Theme: Celebration of BOLD துணிச்சலின் கொண்டாட்டம்

Good ideas invite action; Great ideas inspire action; BOLD ideas instigate action.

BOLD people everywhere, armed with BOLD ideas have shaped the world as we know it. As we usher in A New Era, post-pandemic, they continue to shape the world as one could only dream of.

At TEDxPollachi we give ourselves a chance to connect with some of those BOLD people as they share their BOLD ideas; a chance to contemplate a BOLD future; a chance to celebrate BOLD.

August 13, 2022 at Avani – It is a Celebration of BOLD | துணிச்சலின் கொண்டாட்டம்

Avani Hall
Devi Nagar, Vadivu Nagar, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu
Pollachi, Tamil Nadu, 642003
India

Aishwarya Manivannan

Designer, Educator, International Silambam Champion

Aishwarya Manivannan is an International Silambam Champion and founder of Maisha Studio, an art, and design academy. Through her unique pedagogy in creative education and design thinking, she has mentored students across multiple academic forums and organizations, creating leaders and independent thinkers across the creative industry. An ambassador for Silambam, the ancient traditional martial art form of Tamil Nadu, Aishwarya has represented India in the World, Asian, South Asian, and National Silambam Championships 2015-17 winning 23 medals including 10 gold and 2 Individual Championships. A certified international Silambam referee, she holds a Diploma in Silambam Fencing and has introduced Silambam and thrown fresh light on this ancient martial art. She has collaborated with renowned artists, performed at many stages worldwide, and works on creating awareness, sharing, and documenting Silambam.

Mahendran R

Agri-Entrepreneur, Physician, Politician

Dr. R. Mahendran is a doctor, agriculturalist, entrepreneur, Head of the IT wing of DMK and proponent of vanilla farming. Dr Mahendran heads his own Vanilla business which deals with cultivation, processing, and marketing internationally and in India. The concerns he founded - Expovan, Indian Vanilla Initiative, Indian Vanilla Enterprise & Goodness Vanilla, operate in the entire value chain of vanilla cultivation to marketing and exports of natural vanilla and value-added products.

Malasar Community

Malasar Community representatives

The Malasars are one of the earliest known inhabitants of the Western Ghats, in Anaimalai Hills. The community, along with the Kadars, have over the years become caretakers of the elephants that once freely roamed this region. They are now an integral part of any attempt to protect and nurture India’s gentle giants. The conventional wisdom and traditionally acquired skills, passed through generations, to communicate and engage with elephants is critical to this process. Not just in the Anaimalais, but across India, Malasars have played a crucial role in the capture, training and caretaking of Asian elephants and mitigating man-animal conflict.

Sirpi Balasubramaniam

Poet, Critic, Historian, Scholar

Padma Shri. Sirpi Balasubramaniam is a two-time Sahitya Akademi award winning poet, critic, scholar and professor from Pollachi. He was a founding member of the Vanambadi literary movement in the 1970s. He is also the founder of the Sirpi Arakkattalai. Founded in 1996, the organisation has been supporting the work young Tamil poets for over 26 years now. He has published more than a fifty works of poetry and literary criticism in his literary career. He was awarded the Sahitya Akademi award in 2001 for his translation of Lalithambika Antharjanam's Agnisakshi into Tamil and again in 2003 for his original work of a poetry collection, Oru Giraamattu Nadhi. In 2022, he was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India for his contributions to Literature and Education.

Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan

Wildlife Scientist

Sreedhar Vijayakrishnan is a Principal Scientist at the Centre for Wildlife Studies in Bangalore, India. His research interests include behavioural ecology, wildlife endocrinology, population ecology, movement ecology, and human dimensions of wildlife conservation, with particular focus on the Asian elephants. Growing up watching elephants and listening to never-ending elephant tales, he developed a deep passion for the species, which motivated him to choose a career in conservation biology, closely following and observing them. He has been particularly interested in understanding behavioural adaptations in elephants using human-modified landscapes and has studied them in the Western Ghats and the Western Himalayas. He has also been closely examining human–captive elephant relationships, as shaped by the rich cultural history of elephant captivity in the state of Kerala and the traditional elephant-keeping practices of the Malasar communities of the Anamalai hills in southern India.

Vidhya Vishwalaya Theatre Club

Theatre Troupe

Vidhya Vishwalaya Theatre Club is a student theatre club constituted by students of Vidhya Vishwalaya school in Pollachi. The students are between the ages 12 and 14 (Classes 6-8). Trained by the school’s theatre arts faculty member Mr Soundararajan, these young thespians train, perform and compete in mimes, skits and dramas.

Vishwanath Srikantaiah

Water Management Expert, Educator

Vishwanath Srikantaiah is a water conservation expert who is renowned for his tireless and pioneering efforts to find solutions to the country’s freshwater crisis. Popularly known as Zenrainman on social media channels, his insightful articles on water and environmental issues frequently appear in mainstream news publications. A Civil Engineer and Urban Planner by qualification, Vishwanath worked with Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) for 14 years before dedicating himself full-time to solving water issues facing urban and rural communities. He is Trustee – Biome Environmental Trust, an organisation assisting communities in water and sanitation solutions; Director of Biome Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an architectural firm specializing in sustainable design; and an Adjunct Faculty at the Azim Premji University.