vishwanath, a young anchor of shows such as ‘Young Turks’ and ‘Tech Toyz’, spoke about how Chakravyuh of discovering passion made her find herself and what she learned from the journey. When her peers did not have answers to any questions, there was a small window of growth and she made the most of this opportunity.
Finally, Divyanshu Damani, a social media influencer, spoke about how easy it is to influence or get influenced in this technologically advanced world. He further mentioned how nowadays everyone wants to be famous instantaneously.
The audience enjoyed an enthralling performance of traditional Odissi dancers who were wearing masks, depicting the ‘Nagajurna’ Avatar of Lord Jagannath and Devi Maa (The Supreme Goddess) made out of paper pulp and painted bright. The artistes danced to the rhythm of Changu and Dhol.
