Theme: What's What

What’s the point, what’s the story, what’s worse, what’s more, what’s this, what’s that, what’s what?

What – is not just a question. See it through a prism of curiosity and “what” will appear as a vague entity that is a precedent to logic, reality and all the revelations.

Question what’s what and you have the key to all the answers that the universe can reveal.
Know what’s what and you can be the one giving out the key.

The ‘what’ may be a familiar one, taking different forms leading to new perspectives. Or it may be an unfamiliar one, hidden somewhere around us or within us, slowly building a trap of the "why’s" and the "how’s" and several questions that are longing to be touched upon, be unfolded and be answered.

Let's pull off the mystical veil and let the answers be revealed.

Novotel Bengaluru Techpark Hotel
Opposite RMZ Ecospace Business
Park Marthahalli Sarjapur Outer Ring Road
Bengaluru, Karnataka, 560103
India

Ashish Vidyarthi

Film Actor

Ashish Vidyarthi is a National Award winning film actor who has acted in nearly 200 films in 12 languages over his 24 year career. He is a graduate in History from the Hindu College Delhi University and has trained at the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi. Over the past 6 years apart from acting he has been engaging in" AVID MINER " Path Sharings with various organisations like Voltas, Wipro, TMTC, SAP, Sasken, AMDOCS, Lokmat, UFLEX, The EXIM Bank amongst others. Ashish during his journey of life has met simple amazing people and is inspired by their unique life experiences. He believes each interaction is a possibility of gold and illuminates the access path to the unique and the extraordinary greatness within each one of us.

Bayar Goswami

Masters Student Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University

Bayar Goswami is a student of Masters of Law at the Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University (IASL). Currently, he is an Erin J.C. Arsenault Fellow, writing his thesis on International Space Law. He has contributed to key research projects like the International Study on Global Space Governance – which is to be presented at the UN at UNISPACE+50, Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space and the Space Security Index, 2016. Bayar also assisted the Indian delegation to the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organization and represented India's position on various issues at the Legal Commission of the 39th Triennial Assembly Session on behalf of the Indian Delegation. While not researching about Space Law, Bayar loves playing and collecting percussion instruments.

Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan

Head of Communications & eCommerce, Nestle

In a career spanning over 18 years, Chandrasekar Radhakrishnan has amassed functional skills in the areas of sales and marketing, working across different industries in different capacities. Currently working as the Head of Communications & eCommerce for Nestlé, and earlier as Head of Brand with Airtel, Category Head with Marico and Group Product Manager with Britannia, he has built strong businesses, breakthrough innovations and great teams. He has won many marketing accolades for his communication work, especially for Airtel, Saffola, Nescafé and MAGGI. He has earned global recognition in Nestlé for shaping the Communication strategy for the digitally connected world, by building the digital acceleration team (DAT) setup and now the 24x7 Consumer engagement Services (CES) in India.

Dimpy Menon

Sculptor

Dimpy Menon is the first Indian sculptor to win the Lorenzo il Magnifico Bronze Award at the Florence Biennale. Dimpy has been called a “Natural” by World Sculpture magazine which said, “She captures the graceful, acrobatic movements of the human body with rare sensitivity.” Dimpy has had over 50 exhibitions in India and abroad, most recently at the Amsterdam-Whitney in New York. The Oberoi, The Leela, The Marriott, The Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, TVS, Indo-Us Venture, General Electric, National Semiconductor, Total Environment, VR Bengaluru and Jagriti Theatre are a few places where her commissioned works can be seen.

Mahantesh GK

Founder Managing Trustee, Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled

Mahantesh GK is the Founder Managing Trustee of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, Bangalore. He is the President of World Blind Cricket Council and President of Cricket Association for Blind In India. He is also the President of FORD (Federation of Organisations working for Rehabilitation of the Disabled). Mahantesh GK has received State Award in Recognition of Services for Children on 14th November, 2007, from Department of Women & child, GOK, and is also the recipient of National Award from the Hon. President of India conferred by Ministry of women & child development government of India for Child welfare on 14th Nov, 2010.

Maheep Singh

Stand-up Comedian

Maheep Singh is a renowned humorist, a playwright, an actor and a lyricist. His song kutte featured in promotions of the latest release by Yashraj Films Titli. With a unique storytelling style, he stands out among comedians. His comedy is more about silences and pauses rather than noisy punchlines. Founder of New Delhi Comedy Club and curator of various comedy fests including Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Academy's humor fest in memory of Jaspal Bhatti, Maheep has been instrumental in enhancing stand-up comedy scene in Delhi and NCR. His play Heer Ke Waris has been produced and directed by world renowned master puppeteer Padamshree Dadi Pudamjee and has been performed at International puppet festivals. His comedy play Table for Two has won accolades for its subtle tragicomedy and originality. Maheep has also been the winner of Comedy Central's India's best comic hunt and has performed internationally in more than 1000 shows.

Montry Manuel

Percussionist

Montry Manuel, a percussionist was born and brought up at Cochin, had the love for music since his childhood. He was influenced by his father for all his creative ways of living and love for music. He was trained by his guru Jerry Peter who instilled in him the love of drums. He later learned about the finer nuances of different drumming styles from Jeoraj Stanley. Thaalavattam was formed in 2012, and in Malayalam, the word means “ A Circle of Rhythm”. Music breaks barriers set by language, cultures and beyond, hence Thaalavattam aims to inspire people to reuse, reduce and upcycle in fun, creative ways. Montry's vision is to do whatever possible to clean up the waste that is plaguing India. Thaalavattam produces unique sounds from upcycled materials like (discarded PVC pipes, Drums made of paint cans, tins, plastic bottles, shock absorber springs, cycle sprocket, scrap pipe etc.).

Riddhi Mittal

Co-founder, Finomena

Riddhi Mittal is one of the co-founders of Finomena - a fin-tech startup based in Bangalore. She first went for a Stanford University undergrad and Masters in Computer Science, and then worked at places like Facebook (built GraphSearch from scratch), Mohr Davidow Ventures ($700 VC fund) and was also the youngest PM on Microsoft HoloLens (leading a team of 8 people). She is driven by the sheer impact sensible technology has the potential of having on millions of people's lives. The massive gap in access to credit in our country really moved her, and she decided to come back to India and use her product-first, tech-first, data-first (ML and AI) and customer-first thinking to make credit accessible to over 80 crore deprived Indians. Through Finomena, they give out small ticket size loans to let you buy anything you want, and pay later in Flexible Monthly Instalments (FMIs).

Roopa Pai

Author

Roopa Pai is a computer engineer who always knew she wanted to write for children. She is the author of over twenty books, including Taranauts, India's first fantasy-adventure series, and the pop science book 'What If The Earth Stopped Spinning?' A new book on Economics for children is due out in February 2017. Her national bestseller 'The Gita For Children' won the Crossword Popular Award for Children's Fiction in 2016. Roopa brings together three other loves - history, young people, and her hometown Bangalore - in her job as tour guide with the heritage walks and tours company BangaloreWalks.

Shyam Bhat

Psychiatrist, Integrative Medicine specialist, and writer

Dr.Shyam Bhat is one of India’s leading Psychiatrists, and a recipient of the Norris Brookens award, and member of Alpha Omega Alpha that recognizes excellence in scholarship and the highest ideals in the profession of medicine.He is one of the very few who have a combination of post graduations in Psychiatry and Internal Medicine. He founded the Mind-Body Clinic in Bangalore, and consults with organizations on work-life balance, stress management and general mind-body wellness. Over the years, he has focused on Integral Self Therapy. He is one of the trustees of Deepika Padukone’s ‘LIVE LAUGH LOVE’ foundation. He also wrote the best-seller “How to heal your broken heart: A psychiatrist’s guide to dealing with heartbreak”