Chennai: A grievous accident a few years ago changed the life of Anjali Rajagopal who headed the e-commerce division of a leading textile firm and managed a PR firm of her own. She had severe skull injuries and nearly 450 skull fractures. How she faced life following her treatment is a story that anyone would be curious to lend an ear.
At the third edition of TEDxNapierBridgeWomen event at Anna University, 8 December, she will speak about her story, would inject her sense of humor to ease people into confronting issues of identity, acceptance, and reconciliation with life and circumstance.
Putting spotlight on women like Anjali, who braved odds to reach stardom, the team is back. Aprajitha Suryanarayanan, one of the organisers, begins the conversation by explaining the reason behind the name TEDxNapierBridge.
“The bridge connects north Madras to Marina and the rest of Chennai. Similarly, the name signifies the metaphorical bridge connecting people with ideas,” she says.
The TEDx team began its journey in 2017 with a TEDxNapierBridgeWomen session and they call it their flagship event and has been consistently doing since then.
Asked about the upcoming gathering, describing Anjali’s story, Nanmadhi, one of the organisers, says, “This is one kind of boldness that we want to share with our audience. There is a need for an equal space for men and women. We want to showcase that women are present in every field.”
Adding to it, one of the curators and organisers, Shyam Sundar explains,”A lot of things that women do in India go unnoticed except for their silent work that gets disseminated through media. One of the examples is Uma Vangal, a film professor and critic who has been silently critiquing popular cinema which appears to be celebrating women, but actually not. It is the ideas of women like her that we want to feature.”
Organised by a 15-member team, several hours of research has gone behind the event to research, shortlist and extract the best idea from the personalities and assures of participants interacting with the speakers to assimilate the ideas.
In-line with the global TED conference’s theme – Bold + Brilliant – this TEDx team has chosen speakers who best represent the theme and have ideas that are worthy of sharing. Identity advocate and entrepreneur Anjali Rajagopal, scientist and high energy phenomenologist D Indumathi, independent journalist Nayantara Narayanan, film professor and critic and gender activist Uma Vangal, educator and active parent Vaishali BK and canine behaviourist Sindhoor Pangal are the speakers and Acapella band The Spasht and dance group Team Anartana will be performing during the event.