1st October 2023. The colours I had been seeing all over the campus were in balloons on the stage. Red and white. The other night, on a bench, with a red spray paint was written - TedX 5.0. The fifth edition of TedXRGNUL One thing that I did not realise until the very end was that I would be gifted with a plethora of the ideas ultimately.
Maya and Metaverse- Dr. Srinivas Yanamandra
O best amongst the Bharatas, four kinds of pious people engage in My devotion—the distressed, the seekers of knowledge, the seekers of worldly possessions, and those who are situated in knowledge. (7.16, Bhagvad Gita)
With surpassing technological advancements, the wisdom of the past gets lost somewhere along the line. But more than often the truths hidden in that wisdom do seep into our reality at one point or another. Dr. Srinivas Yanamandra in his speech talked about his research on the analogous similarity between the Geeta and the Metaverse. He sought to connectdevelopments in the present to the wisdom delivered ages ago. Metaverse is a science fiction – an iteration of the Internet as a single universe, an amalgamation of virtual reality, and augmented reality headsets. What was once a figment of imagination is now becoming reality. Well, to call it reality rather feels like an outstretch but nevertheless it is the closest word of description. Metaverse is real and unreal at the same time. Things will exist but in a dimensionally different state and form, intangible yet much believable. Much like Māyā. Māyā in Sanskrit means “illusion” and the concept is explained by Shri Krishna himself. Dr. Yanamandra stresses that the Metaverse will make the present generation understand Māyā better. When Shri Krishna says that it is the Prakriti (nature) of humans that leads to Māyā and prevents us from seeking Him, he does not mean to reflect that the world itself is illusionary. Rather, it is the human emotions that delude humansthrough the three modes of Māyā – passion, ignorance and goodness. It is this veil of ignorance rather than illusion itself that keeps us away from Him. Māyā is that which is not what it appears to be. Like Māyā is some veil of ignorance that keeps us in an illusory reality, Metaverse is an alternate reality too. It is an internet immersive experience relying on virtuality.
Lighting years ahead: Jyotsana Uttamchandani
Jyotsana Uttamchandani is a second-generation businessperson who came from a well-settled family. Syska is a leading electronics manufacturer primarily known for their energy-saving light-bulbs. But the path towards revolutionising Syska has not been a field of roses. She had always been ambitious, hardworking and wanted to carve her own path. When she left her job as the Premier Field Engineer (PFE) at Microsoft in the US to join her family business, the burden of expectations was tremendous. Her father had dedicated 30 years to the business and was known for not having taken a single break in between. Having come as the Executive Director, hopes tied on her were high. But Jyotsana, nevertheless resolute to carve her own path and to not let her father’s established aura define hers, fought through depressive episodes to rise as a leader. Her grit is seen in her approach; she was practical in production and sought to visit each supplier personally - paving the way for SYSKA to become a 100% ‘Made in India’ company. Her success has proved not to be a stop for her zealous creativity. Jyotsana’s motivation for her team is still to persevere to do something differently. She has incorporated young minds as interns and has maintained vigour through discipline yet flexibility.
Overwriting relics of White supremacy- Prof. Yugank Goyal
“If you don’t write your history, somebody else will; and when they will, they will have their hidden intentions in it too.”
- Prof. Yugank Goyal
All of us are well-versed in understanding the extent of British oppression. But deep-seated prejudice and stock like treatment was enforced upon Indians in more than one form. Prof. Yugank Goyal started his speech by showing us the few of the gazetteers of British rule which explicitly mentioned crude remarks about different communities in India by referring to them as tribal, thief, cruel, uncivilized, barbaric, etc. Such ideas were directly based on the tenets of white supremacy, and by making such permanent records, a step in direction of institutionalization of discrimination, stereotypes and prejudice was taken. Those records have somehow laid foundations for prejudicial practices against tribal populations even in modern India. They are still treated as a severed end of the society. Prof. Goyal is now rewriting the oppressive imperial memory jotted in the Gazetteby visiting each district in the country starting from Maharashtra.
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