The second day of INK2011 began with an invocation to Lord Ganesha, sung by actor, singer Vasundhara Das in the session titled: Meeting of Minds. She and Roberto Narain, who had led the entire INK audience on a Drumjam experience the previous evening, talked about the intention of a Drumjam event where the energies of the entire group comes together to level the playing field, and redefining the power equation between the performer and the audience.
The second day of INK2011 began with an invocation to Lord Ganesha, sung by actor, singer Vasundhara Das in the session titled: Meeting of Minds. She and Roberto Narain, who had led the entire INK audience on a Drumjam experience the previous evening, talked about the intention of a Drumjam event where the energies of the entire group comes together to level the playing field, and redefining the power equation between the performer and the audience.
Rob Cook of Pixar talked about what happens when the artist is a group of 400 software engineers and the brush is the computer technology. With winners like Monster Inc, Finding Nimo, The Incredible in the Pixar bag, Rob gave a glimpse of a unique collaboration at work.
Deepak Ravindran, INK Fellow and co-founder of SMS Gyan, was never afraid of asking questions, and he turned this curiosity into a business opportunity. SMS Gyan allows a non-Internet user access to the vast repository of knowledge on the Internet. All they have to do is SMS a query from their mobile phones and Deepak and his team provide them with the answer.
The other speakers in this session included Lisa Staprans, Anupam Misra, NV ‘Tiger’ Tyagarajan.
In the second session ‘Making Connections’, INK Fellow Charles Ma showed that grace was not the preserve of only the fairer sex. An unlikely candidate to be a Bharatnatyam dancer, and an accomplished one at that, Charles presented a beautiful Bharatnatyam piece. One of the early facebook employees, Ruchi Sanghvi invented News Feed. People hated it and used it to criticize her. She persisted and was successful in delivering 10 million personalized newspapers every day.
Human Rights activist Shirin Juwaley left the audience speechless when she shared her story of her unhappy arranged marriage, her trauma and the resultant disfigurement when her husband threw acid on her face as a reaction to her request for a divorce. She has founded a network, Palash Foundation that provides therapy and support for others with similar situations.
The next session ‘Crossroads’ showcased the young classical tabla ensemble Talavya. Anu Aga, INK Fellow Nikhilesh Das, Palestinian-born Rasha Ali, innovator GBS Bindra and perfumer Yann Vasnier.
The day ended with the last session ‘Leap of Faith,’ featuring Rajika Puri, a Bharata Natyam and Odissi dancer who blends her performance with Flamenco. Wolfgang Lehmacher, Abhishek Bhagat and Harpal Singh were the other speakers featured here.
INK Correspondent
