The Hindu Business Line : Trading ‘tall’ tales

There were three days of personal stories — each different from the other but with a unifying thread of creativity, entrepreneurship and social intervention. With no strict schedules or formalities looming over them, the narrators kept up a steady flow of words at the ‘Celebrate — Unconferencing’ meet at Club Mahindra’s Fort Resort at Kumbalgarh, Rajasthan.

This gathering is modelled on the ‘Foo camp’, an annual hacker event hosted by publisher O’Reilly Media in the US, where the programme is unstructured and developed by the attendees. These were men and women who had chosen to go off the beaten track, and here there were trading stories of their extraordinary journeys.

“Just like any event management guy, I too dropped out of college,” was how Anjaan, a popular radio jockey from Bangalore, introduced himself. He is also famous as one of the finalists of the ‘world’s best job contest’ organised by Tourism Department of Queensland, Australia. Anjaan, who stopped studies after higher secondary despite being a distinction holder, says he became self-dependant much earlier than his classmates. “That’s when my dad said ‘I am glad you didn’t go for engineering’,” he says.

IIT-ian R. Madhavan gave up a lucrative career in ONGC to become a farmer. He worked nine years in oil rigs to make enough money to pursue his dream job — farming. “Anybody doing farming is looked down upon. But everybody wants to eat,” he quips. “Farming is not such a lowly profession. There are farmers abroad who own aircraft,” says this engineer-turned-farmer who wants to promote entrepreneurship in agriculture.

Writer Timeri N. Murari, who had never trekked or gone on a pilgrimage previously, embarked on a “200-kilometre limp” at age 64 for Bhima, his “temporary son”, who was about to undergo a serious surgery. The child was temporarily under the care of Murari and his wife before being adopted by a European family.

Murari wrote a book on his Himalayan experience called Limping to the Centre of the World, A Journey to Mount Kailas. “After having completed a torturous trip, I often wondered what this small child could do to me,” Murari says.

Stories followed one after the other, interspersed with visual presentations, musical performances by Tamil playback singer and actress Andrea Jeremiah — who was part of the group, and fun sessions.

But more than just sharing personal trajectories, the unconferencing served as a platform for collective ideation and networking as well.

“The concept of unconferencing is used by the technology sector worldwide and it is taking roots in India,” explains Kiruba Shankar, technology and travel blogger, who was one of the event organisers.

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