TEDx S.P.I.T. 2020

After a long wait, the third edition of Tedx SPIT was back on the 6th and 7th November 2020, with a novel theme, “Breakthrough”. An inspiring and diverse line-up of speakers had graced the event, which was conducted virtually this year.

The first speaker of the event was none other than the recent social media sensation, Anjali Barot, who played Jyoti Mehta in Scam 1992. She spoke about the challenges in the path to her breakthrough. Despite initial failures, she did not give up. She inspired the audience with her words, “Never self reject yourself”. It is this belief that helped her feature in Scam 1992, a mega-success and the biggest breakthrough of her career.

The next speaker of the day was Tushar Mahajan, a photographer by profession.

“Incarcerate not what the eyes see, but what the soul feels”.

For him, photography has always been beyond locking the focus. It is about, the story it tells the thousands of people in a thousand different ways. He encouraged the audience to give new ventures a fair trial because the start is when one won’t have anything to lose, and with time it will grow and become an inspiration for others.

This marked the end of Day 1 of the event.

“We were worried since it was the first time the event was going to be online. However the speakers did an incredible job, inspired the audience who enjoyed the event”, said Jainam Jain, the Event Head.

The first guest for Day 2 was Pratik Gandhi, a famous Gujarati theatre and film actor (and an engineer) who recently acted as the lead in the popular web-series series, Scam 1992. He believes every small change in life contributes to the multifold change we call “breakthrough”. He stressed on how passion and consistency helped him achieve the best of both his career fields.

Next up was Dr Dilip Pawar. He is an International Cancer Research Specialist, a COVID-19 expert and the pioneer of the steam inhalation therapy for COVID-19. From donating more than 40,000 PPE kits and ventilators, to treating the Indian Army, his services in this pandemic are invaluable. His philanthropism is an inspiration for all.

The third speaker was Shams Aalam, the record-breaking Indian Paralympic swimmer, who has proved that disability is not an obstacle to success. A winner of 4 para-swimming championships, he holds a world record for the longest open sea swim by a paraplegic person. He wants to root out all prejudices about physically challenged people and make the society more welcoming to them.

The final speaker of the day was Rudhraksh Jaiswal, a very talented actor and dancer, who has been in this field since 9. Most recently he has worked alongside Chris Hemsworth in the film, Extraction. He very rightly said that failures are inevitable and come with life-changing learning experiences.

This marked the end of 2 amazing days of riveting speeches leaving in the audience in anticipation of what’s to come next year.

“It was unlike any traditional edition that we’ve organised; we had to adapt to the new normal and with the help and support of the core team along with faculty and Principal, we were successful in inviting high profile speakers who shared their experiences in line with our theme “Breakthrough””, said Vinayak Iyer, the Content Strategist at TEDx SPIT.

A report by Samveg Shah and Manan Savla

Photography credits to Hrusheekesh Sawarkar, Ojas Patil and Gaurav Parulekar