Theme: Garage Sale

A brown, old dusty, cardboard box sits on the bench. In the eyes of a stranger, the box sits unmoving and trivial. But it's more than that. It's a rocket, taking you all to Neptune, with showers of diamonds and deep blue insignia. It's the volcano that erupts fiery orange spurts of lava, that you go bobsledding through. The brown box isn't paper, it's the realities that could've been. The fleeting possibilities of far off thoughts dreamt up. The ideas that were but never became. The ideas, forced to be let go. The little ‘notes to self.’ The ideas that help you grow. And what better way to go through them than a garage sale?

‘Garage Sale’ is an account for the hundreds of thoughts and ideas that occupy us for short periods of time that moves and changes us greatly in that span of that time. It is an acknowledgment of the strange places we spend time in that we inevitably have to leave in order to grow, and the anticipation of new beginnings that start from new places. It is impermanence, essential for advancement. It is an attempt to look back at the hundreds of stages of success and failure that have gone by in order to get somewhere.

Mallya Aditi International School
Yelahanka
Bangalore, Karnataka, 560106
India

Anpu Varkey

Artist

Anpu Varkey is a Bengaluru based artist who has been making headlines as a street artist with her work on the metro construction on Bengaluru’s Cubbon Park road called ‘Jumping trees’, a 158 feet mural of Mahatma Gandhi in the Delhi Police Headquarters in Delhi and Chennai’s Egmore Railway station. She focusses on expressionism. Her perspective of art is unique, she tries to create something that people can identify with. She believes that being on the street is not just about reclaiming space and sending messages — but growing and evolving with your immediate surroundings. Through her talk, we will gain insight into her journey as an artist and how making the streets her canvas has changed her perspective on creating art.

Awais Ahmed

Founder and CEO of Pixxel

The Man In The Arena: Fascinated by space, science and technology from a very young age, Mr Awais Ahmed, founder and CEO of Pixxel, is creating a constellation of earth-imaging microsatellites. During his years at BITS, Awais was part of a student satellite team under ISRO's student satellite building program. His team was one of the finalists of the SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition in 2017, which further launched his ambition of building satellites. With its headquarters located in Bangalore, the 2019 born Indian space-tech company aims to aid day to day events such as climate monitoring, crop yield prediction, urban planning, and disaster response. This talk gives us an insight into Pixxel, its impact on society, and Awais' journey in establishing the company.

Chhavi Rajawat

Former Sarpanch

Speaking on the importance of grass root politics and her journey as a former Sarpanch in uplifting rural lives is Chhavi Rajawat. Previously working a 9 to 5, she had quit to work on rural Rajasthan. Elected as Sarpanch to village Soda in 2010, she became the youngest sarpanch ever elected at that time. In Soda, she focused on solving environmental, social and economic issues. Since being elected she had implemented several successful projects that include toilets in most houses, rainwater harvesting, education for girls, safe drinking water etc. She is recognized with transforming the face of rural Rajasthan.

Gautam Menon

Professor of Physics and Biology

Gautam Menon is a Professor of Physics and Biology at Ashoka University, Sonepat and at the Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. He is an award-winning scientist whose research covers a range of areas in physics and biology, including the modeling of infectious diseases. Apart from his scientific work, he is interested in making science interesting and accessible to the public. His talk reveals how we can now understand and hope to control the spread of diseases such as COVID-19 in ways no generation before us has been able to and how the understanding of science - biology, vaccinology, epidemiology, mathematics, physics, chemistry and many others - has been crucial in getting us to this point.