The JOSH Wrap

JOSH, an initiative started by a few college students in Delhi, aims to inspire and motivate today’s youngsters to get up and follow their passion and turn their dreams into reality. Their first conference – JOSH Talk 2014 – held at the Air Force Auditorium, New Delhi on the 6th of April, featured a panel of 11 speakers from extremely different backgrounds and saw an enthusiastic participation from a varied audience.

The speakers included many young entrepreneurs and people from different walks of life, all of whom had amazing stories to share.

Angad Nadkarni, Founder of Examify gave the audience a powerful lesson when he said – ” ‘I don’t have the experience’, is a bullshit excuse.” He started fiddling with computers as a child and has been unstoppable ever since. His wise words: “Start with what makes you curious.”

Sujata Sahu of 17000 ft Foundation introduced the audience to the interesting concept of “Voluntourism”, a program where volunteers can tour Ladakh while also spending time interacting with children in the small schools in the remote region. Akshar Pathak, a Graphic Designer, showed everyone the basic difference between good and bad design, and how good design can do wonders for a company’s image. Shabir Momin, of Zenga Group, gave many hopes when he said he was never a brilliant student, but he was always good at the subject he loved – Computers, which is what he made his career.

Tenzin Tsundue, who is dedicated to the cause of a free Tibet, started off by saying “There are challenges, and there are impossibilities. What I’m doing is the latter”. His passion for attaining the ‘impossible’ was in itself tremendous motivation.

Jodie Underhill of Waste Warriors received a standing ovation, for her efforts to “Clean Up India”.

However, the most inspiring story, by far, was that of Vicky Roy. He went from living on the platform at the railway station and working as a dishwasher, to being one of the four people who were chosen to photograph the reconstruction of the World Trade Centre in New York, all because of his relentless pursuit of his passion for photography. He has now travelled the world, published his own book “Home Street Home” which is his life in pictures, and also given talks at Google, Facebook and Stanford University!

Papa CJ, the global face of Indian comedy had the audience in splits with a laughing exercise (and of course his witty anecdotes). Being a comedian by profession, he nevertheless gave the audience some pretty serious advice: “Go out there and try new things, you never know what might click. Fail. It’s the only way you learn and discover what you’re passionate about.”

Other speakers included Anurag Batra (Chairman, exchange 4media and Businessworld), Parth Vasadeva (Founder, De Paix Yatra), and Sunil K Goyal, Founder & CEO, Yournest, a company that assists start-ups mainly through angel funding.

Being an interactive session rather than a formal conference, the audience got to ask questions and interact with the speakers, making it a more enriching experience. Ranging from high school & college students in search of guidance and direction, to working professionals and budding entrepreneurs, the conference brought together over 250 delegates – an impressive turnout for a venture that’s barely 4 months old!

The event also featured enthralling dance and music performances by 7 year old Surbhi Mittal and one-man-band Dhruv VisvanathVikas Shishodaya and Ashish Thapa, two budding musicians with beautiful voices, finally jumped out of their comfort zones and gave an inspiring performance for the first time on stage in front of  a live audience.

JOSH Talks 2014 was everything it set out to be and more. It was engaging, inspiring and extremely enjoyable.

You can find out more about JOSH at http://www.joshtalks.com/