TED Community » Deepa Natarajan

More About Me

I'm passionate about

life, nature, joy and travel

An idea worth spreading

A thing of joy is beauty forever

I wanna flex my mind, body and soul to my utmost potential

Talk to me about

Ideas, Entrepreneurship, Animal Behavior, Human Behavior, Children, Growth, Inspiration, Travel

People don't know that I'm good at

Writing, Acting

My TED Story

I just want to connect and yes, give my best.

Comments

• TEDCred score: +0.40 TEDCred reflects your contribution to the TED community.

• +1

  A comment on Talk: Carl Honore: In praise of slowness

  Jun 14 2011: I work really hard between 11-7 and then the brain shuts down ! On Saturdays, my brain totally shuts down ... If you just try this, I can assure you that you can feel how the body actually unwinds ... A day seems better when my colleague can squeal out of excitement ... when I can share and crack jokes to a shop-keeper ... say hello with a smile to the rickshaw guy ... A few extra mins of shopping with little to buy seem to actually make me focus more on the quality of food even being prepared. I must say I had extreme troubles when I had to work in the US esp. after being in Europe for 6 years ... Although I awed at such souls who could cramp in a lot of work, I just knew that I love these unwinding environments where creativity for me gets turned on !!! Thanks for sharing.
• +1

  A reply on Talk: Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war

  May 7 2011: Let me give an example of a person who's parents lived in poverty ... His father had to earn a one figure mark 100 years back ... and had to feed 10 members of his family ... Then this young man went ahead, studied and graduated, took up a job till his retirement but I still feel, this person had trouble to let go of the poverty that stuck him in his childhood. He would still react like he may become poor any moment and he did invite such incidences. Although I may be talking about a single individual which might sound lame, I guess, extricating from history is no easy job and I guess, Ron has described this from his experience. For someone who doesn't have the fear of poverty, I can never comprehend his fear ... I can always quote linear projections of developments for the poor but why doesn't this work in reality ... I think its time to go beyond the surface and actually experience their spirits. Ofcourse, this is not meant to demean your thoughts ... but oftentimes, what if I don't consider a lot of advances as advances and I prefer to live simple in close sync with nature, with the rites I know. Does this give the other the advantage to take over my land because I choose so ... That sounds plain opportunistic attitude of the other ... Encroaching one's property and claiming to be philanthropic is actually rubbing more salt in the wound ... Thanks for sharing ...

• A reply on Talk: Aaron Huey: America's native prisoners of war

  May 7 2011: Any nation that once was imperialized would be able to connect to these natives ... Why do you think revolutions broke out in several countries ... why was there a struggle for independence ... besides, why not ... We must appreciate how oppressing it gets when people just walk over us and confiscate in the name of rules ... in this case, treaty violation is even humiliating ... Through Aaron, I feel their pain ... I pray they gave a strong resilient leader who could get back 1/100th of what they lost, which probably is already a lot to ask ...
• +1

  A comment on Talk: Natalie Merchant sings old poems to life

  May 5 2011: Natalie has this great charm within her that mesmerizes the crowd ... incl. me ... Did you notice her amazing ability to sway the crowd under her spell ... Simply beautiful ! Enjoy ...

• A reply on Conversation: How does the presenter impact the reaction to a talk? So how might people's reactions to my talk be different if I was retired military?

  Apr 29 2011: Sam: I guess, as a scientist, you had projected 2 instances (there were probably many, but picking 2) ... You projected the Chinese and coal issue which sounded more anti-Chinese for me ... Later on, you went about projecting the American strategies as being absurd ... I feel your examples with respect to these two harped on pro- and anti-American in a way ... In a way, this is balance ...
  
  Second, if you stood up and pointed out what you consider to be gross ignorance and lack of empathy from a military and christian point of view, I feel you are all the more entitled as an American to do it ... Assuming you are an American ... Second, let's face it ... The US has invariably put its feet in other politics for a long time, but why would they feel shy if they are criticized ? Their entry into the Indo-Pak issue was a catalyst to globalizing this issue out of a molehill ... I am sharing this as a civilian ... Why would a country be interested in Indo-Pak issues unless it has selfish interests ? You know, its time, that people start appreciating criticism as an adult ... I was very young when this happened but I never saw the Indian press making a deal until the US came in the scene. Now who wants to take responsibility?
  
  Finally, I feel, if you like to empathize with an Iraqi, I feel you are right ... If the US infiltrates my country (India) and bombs my country, what would I do ... pick dead flowers and watch people falling dead like nine pins ... ofcourse, this develops hatred and animosity in me to retaliate in big and small ways ... C'mon, its time that their country is handed over to them and let them deal with their 'internal' issues themselves ... If this makes me anti-America, then that's really parochial in my opinion ...
  
  Infact one of the forgiveness program I had participated back in India, talks on how we must not only take stands to how much hurt we received but also how much we GAVE others ... Doesn't that make us a better person ... Thanks Sam.

• A comment on Conversation: When, How and Why have your most strongly held views changed?

  Apr 25 2011: My strongly held view was the 'belief' I had in my parents ... It took me 35 years to realize that they are but human ... It took me 35 long years to realize that dogmatic beliefs as above needs not just honesty in articulating the above but the courage to see what I want now ... which is a life beyond them ... I dedicated a long time to them, rather lost in pre-occupied thoughts about them ... but with my brother's loss since the (close to) last 4 years, its been a growing experience by leaps and bounds ... The last week, I made the final step ... courage to move on ... but before this, I have identified what I must do for my mother with one simple question ... 'what happens to her if I die now' ... This question has helped me work on my moral compass and hopefully helps me identify her true needs and work on them ... Then this life is all mine ... This is the singular most radically changed 'view' of my life ... I took 3 whole months to come to this conclusion, shutting down on human connection ... but this soul searching helped me immensely from distractions ... Sharing makes even hard truths easier and powerless when shared ... What I have done is I have made peace with them and their roles in my past ... The whole conditioning is getting removed ... Its a great feeling ... Thanks for sharing ...
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  A comment on Conversation: Shall we end racism and discrimination for real.

  Mar 29 2011: Racism in its innocent terms, is nothing but 'we/them' divide ... which takes up an insensitive/insensible proportions ... in any country ... Be it castes/religious disparity in India or the Sunni/Shia divides in the middle east or the black/white or the natives/immigrants in Europe or the immigrants/natives divide in the Anglo-saxon countries, men/women divide universally, this is a common phenomenon ... Even animals fight for their territories looking at a foreign animal as a 'threat' ... So, the underlying basis is fear ...
  
  Unless, we learn to acknowledge fear in its multiple forms, we can do nothing about racism ... or for that matter, any divides ... So, the best thing is help people establish the new norms of 'trust', 'cooperation', 'care' ... anything that bridges people and thereby communities ... This has to be done silently and diligently ... No amount of sanctioning is going to help because norm behavior is maintained superficially ... but with love and care, any effort becomes personalized ... We just need such carekeepers ...

• A comment on Talk: Bjarke Ingels: 3 warp-speed architecture tales

  Mar 26 2011: I have been collecting some right-brained work of brilliance from TED and definitely Bjarke's work is a worthwhile pursuit in terms of reflection ... Magnus Larsson is one other and Rogier van der Heide is another ... whose perspectives were totally mind boggling ... In terms of conception, I guess these guys are outstanding ...
  
  In terms of sustainability, I have come to realize that its the people who inhabit, the nature that is involved will describe the ultimate success of such grandiose projects ... with times to come ... But I wholeheartedly appreciate these ideas for now ... Yes, Bjarke has a great sense of humor, which could be sarcastic too ...

• A comment on Talk: Hans Rosling: The magic washing machine

  Mar 21 2011: I guess there are always justifications as to which strategy is better than the other ... but one is missing the point focusing on the trivia ... I guess from what Hans says, we can consider something like a laundry center where women go and get their clothes washed ... and as he pointed out, why not give these women a choice to add something meaningful in their lives ... Besides, I guess if Hans feels that the ones in the richest countries, consuming a lot of resources become aware of their own lavishness, then a lot of re-distribution could be done ... That's his point ... Focusing on reducing the polarity is a smart action, much needed !

• A reply on Talk: Jonathan Harris: the Web's secret stories

  Mar 19 2011: Reza .... This is a subjective world ... The dimensions even TED offers defies and boggles our imagination at times to an astronomical degree ... To begin with, this man has definitely done an impressive project connecting all incl. even the lonely and depressed ones who express themselves in the web ... I find that aspect striking ... This is the general take ...
  
  With regards to the specifics, you have a great point in that English is the considered medium of understanding the world ... Ofcourse the anglo saxon countries do speak English and so do a few countries from the continent and India atleast with work related issues ... So, his point is probably more apt to show stats on the nationalities ... and show the universality of human nature within this small subset ... So, this may resonate with your perspective.
  
  Now what I find concerning is .... how about the individual's privacy ... where did this man get details about the nationality, age of these anonymous individuals ... he may consider say 3 mins of his talk time and explain where he got these demographics ...
  
  and as you rightly pointed, show how the world looks like say with Spanish, French and other tons of languages incl. Hindi, Arabic, etc ... Then compare with English and make his point stronger ...
  
  So, I do hope Jonathan is hearing us and improvising or handing over this technology to people in other parts of the world ...
  
  Thanks, Dee.