The Infosys campus, where the event was held was truly impressive. The buildings which were neo-colonial or Spanish or ultra modern, the clean roads and clean rooms and the do-not-walk-on-the-grass rule seemed rather un-Indian but it displayed what Indians can create. More impressive than the infrastructure was the staff of Infosys, who treated you like their own personal guest.
Some of the highlights of the events for me were:
- Meeting people from all over the world, each one curious about ideas and thoughts.
- Kavita Ramdass’ talk that showed how the world can be shaped through tradition, rather than by rejecting it….something I firmly believe in
- Abhay Deol’s talk on atypical Bollywood stories that are slowly emerging…he truly charmed the audience
- Charles Anderson who showed the extraordinary migratory pattern of ordinary grasshoppers from India to Africa in search of fresh water.
- The music of Mukul Deora that brought the most modern fusion music with the most ancient Kalaripayat dance
- Anil (piano) and Sikkil (vocals) who blended Western classical music with Carnatic classical song without compromising on either
- Harsha Bogle who showed how Indian cricket, through T20, expresses India’s growing comfort with capitalism
- Tony Hsieh of the highly successful Zappos.com who revealed how people need perceived control and perceived growth to be happy
- Romulus Whitaker who shared secrets of the King Cobra and the Indian Gharial
- Shrivatsa Krishna, who shared so beautiful the plight of infrastructure in India, especially the Mumbai airport – why we cannot be China
- Pranav Mistry’s fabulous Sixth Sense device
- So much more…….
My own presentation was much appreciated. Here were some of the comments:
- “You rock, sir”
- “You made India proud.”
- “Now I understand so clearly why things in India are so different.”
- “Thank you for this. I now can explain what went wrong between me and my partner.”