What a decade of forty-five events taught me - I (Ignite Hyderabad)
An early morning discussion with my family and friends about how life was took me back to the memory lane when our weekends was about events and adding value to life by doing some meaningful work or at least, we thought we did. We did not know of terms like "community building" "branding" and "coaching" but we were doing that, anyway.
One idea at a time.
In this blogpost, I am going to write about Ignite Hyderabad. We had done five volumes of it in Hyderabad. At NIFT, Madhapur, ISB Hyderabad, State Art Gallery (two volumes), and the then-newly born Lamakaan, Road no 1, Banjara Hills.
What is Ignite Hyderabad though? It was night of presentations where the heroes were people amidst you and me: yes, ordinary citizens who did extraordinary work.
Ignite started in Seattle and Ravi, my classmate from Bhartiya Vidya Bhavans, formed a team to pursue a chapter in Hyderabad in 2010. The organising team was a bunch of nine, including me; each, an emerging specialist or a specialist in their own domain: UX Design, Photography, Technology, Social Media, Content, Blogging, Public Relations.
Forming the team
The team formed over cups of chai and laughter, either at each other's houses or at public spaces. The most interesting part was we only met before the event and dispersed back into our lives. We spoke only about the event, hardly knew what each other's lives was about. Of course, years later, we did butt in and attend each other's special occasions. But we rarely had to make a special effort to bond. I absolutely loved that. It reminded me of the movie, Special 26 by Neeraj Pandey, where Akshay Kumar and team meet only for the task and then disperse.
What I learnt at the five volumes of Ignite Hyderabad?
Power of Passion
My neighbour, Nancy aunty, a teacher, shared this quote with me today:
"Talent is good. Practice is better, passion is best." - Frank Lloyd Wright, American Architect (Of the Guggenheim Museum)
And indeed, passion bound us together, despite the age difference and the thought difference. Ignite Hyderabad definitely ignited the hunger in my belly be it the warm team, the ordinary people who did extraordinary feats, or the audience who was engaged by the work going on in the community.
Heroes are amidst us
Together, we sought people from various fields: Education, Health, Transport, Media, Well-being. We hosted Kiran Dembla, 45-year-old woman body builder who was a homemaker. She is now a renowned name training celebrities.
Sugandh Rakha spoke about Stammering and how he dealt with it. Our five volumes saw such diverse speakers from different socio-economic backgrounds that it is certainly difficult to handpick a few but Satyavathi, the first locomotive pilot for Hyderabad Metro Train, remained memorable. Her passion and her words just ignited my passion too. Rajeswari garu, of Thodu Needa foundation that encourages senior citizens to either be in a live-in relationship or marry, was awe-spiring.
The audience:
Traversing pain with passion and carving an own mountain of success
To me, it was an experience of a lifetime where I saw people applaud, whistle, embrace each other. Even today, I feel I have been part of some majestic endeavour just wearing a black tee. And whenever I think of traversing adversity and pain and personal failure to climb your mountain of passion and carve your own success (be it miniscule or large), I think of these speakers and the junta.
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