TedxGateway 2020

Another Sunday well spent!

Yes, TedxGateway 2020, held at NSCI Dome Worli, Mumbai on 23^rd February 2020, had some wonderful speakers who gave insight into topics that are the need of the hour like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its Application in Healthcare/Medicine, AI-The Unprecedented Change, Plants and Implants, Climate Crisis and Some Suggestions & Some Solutions, Emergency Medical Services – Life Saving Flash Mob via Voluntary Para Medic, Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis & Prognosis, Voice as a biomarker in some diseases like Pulmonary Disorders, Botanical Artist-Plant Blindness-The Hidden Kingdom, Cultivated Meat in the Food Industry, The Invisible Journalism & the Untold Stories.

What is important after attending an event is what remains with you, and some things that remained with me…

“Making Passion into Profession. Being one’s own boss – can be a gift or a curse (depends on how we manage it.)” – Tom Thum

“Rural Journalism – the untold stories…let’s not lose them amidst the noise created by the sponsored news.” – Gangadhar Patil

“In nature, organisms are self-assembled (not screwed or glued. On Orthopedic Implants that can be made from human collagen injected into tobacco plants instead of animal cadaver collagen or other sources.) If you want a new idea, open an old book.” – Oded Shoseyov

“In words of Albert Einsten…I am neither especially clever nor especially gifted. I am only very very curious. (on Pancreatic Cancr detection using AI).” – Rishab Jain

“From managing illness to managing wellness…Scientist, Doctors and Engineers when work together can result in a bigger happier and healthier life (on AI in healthcare/medicine)” – Dr. Lily Peng @GoogleHealth

“If you can change yourself, then you can change your family, if you can change your family then you can change the neighborhood, if you can change the neighborhood then you can change the community, if you can change the community then you can change the country and if you can change the country then you can change the whole world.” – Licypriya Kangujam – the youngest 8-year old speaker who received a standing ovation

“Tumhe maloom nahi tum kaun ho, tumhe maloom nahi tum kaun ho…tum kaiyed nahi jo ijazat lo. Jindabad.” – Mohammad Muneem, a poet singer-songwriter and co-founder of the live act, Alif: Urdu & Kashmiri poetry

“Just ambulance doesn’t save lives, People & Community save lives. Four elements that are essential in Life Saving are 1. Training 2. Medical Supplies 3. Transportation: AmbuCycle 4. Information.” – Eli Beer, Founder and President of United Hatzalah

“There is always another top (after you reach the highest mountain point. It’s never over. There is always more to achieve.)” – Hajer Sharief

The session which I liked the most was the discussion between Ralph Simon and the Former Prime Minister of Bhutan and Environmentalist, Tshering Tobgay, on Climate Crisis, Shrinking Himalayan Glaciers, and the possible ways to manage the situation. And how Bhutan is a Carbon Neutral Country (the country has maintained its rain forest – that is 70 percent of the geography, less population, spirituality and a great leadership.)

I enjoyed Lili Haydn (a Grammy award-winning film composer) & the Opium Moon Performance.

Shyamal Vallabhjee was a good host. It isn’t easy to engage a crowd as huge as NSCI Dome accommodates.

For those who are interested in watching the talks or reading the quotes, then you can visit TedxGateway Facebook page.

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Photo Credit: Lalita C and My Archive

…Ashu Bolar
ashubolar@gmail.com

Thank You For Your Time. But You Wasted Mine.

As the economy rises from the crisis, the job portals now have some good profiles posted. At a slow pace, but you get interview calls these days. Now, if you are really looking forward to a job change, then you would go for the interview.

Yes, interview. Let’s talk about the interview session. If it goes well, you are happy, but keep speculating why they did not call you back (which is not unusual these days.) If it went bad, you will crib and sulk till you appear the next.

I recently had an interesting interview for the post of Assistant Brand Manager. The interviewer was Head – Marketing. After 20 minutes of HR discussion and paper exchange and waiting for 40 minutes, I finally meet this person. The interview goes on for around 25 minutes and through out the interview either he snaps at me or the vice versa. The initial five minutes was annoying, but got interesting over the following fifteen minutes (at least at my end).

Now what went wrong? When you work in a team, at times you tend to talk as WE did, WE achieved, WE… and some more We’s. This person was like, “You are using ‘WE’, what have you done as ‘I’? I have a 300 slide presentation indicating what I have done as ‘I’ in the last two years and probably more than 3000 slides portfolio and several publications for the last 6 years. The irony was, on the whiteboard in his cabin, in huge black fonts, the expansion of the word ‘TEAM’ was written in a very clear writing.

Like seriously dude??? 😛

There where many mini snap Q&As, but the final was interesting, “Besides going through the organisation website and internet research, you should have done more homework on the organisation?” (The company website is incomplete. No Social Media Presence. Barely any information when you Google it. And I understand that this is why they need a brand manager in first place.) This time my answer to his stupid remark was a question, “And how do you do that?” In the 21^st century, the man is expecting the candidate to chitchat and find about the organisation; or was I suppose to call Holmes and Dr. Watson?

Being old school is fine, but being ancient is unacceptable, especially, if you are in charge of the branding segment of an organisation. Digital media is ‘the media’ today—with which your presence can be felt globally despite you being located in just a corner of a country. Without a complete web presence, you are on your way towards extinction and will be fossilized soon. You may be an old and established service firm with an excellent word-of-mouth publicity, but with the competition around, just PR is not a sufficient promotional means. As a Head Marketing achieving sales target is great, but branding is a totally different ball game. No doubt both are interdependent, but applying sales principles to branding will not work most of the times—this is what I got to learn from the 25 minutes snip-snap session. Though we departed cordially, I really wanted to tell him, “Thank you for your time. But you wasted mine.”

However, there is no point crying over the time wasted. You will always get to learn something from an interview – be it good or bad. You learn by wining, but sometimes you learn more by losing. It is part of life. I have decided to apply what I have learnt to my work…and also to be prepared for clever as well as brainless prehistoric questions for my next interview! 🙂

…Ashu Bolar

Do You Believe In Miracles?

Some do and most don’t. However, after watching Inside Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital ‘most’ will.

National Geographic Channel takes the viewers into some of the most restricted zones of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital.

A behind the scenes look into a new generation, high tech medical facility with advanced infrastructure and some of the best medical minds at work.

Watch the trailer in English and Hindi on Youtube!

INSIDE KOKILABEN AMBANI HOSPITAL 

Airing Schedule on National Geographic Channel

Sunday, 20^th Oct 2013 | 9 PM

Monday 21^st Oct 2013 | 7 PM

Wednesday, 23^rd Oct 2013 | 2 PM

Thursday, 24^th Oct 2013 | 10 AM

Saturday, 26^th Oct 2013 | 1 PM

Sunday, 27^th Oct 2013 | 2 PM

Wednesday, 30^th Oct 2013 | 2 PM

Friday, 1^st Nov 2013 | 10 AM

Sunday, 3^rd Nov 2013 | 2 PM

Sunday, 10^th Nov 2013 | 11 AM

Tuesday, 12^th Nov 2013 | 11 AM

Wednesday, 20^th Nov 2013 | 2 PM

Saturday, 23^rd Nov 2013 | 8 AM

Tuesday, 26^th Nov 2013 | 8 AM

Saturday, 8^th Dec 2013 | 9 PM

Thursday, 12^th Dec 2013 | 1 PM

Monday, 16^th Dec 2013 | 9 AM

Saturday, 21^st Dec 2013 | 10 AM 

…Ashu Bolar