***Continued from Part 1
Back after stuffing my face with only a mini samosa and and small veg sandwich, as there was time only for that. I grabbed my seat again, looking forward to the second half of Josh Talks.
Anirudh took over the host duties for the second half and invited Sijo Kuruvilla to take the stage. Sijo is the co-founder of Startup Village, a space that promotes entrepreneurship in college. Sijo shared his tale about growing up in Kerala, bunking college, playing basketball and starting a company.
The next speaker was one of my favourites of the afternoon. Revanna Umadevi is and has been a typist in the Karnataka Horticulture Department for some 35 years now. It was at the age of 29 that she discovered her love for and her skill at billiards. She started learning, practicing and playing and in 2012 Revanna won the World Billiards Championship.
Revanna is a quiet simple woman, whose humility was the most moving thing for me in her talk. Vineeth Vincent who came to speak aftercare was anything but that. Vineeth is a beatboxer, that’s a person with the art of producing drumbeats, rhythm and musical sounds with the mouth and voice.
Vineeth was another speaker that is not heard but experienced. A chirpy smiling full of energy guy, he takes your breath away. He started his talk with teaching how to beatbox, beginning with the simple stuff. He then followed it up with examples of what he does and his growing up years. Vineeth didn’t seem like he had struggled much to achieve his dream but then again, maybe there’s more to that smile.
Madan Padaki took the stage after and told us about his childhood, his first company MeritTrac, his learnings and experiences and his journey to Rubanomics. His current project that aims to bridge the gap between Rural and Urban.
Madan was followed by Shradha Sharma of Your Story. Shards reminisced about when she was in 3rd standard. Her teacher had told her she was not good enough and that set her off to keep proving herself. That incident made her believe everyone had a story, a story that makes them stronger people, and it was this inspiration that was behind Your Story.
The event wound down with the last speaker Niranjan Mukundan. Niranjan was born with a rare medical condition - Spina bifida. He was lucky in that the condition did not affect his mental faculties, only his body. He was told to swim by his doctors to strengthen his body, his mother took him to Jayanagar Swimming Club and the rest is history. Niranjan is now a many time state and national champion and one of India’s hopes in the next para-olympics.
The event closed with a vote of thanks and the entire team of volunteers took to the stage to be acknowledged. The team had done an awesome job, the event had been organised well and it ran on time without many glitches.
The brain child of two 20 year olds, Shobhit Banga and Supriya Paul, Josh Talks amazed me. I hadn’t gone with very many expectations but I certainly hadn’t expected this. The event far exceeded my expectations. :D
An event that aims to showcase India’s Most Inspiring Stories, Josh Talks delivers on it’s promise.
Their speakers were gems, simple people from around us but yet local unsung heroes. Listening to ordinary people who had done extraordinary things and their tales about their struggles leaves you feeling inspired, filled with an urge to get out there and do your thing.
Still a relatively new idea, this was just the third edition of #JoshTalks. But that doesn’t faze Shobhit and Supriya who have plans of doing a lot more events across India before the end of this year. I wish them luck and look forward to attending future Josh Talks.
Please visit the Josh Talks website for more details on events and speakers.
Photo Credit: Chenthil Mohan
P.S. – Day Six of the 30 Day Blogging Challenge.
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