HillHacks!

Be it the wooden telescope, discussion on un-gendered spaces, difference of spirituality and religion,pizza making sessions without oven by Paola,, an unplanned first trek to Snowline Cafe, tents as sleeping beds, yoga lessons by freeman and a lot of interesting things, Hillhacks is just the place to be. 

Organized by awesome bunch of people, these guys are doing some great stuff in the nature's realm in the most random way possible.Leaving aside city's hectic schedule and taking usual naps from office hours, people came here, to be in the continuous flow of learning and hence, hacking and making in the Himalayas.

Interdisciplinary just as most of my attended events, it also had an edge of having people from countries like Spain, Japan,and inspiring travelers more.
As spontaneous as it could be possible, I packed my bags in the sunny afternoon of 29th May and somehow convinced my cousin, to leave for Meclodganj in the evening. Super-excited as I was and welcomed by this piece of board, I figured out what to expect and quick enough,that I am at the right place.

 

And,then began a series of introduction with people around, meeting awesome hackers,makers and travelers. And when like-minded people get together, it calls for an unexpected and sudden plan, which ended up in unplanned trek to Triund.
We just didn't stop there. And mind you too, if you ever plan a trek to Triund, don't stop there. Snowline Cafe is the place, that you shouldn't miss.

Slept in tents at hills, star-gazed, hopped through mountains, made breakfast by lightning a fire, almost tried to explore a cave, but left that for the next time. And,got amazed by waking up to this view, next morning!

Trekking is undoubtedly lot of fun, but what mesmerized and made us hold on to this place, was an uncalled hailstorm, giving an awe-struck moment to around 30 people who were taking a shade in a little cafe. We got hooked to this place for three more hours because of snow. Neither the weather allowed us to move, nor we wanted to.

And we reached back to Shiv Shakti, next evening. Oh, its the place where we stayed, where hillhacks was organised. More than half of the people taunted us that we went there,just to trek. And,so do I feel.

Coming back to hillhacks, amazing stuff kept going at a great pace, even in our absence. Regular afternoon sessions on technical topics like computer security & protection etc. An outreach program for the school kids was also organized and kids participated quite enthusiastically.
We bid farewell everyone on 3rd June and took our own self-printed t-shirts as a souvenir. 

Hacker's Paradise,may be!  !

'Memoir'- Disruptive Design Innovation expedited by MIT Media Lab

"Once you have an innovation culture, even those who are not scientists or engineers - poets, actors, journalists - they, as communities, embrace the meaning of what it is to be scientifically literate. They embrace the concept of an innovation culture. They vote in ways that promote it. They don't fight science and they don't fight technology". -Neil deGrasse Tyson


                           

And,that's what MIT Media Lab promotes upto an extent.Well, MIT Media Lab India Initiative was more than just a design workshop.The initiative helped in building up a community of awesome bunch of people from around India. Those awesome 7 days gave an enthralling experience to each one of us. Learning was fun to such an extent that I am pretty sure, its going to be really hard for most of us to attend the college lectures now.

80 Projects. 10 Tracks.280 students across India.10 Start-ups. 25 MIT Mentors.


Bringing much diversity and intersection of unconventional ideas at a place with people from all domains and thus strengthening the spirit of 'anti-disciplinary approach', Kshitij Marwah and all other organizers really pulled off a great event.Thanks to the amazing mentors and whole MIT Media Lab for making it possible.

It all started with field trips followed by excessive brainstorming,ideation processes and walls filled with sticky notes and posters.Participants were so passionate about their ideas that pulling off an all-nighter was a piece of cake.Wrapping up with a working prototype in seven days and pulling up our sleeves for an open-house session is what we all cared about.Overall,it had been an amazing week with 'lot-to-learn' experiences and 'forever-to-cherish' moments.


A week bunched with insanity, fun, innovation, ideas,brainstorming,cool projects and amazing people.One hell of an astounding experience!. I would like to end it with the words from Benjamin Franklin. "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn."

'Reminiscence'- Winter School at IIM-A

"We all have our time machines. Some take us back,they are called memories.Some take us forward,they are called dreams" - Jeremy Irons.

Those five days can't be easily put up on a paper. It was just more than a 'Winter School'. And,it started with a broader vision and huge enthusiasm.I am sure that it has changed many perceptions of people there,no matter how little.
                 

My thoughts on education,literacy and learning changed completely.It was like that you have been brought up by learning some structured lessons and forming particular opinions and one has always thought that way.And then one day,someone contradicted you and you realized that it too,does make sense and you just never thought that way. I felt the same.

And,then IIM-A taught this by doing what they are best at. We got lessons on different aspects of research and education.From the Cake experiment to teach us about how to distribute resources,field trips,workshop sessions on community building to bonfire night,everything was perfectly in place.

Bringing together people from different educational institutions with varied experiences and ideas was like icing on the cake. We shared ideas,brainstormed and learned a lot of things from each other's opinions.I met some best set of people. Penning down everything which happened during those five days would be really difficult. And,even if one would be able to document that,I doubt that he/she will be able to recreate that same aura that we experienced.
                           

I appreciate the organizers for pulling off an event like that,such brilliantly.I look forward to that little change that we are going to make in our society. I applaud the initiative and responsibility that IIM-A took, for being a part of this change.
I thank everyone there for igniting that spark in me to contribute for society and do my bit. It was a wonderful experience and one worth remembering.

Thank you,IIM-A.

Startup Weekend @IIT Delhi

Imagine you enter a place with random thoughts and complete strangers,pitch your idea, convince ,brainstorm and end up with a prototype at the end of two-day event. Yes!, I just described a Startup Weekend event in one line.

Bring randomness to the moment,fun and curiosity will follow.

 
Sounds quite bizarre? I know. Well obviously, discussing an idea and raising a startup in a two-day span sounds ideal in theory. But,the event made a brilliant attempt to give an emotion of 'what it feels like to start a startup or work in one'. It gave an experience of 'what one should expect if they are willing to go on that path'. And,it taught that a startup is not all that fancy as it sounds.
Well, all of this is coming from a perception of student's observation,who learned a lot about a lot of new things.

It began with most bizarre seventy-seven ideas pitched on the first night.Out of which,20 got selected with much convincing efforts for further collaboration and building a prototype.

“If you're not embarrassed when you ship your first version, you waited too long.” ― Matt Mullenweg (Founder of Wordpress). 
We were continuously slogging away for straight 48 hours,to meet the two-day's deadline and working on our projects.And,the teams left judges in surprise with the prototype that they had come up with,in such span.But,we better know where we missed.

Not to forget,I was pretty much surprised with the way the whole event was co-ordinated.And,the organizers were pretty amazing and kept everyone's spirits high.People of different domains brought varying perceptions in ideas and their executions.

If I would say that winning is not everything,then I would probably be lying.But,I agree that it was one hell of an experience .

My Book Bucket Challenge

From pouts and poses to selfies to ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to Book Bucket challenge, everything that has been there on Facebook now or before,creates a fad among the youth. Yes, I suppose 'fad' defines the situation correctly. Let me take you through the definition once, Wikipedia defines fad as any form of behavior that develops among a large population and is collectively followed enthusiastically for a period of time, generally as a result of the behavior being perceived as popular by one's peers or being deemed "cool" by social media. It is said to "catch on" when the number of people adopting it begins to increase rapidly.

Undoubtedly,I am happy to see that the focus finally shifted from pouts and selfies to something that helped to raise the money for a good cause. Despite of the fact that many people were completely unaware of the "Lou Gehrig's Disease" or the ALS association,for that matter.I am satisfied that people stood up for this,with an intention of helping a cause, just by throwing a bucket of ice water on their head. Well, I have never thought that it is this easy on our part, to make such a difference.Pity, my small brain!

This rage inspired other challenges like Rice Bucket Challenge and what not. So, Book Bucket Challenge is one among those. The extent of happiness, when one see his/her Facebook Timeline filled with sensible stuff,famous authors and book names was followed by complete despondency of the fact that how the word 'influenced' is mis-interpreted with 'just-read' in this context.

Well,I am not an avid reader of books.Most of my literary reads were,from school.I won't try to escape by giving a shallow excuse of over-burdened schedule in engineering colleges(though,such is the case).I read and a lot,but most of them includes blogs,magazines,quotes and answers on quora.

Though,I could have easily stated 10 books that I have read.But, seriously, going on the 'influencing' part, I found none.Well, that's too narrow range of reads,on my part. And to the every post on my timeline (not generalizing,though!), I would really love to know how they were influenced by those books. The only 'literary reads' that have really influenced me,are as follows :

1. Quotes from Mark Twain,Oscar Wilde and Charles Bukowski (read on blogs,pages and websites)
2. Where the mind is without fear- A poem by Rabindranath Tagore
3. That excerpt from Julius Caesar, we read in tenth.
4. A Christmas Carol By Charles Dickens.

Well,I should read more often because "A man who reads lives a thousand lives".Keep reading!

It's A Jungle Out There!

Well,The title might sound a bit cheesy. But,yes! That was the theme of the SRCC Youth Conference held on 22nd and 23rd August 2014. And, the whole chase of attending the event,just on the first day only, justified the title completely in my case.

Yeah, I agree with the fact that big names like Jayant Sinha , Boman Irani ,Papa Cj and many more were going to be there and the crowd gathered at (what!)7:30 a.m. on the SRCC entrance,just to make through the event.
While I considered 9.15 to be quite decent enough(after registering obviously!) but they just didn't allowed us to enter. Well,I was on my peak since I missed my college and made up my mind that no-matter what, I have had to attend that. And in the awe of that moment's decision,we did a lot of crazy things that day. Sneak peeked into the principle's house to make entrance via his place,tried to convince the guard at other entrance and what not. It just went on,to such a level that I am pretty sure that they might still remember our faces.

Well, somehow we managed to enter.But, wait a second, we were just down to half the battle there.Entering the auditorium is a whole another chase. I was very disappointed with the mis-management.But,eventually when the speakers started and told about their lives and connected it with the theme. They just took over my anger and mesmerized everyone out there.

The crowd was eagerly waiting for Papa CJ and Boman Irani who were kept for the end.Amidst that, Dhruv Visvanath, a self-taught musician, who is the only Indian among ‘30 Great Guitarists Under 30’ from across the world, made his mark among the crowd.He played brilliantly and ended up by taking a selfie with audiences.The common thread which connected all the three is the passion for their work and 'down-to earth' nature.Dhruv's selfies, CJ's autographs and Boman's hugs didn't make me felt for a moment that i was surrounded by these personalities.At-least, I managed and was lucky enough to attend their sessions that day.

While CJ's satirical comment on the CBSE topper beated everything ever made on the facebook till now , Boman's 'zero-bulb-moment' inspired us a lot. On the whole, the event was greatly pulled off and we enjoyed like hell.

Social Design Jam

A pass-out senior,the most practical and blunt girl,an over-enthusiastic fella, an inspirational soul and lot of awesomeness -things I came across with. Well, to put the event in words is gonna be quite difficult for me. It had been more than a week since I attended the event,but I still have a hang for it.

Social Design Jam was basically a design thinking hackathon focused on social impact,organized by Karmany and Teach for India Delhi Alumni. The event was hosted at IIIT Delhi and was held over a span of 48 hours for solving six  major social challenges.It aimed to utilize the design thinking framework to create operational solutions for social enterprises solving pressing challenges in India.

The event included participants from varied backgrounds like engineers, corporates,social change drivers to entrepreneurs.It kicked off with an ice-breaker session where we all were introduced to each other. Along with that, we were also introduced to the organizations and their problems. This included 'I Say Organic','Azadi','Indus Action','Digital Green','Educational Initiatives' and 'Seekho'. And finally, we were split up into teams and co-ordinated with organizations.

The second day began with an inspirational thought of words by Shaheen Mistri (CEO,Teach for India) which marked a beginning of new day with rush of new ideas flowing in our heads.Followed by that, A Design Thinking Primer was presented by Bavidra Mohan from Acumen. Meeting with new people from such different backgrounds having varied perspectives about a situation was the best part of the event. I got an awesome team to work with. And the whole day ended up,by making us indulge in rigorous discussions, brainstorming sessions with business and design mentors for creating a rough draft of the solution,in the lush-green campus area of IIIT Delhi.

And finally the event ended up on the third day, when teams pulled off their final presentations on stage and kept their ideas. "I Say Organic" won the title.After that, Networking Gala session was there,which was like an icing on the cake.No matter, how less you show interest in this and immature enough to define the phrase,it was one of the few things that I learned and considered important enough.

Sometimes, winning is not important.We were happy to create a feasible design for an organization and what matters the most is that our idea is being considered and implemented for a real-life problem and being worked upon.An amazing experience in whole,which motivated enough to contribute back to the society. 

It will utilize the design­ thinking framework to create operational solutions for social enterprises solving pressing challenges in India. The design thinking framework has been utilized for years, however, it is only in the recent decade that it has become a more widespread, documented, problem solving tool. The participants will include individuals ... read more on social.yourstory.com

Run by Karmany and Teach for India Delhi Alumni, Social Design Jam is a design thinking hackathon focused on social impact. The event will be hosted at IIIT­ Delhi and held over 48 hours for solving 6 social challenges. It will utilize the design­ thinking framework to create operational solutions for social enterprises solving pressing challenges in India. The design thinking framework has been utilized for years, however, it is only in the recent decade that it has become a more widespread, documented, problem solving tool. The participants will include individuals from a variety of backgrounds spanning the wide spectrum between corporates and social change drivers. The event promises the creation of viable, scalable solutions that can be carried forward by the organizations post this event. ... read more on social.yourstory.com

Run by Karmany and Teach for India Delhi Alumni, Social Design Jam is a design thinking hackathon focused on social impact. The event will be hosted at IIIT­ Delhi and held over 48 hours for solving 6 social challenges. It will utilize the design­ thinking framework to create operational solutions for social enterprises solving pressing challenges in India. The design thinking framework has been utilized for years, however, it is only in the recent decade that it has become a more widespread, documented, problem solving tool. The participants will include individuals from a variety of backgrounds spanning the wide spectrum between corporates and social change drivers. The event promises the creation of viable, scalable solutions that can be carried forward by the organizations post this event. ... read more on social.yourstory.com

Run by Karmany and Teach for India Delhi Alumni, Social Design Jam is a design thinking hackathon focused on social impact. The event will be hosted at IIIT­ Delhi and held over 48 hours for solving 6 social challenges. It will utilize the design­ thinking framework to create operational solutions for social enterprises solving pressing challenges in India. The design thinking framework has been utilized for years, however, it is only in the recent decade that it has become a more widespread, documented, problem solving tool. The participants will include individuals from a variety of backgrounds spanning the wide spectrum between corporates and social change drivers. The event promises the creation of viable, scalable solutions that can be carried forward by the organizations post this event. ... read more on social.yourstory.com