India Today Youth Summit – #MindRocks16

There are some events which you look forward to, year after year. India Today’s Mind Rocks Youth Summit is one such event. With an impressive list of panelists to share their views with the youth of the nation, India Today clearly outdid themselves this time. I was fortunate to attend #MindRocks16 as a Blogging Partner and came back all energised about a million ideas. Though there were panelists from various walks of life, the underlying note for all the sessions was that of breaking stereotypes of any kind.

#MindRocks16 began with our Olympic Medalist Sakshi Malik who shared her story with the audience. An inspiring one to say the least, Sakshi shared how she was bullied into quitting wrestling and how her coach was threatened to stop teaching her. A lot of initial resistance later, she was turning into a professional but had no girls to practice her sport with. Most boys shied away, being uncomfortable wrestling with her and the rest, for the fear of mockery if they lost to a girl. But thankfully, she had her family and coach to support her through the tough days. Her inspiring story is one worthy of more attention than we generally give to sportspersons who are not cricketers.

I really have no words to describe what happened when Mr Amitabh Bachchan came on that stage. Around fifteen minutes of whistling later, the crowd settled down and Mr Bachchan spoke up. That voice is still ringing in my ears. Goosebumps surface every time I try to recollect the things he said and the way he said them.  Mr Bachchan and the cast and crew of PINK talked about the film and it’s relevance in today’s society. Now that I have watched the movie, I know that a whole blog post won’t be enough to talk about it. But then Mr Bachchan summed up perfectly in the end –

‘No,means No. Doesn’t matter if she is your friend, girlfriend, acquaintance, sex-worker or wife. No – is not a word but a sentence”.

I only hope that the movie knocks some sense into our patriarchal society.

Though I could find a thousand faults in the letter Mr Bachchan wrote to his granddaughters in the name of gender equality (or a PR Stunt that wasn’t even required for a film like PINK), everything said and done at #MindRocks16 was gender neutral and made sense. I absolutely loved the way he narrated the PINK Poem for us.

Up next was Varun Dhawan who came up with a fun session about love and how to deal with it. The schoolgirls in the hall get a special mention here for making the man feel so special. Varun was quite a sport and played along to the requests of handshakes and hugs.

Fun gave way to instant energy when Kanhahiya Kumar came up. The energy wasn’t necessarily positive and I could feel a huge resistance in the air. Not many wanted to hear what he had to say but the man handled it all in a way that perfect politicians do – Diplomatically, he made his point and made sure that people listened. The Azadi Anthem stole the show for me!

Next it was time to call the Youtube Sensation Gini on stage. She’s a young girl who has set out to fight inequality through music and makes energetic songs to resist whatever is wrong with our society. She was particularly fond of Baba Ambedkar and couldn’t stop talking about the man who gave India her constitution.

Kaveri Kapur, daughter of Shekhar Kapur and Suchitra Krishnamurti surprised the audience with her melodies and child-like presence on stage. At such a young age, the girl knows she’s made for music and the passion shows. It was a pleasure listening to her sing.

Keshav Tyohar, Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Little Champs Runner up sang for us and then talked about how his life transformed ever since the show. The boy had a charm that cannot be missed, and he entertained us like a professional. With his 10th Boards this year, I can’t even begin to imagine the kind of pressure he must be under. Or, have we stopped doing that to our kids?

Yet another star from the world of reality shows, Alisha from the little known town of Bhilai, Chhattisgarh talked about small town girls achieving their dreams in big cities, breaking the myths and carving a niche for themselves. Winner of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’, her swift and clean moves inspired the audience to stare in awe and shake a leg too!

Saurabh Pant from East India Comedy was yet another highlight of the event for me. I don’t remember much from this session except that I haven’t laughed so hard in a long time. There’s a certain ability that it takes to make people laugh, and Saurabh made it seem so effortless.

Fighting stereotypes, whether they are in the form of gender, caste, career, religion or whatever else the society brings up to curbe progress was the underlying message for the youth of the nation. Everything that happened at #MindRocks16 cannot be possibly covered in a single blog post. Keep in touch, there’s more to come.