I was the kid and I come from Assam so
there’s this small city in Assam a small
town called Lanka not Sri Lanka Lanka
okay and I was there and there was a
time when me and my family we moved to
the biggest city in the state which is
gua T which also happens to be the
capital of our state so just like any
other kid I was very excited to move
into a big city and you know meet new
people but little did I know that I was
kind of a misfit in that whole
atmosphere I would go out to mingle with
people make new friends you know like
any other young boy want to play cricket
or something but nobody was actually
interested in you know befriending me or
playing with me because I never really
understood the reason they never
explicitly said anything but it was
quite evident that maybe you know I was
not up to the stators or standard or
whatever their common notions were to
befriend someone and it happened for
quite some time and I remember one day
coming back home and you know really sad
and upset and I was crying to my mother
and just like in any other Indian mother
she said fault must be yours but after a
point I said no you know what I have
tried everything but maybe you know I am
NOT up to their level and maybe I’m not
good enough and at that moment my mother
said something to me which really has
stuck with me for a very long period of
my life till now is that she told me
that nobody and nobody in this world can
tell you that you are not good enough if
you are trying to be the best version of
yourself because if you are trying to be
the best version of yourself that you
know it in your heart that you whatever
you are doing is the best
and nobody can demean you nobody can
pull you down nobody can tell you that
you are less because you
believe in your heart that you have done
your 100% and you are doing it with
utmost honesty and I remember I was very
small must be somewhere around 8 or 9
years old and in a very dramatic fashion
I said that you know what they don’t
want to befriend me it’s fine I am happy
the way I am and maybe there would be a
time when they would come to me and they
would want to spend time and they would
want to befriend me and maybe I won’t be
interested and trust me that happened it
took some time but it happened and I
feel that that’s how life is it it is
about you know unexpected things
happening all the time we all keep
planning things we all keep thinking
about what to do what not to do but
that’s I you know they say that life
happens to you when you are trying to
plan other things and that’s the most
beautiful part about exploding our
journey throughout my school career I
was the kind of I was not very studious
but I somehow managed to get good grades
not the bright student or the topic I’m
but I used to get good squid but what I
was extremely into was a lot of
co-curricular activities I love meeting
people I love talking
I love debating I loved you know giving
speeches etcetera and although I was
very good at it and I was roaming around
the country doing this my professors and
my parents those supporters but were not
quite keen on me doing it for a long
time because they felt that somehow it
will affect my academics but I let me
tell you something I am an extremely
sub-1 person if I decide to do something
I will just not stop until I feel that I
am satisfied and I have achieved it so I
continued at it they were right it did
affect my academics when I completed my
twelfth boards in CBSE I was one of the
National toppers and I scored hundred in
sociology and this is not even the most
fascinating part of it the most
fascinating part about this whole story
is the fact that out of ten people who
talked in their respective subjects and
scored hundred in a twelfth board exam
where lakhs and lakhs of students take
part six
out of them were students who were like
me who were always participating in
events one girl who scored hundred in
sociology she studied in Xavier’s in
Bombay later and you know she’s in
London right now that girl was
participating in an event even one day
before her examination so that was kind
of a way which I realized that each and
every experience that we gather by
meeting people by doing things you know
exploding newest uphills
a lot in our lives and nothing goes
waste especially when we you do
something from your heart something that
you really want to do something that you
are really ambitious about it would
always pay dividends no matter what and
it really helped me because I was
meeting so many people I had a different
worldview I was much more liberal in my
thought process and when I finally came
to Bombay after completing my 12 boards
it was again the same story as my
childhood you know coming from a small
place to a big place so I entered my
college where I didn’t know a single
soul so it’s like entering a new place
with nobody of your knowledge and you
are supposed to again explore make sense
make like a new family and that happened
and I must say that I would like to
thank two of my professors
mrs. Manjula Srinivasan mrs fedorova
Shanker because my attendance in college
is sort of you know it’s a story of
lessons because in one semester I had 0%
attendance and I don’t think that
anybody in this country can get away
from with that but me and today whatever
I am I owe hugely to these two
professors because Manjula mom happens
to be the h OD of KC College B mmm and
Sudama Shanker was the senior-most
professor back then and they really
helped me and supported me because I was
always busy working I was you know doing
some internship somewhere in some
company in some newspapers I explored
everything initially I was very
interested in journalism so write from
print
broadcaster radio 2 magazines I didn’t
leave out anything so by the time I
completed the last internship that I did
before started working they told me
listen we have seen your face so many
times in all the possible media
buildings now stop maybe explore
something else and that that’s exactly
what I have been doing all my life I
mean I really take a lot of pride and
joy in being one of the youngest I might
not be the youngest but one of the
youngest to do certain things like I
mean even in this gathering that we have
today we have such illustrious people
with amazing body of work talking to you
and again I happen to be the youngest
right so that’s how things have been and
I have always tried to do different
things when so I wrote a book called
footprints of life which was my debut
novel it was so interesting because
there was this incident which was of
national importance which happened and
which really shook the country and I was
totally totally fascinated with that
story so once so that I used to talk
about it all the time and you know I
used to talk to my family my friends and
my friends were clearly not interested
because you know you are 16 17 and your
boys so they have the boy talk and
nobody was interested in it but they
used to somehow tolerate me there was a
day when there’s this friend of mine
called acumen so I was going on and on
and on about it and he was so frustrated
he is just like wait stop if he was so
interested in it go and write a book
about it though he said it out of
frustration and as a passing I thought
that okay maybe that’s not a bad idea
you know I might try writing a book on
it I did still remember I was just 16
when I completed my 10th board exam and
I will I happen to be in Delhi in my
maternal aunts place and I decided to
dig in and research and although you
know there have been a lot of incidences
and experiences while researching the
book one incident which you know was
very funny
so I happen to visit the school of this
person on whom I was researching and I
got an appointment with the principal
and this is like a very posh school in
Delhi okay one of the Pasha’s schools in
Delhi and
I got the appointment saying that you
know I’m supposed to research on a book
and it was already a confident
controversial subject so she was
hesitant but she gave in when I entered
the room and you know she got up with
full excitement because it was like you
know creaking of the door and I was
entering and then she saw me so she
stopped midair okay and she was looking
me from top to bottom and even before
asking me to take a chair she is like
are you sure you are the person who is
supposed to do the interview and you
know research on the book because I
don’t believe you I don’t trust you yeah
so I researched on it and you know once
I was done researching I did take some
time to start writing it because the
findings were not only gripping but at
the same time quite disturbing to me so
I took my own suite um to start writing
it and the funny part is like I haven’t
shared this with anybody but so I
completed my book when I was 18 and 70%
of the book I wrote during my 12 board
you know exams because we used to have
like a long holiday okay like a study
leave up two months three months and how
much will you study I mean it’s okay you
have then today’s study but how much to
study so I decided that okay I have this
entire day sitting at home and we all
have Indian parents so you are not
really allowed to go out and do too many
things no matter how liberal they are so
I was sitting at home so I made it a
point that every night at 10 o clock no
matter what happens I would sit in front
of my desktop and I’ll start writing my
novel and that’s how I completed my
first book footprints of life then it
took some time and around when I was 19
is when I finally published it and
there’s this publisher called general
presence there from Delhi who showed a
lot of interest and I published it with
almost no aspirations because you know
the experience of holding your book like
the physical copy of your book specially
your first book is an experience which
cannot be expressed in words because it
is something that you need to feel it’s
like delivering your first child you
know when you hold your first child that
that experience is so divine that it
can’t be
splits inwards and later on it went on
becoming like a best-seller and all that
happened and there was like they call me
one of the youngest again oh you know
writers in the country doing well so
that thought of being the youngest again
in the writing field was also fulfilled
time moved and you know eventually I
have a very strong connection from
Gujarat because I did my first
documentary the Gujarat promise so here
and I did in 2014 and I did travel the
nooks and corner of the state and I
covered a lot of issues by the end of it
while I was really proud of it because
it took a lot of effort and hard work to
make it not everyone was quite happy
with the findings and there was a lot
happening there were death threats and
hate mails and you know people on broad
daylight in am debarred people have run
behind me with all sorts of weapons you
know with the thought of killing my
somehow it skipped I really thank on
diksha guys were standing there who took
me out otherwise I wouldn’t be standing
here deleting the story to you and it
you know I say it with a really heavy
heart that eventually due to some
anti-social elements they confiscated
the entire thing and I at this moment I
don’t have even one single copy of that
documentary which took more than a year
to make and so much of hard work but you
know this atmosphere of hate this
atmosphere of for you know curbing
freedom of expression and not letting
your opinion go odd because it differs
from somebody else’s opinion is taking
over the country right now when it is so
important to address because it is not
only taking over in general it is taking
over on social media as well and I would
like to come in because you know
trolling has become such a huge part of
social media today that even if you are
trying to put forward an honest opinion
on social media you will be labeled
right if you say a certain kind of thing
you will be labeled as okay you are from
X category or you are from by category
or from Z category which is so
unfortunate because you are just trying
to put forward your opinion like we all
have
you know differences in terms of our
open and I think that’s the beauty of
our country like our country is not a
country which believes in dividing
people our country is a country well you
know we believe in uniting people and
going forward meeting everyone you know
diverse there’s so much diversity in our
country I mean look at me I am a Bengali
from Assam which happens to be in the
Northeast studied in Bombay and now
delivering a TED talk here in Gujarat I
mean what can be more fascinating than
this simple journey with just one
individual and think about so many
billions of stories which you know are
coming up each and every day in this
country
so I feel that the most important aspect
of social media which needs to be curbed
in a big way is trolling because I
formed my social media agency little
monk at the age of 22 and you know let
me tell you I was mocked at I was
laughed at people said I have gone crazy
because I had just been working what for
two years and they said you want to open
an agency like that – in Bollywood which
runs totally on networking
no taboo not going to work out but when
somebody tells me not going to work out
I become more stubborn so I said okay
let me try
so I started and I started the company
with you know reaching out to one
director in Bollywood and within six
months I had 25 top clients from
Bollywood which had a lister celebrities
directors photographers actors you name
it and we had it and it was a very
interesting and fascinating journey for
me because while I started approaching
people I realized that over a period of
time when I have been working and doing
internships for in so many places I have
met so many people who actually love me
that they were willing to take those
risks they were willing to engage with
me they were willing to try out whether
I’d be good enough or not and that is
what really counts you doing whatever
you do from your heart is what is going
to take you forward in life don’t do
something with
somebody else is telling you to do I was
never the topper bracketed topper
student in my school but I happen to
talk in 12 boards and the people who
actually talked I mean they are doing
something not to take away from their
hard work but sacraments that okay I
must say this that there was this one
guy who was you know again in the topper
category who everyone thought will end
up becoming a doctor and he also aspired
to become a doctor by the way but that
was not what he wanted that was
something that people told him he should
do at that point so he was aiming for
that today that guy is an extremely
successful fashion designer he did he
passed his science stream he did a BSC
then he disappeared for two years and
then now I came to know that he has
become fashion designer so clearly he
has followed his path after he realized
that okay whatever I was doing I was not
doing for myself but I was doing for
somebody else
please don’t do that because you know
what everyone will tell you that how do
you measure success you measure success
by Fame you measure success by money you
measure success by recognition but let
me tell you these are not the parameters
on which you should measure success of
course these are important these are
very important aspects in life but the
only thing that matters the most is your
inner peace what gives you satisfaction
at the end of the day after you do your
job you know no matter how hard you have
worked no matter how much time you have
taken but it actually gives you a lot of
satisfaction that is the work that you
should do that is the work that you are
meant to do and that is the work in
which you will excel shine and do
wonderfully well and not what people are
telling you that you need to do don’t
get bracketed in a particular category
don’t think that okay if you’re scored
an X number you need to go to an extreme
and follow an X career path know you
know your talents sit down one day just
take one hour do self introspection and
write five things that you are good at
if you you know in no time you would
realize that you have five career of
that you can excel in which you would
actually enjoy doing and not because
somebody else is telling you to do it so
it is very important and I cannot stress
over this fact over and over again
because I am like extremely proud of my
ambitions I feel we all should be
extremely ambitious and you know I am I
am very shameless in the matter and I
take a lot of pride in everything that I
do because I feel at least I am trying
right I might not be the best but at
least I am somewhere and you know I I
come from the Northeast and you know I
take a lot of pride in being a
northeastern because for me me being a
northeaster than identity comes first
irrespective of my caste irrespective of
my Creed irrespective of my religion and
that is how we all should be we should
take pride in things that matter so to
conclude I would like to say chase your
dreams carve out your niche and celebrate your individuality thank you
there’s this small city in Assam a small
town called Lanka not Sri Lanka Lanka
okay and I was there and there was a
time when me and my family we moved to
the biggest city in the state which is
gua T which also happens to be the
capital of our state so just like any
other kid I was very excited to move
into a big city and you know meet new
people but little did I know that I was
kind of a misfit in that whole
atmosphere I would go out to mingle with
people make new friends you know like
any other young boy want to play cricket
or something but nobody was actually
interested in you know befriending me or
playing with me because I never really
understood the reason they never
explicitly said anything but it was
quite evident that maybe you know I was
not up to the stators or standard or
whatever their common notions were to
befriend someone and it happened for
quite some time and I remember one day
coming back home and you know really sad
and upset and I was crying to my mother
and just like in any other Indian mother
she said fault must be yours but after a
point I said no you know what I have
tried everything but maybe you know I am
NOT up to their level and maybe I’m not
good enough and at that moment my mother
said something to me which really has
stuck with me for a very long period of
my life till now is that she told me
that nobody and nobody in this world can
tell you that you are not good enough if
you are trying to be the best version of
yourself because if you are trying to be
the best version of yourself that you
know it in your heart that you whatever
you are doing is the best
and nobody can demean you nobody can
pull you down nobody can tell you that
you are less because you
believe in your heart that you have done
your 100% and you are doing it with
utmost honesty and I remember I was very
small must be somewhere around 8 or 9
years old and in a very dramatic fashion
I said that you know what they don’t
want to befriend me it’s fine I am happy
the way I am and maybe there would be a
time when they would come to me and they
would want to spend time and they would
want to befriend me and maybe I won’t be
interested and trust me that happened it
took some time but it happened and I
feel that that’s how life is it it is
about you know unexpected things
happening all the time we all keep
planning things we all keep thinking
about what to do what not to do but
that’s I you know they say that life
happens to you when you are trying to
plan other things and that’s the most
beautiful part about exploding our
journey throughout my school career I
was the kind of I was not very studious
but I somehow managed to get good grades
not the bright student or the topic I’m
but I used to get good squid but what I
was extremely into was a lot of
co-curricular activities I love meeting
people I love talking
I love debating I loved you know giving
speeches etcetera and although I was
very good at it and I was roaming around
the country doing this my professors and
my parents those supporters but were not
quite keen on me doing it for a long
time because they felt that somehow it
will affect my academics but I let me
tell you something I am an extremely
sub-1 person if I decide to do something
I will just not stop until I feel that I
am satisfied and I have achieved it so I
continued at it they were right it did
affect my academics when I completed my
twelfth boards in CBSE I was one of the
National toppers and I scored hundred in
sociology and this is not even the most
fascinating part of it the most
fascinating part about this whole story
is the fact that out of ten people who
talked in their respective subjects and
scored hundred in a twelfth board exam
where lakhs and lakhs of students take
part six
out of them were students who were like
me who were always participating in
events one girl who scored hundred in
sociology she studied in Xavier’s in
Bombay later and you know she’s in
London right now that girl was
participating in an event even one day
before her examination so that was kind
of a way which I realized that each and
every experience that we gather by
meeting people by doing things you know
exploding newest uphills
a lot in our lives and nothing goes
waste especially when we you do
something from your heart something that
you really want to do something that you
are really ambitious about it would
always pay dividends no matter what and
it really helped me because I was
meeting so many people I had a different
worldview I was much more liberal in my
thought process and when I finally came
to Bombay after completing my 12 boards
it was again the same story as my
childhood you know coming from a small
place to a big place so I entered my
college where I didn’t know a single
soul so it’s like entering a new place
with nobody of your knowledge and you
are supposed to again explore make sense
make like a new family and that happened
and I must say that I would like to
thank two of my professors
mrs. Manjula Srinivasan mrs fedorova
Shanker because my attendance in college
is sort of you know it’s a story of
lessons because in one semester I had 0%
attendance and I don’t think that
anybody in this country can get away
from with that but me and today whatever
I am I owe hugely to these two
professors because Manjula mom happens
to be the h OD of KC College B mmm and
Sudama Shanker was the senior-most
professor back then and they really
helped me and supported me because I was
always busy working I was you know doing
some internship somewhere in some
company in some newspapers I explored
everything initially I was very
interested in journalism so write from
broadcaster radio 2 magazines I didn’t
leave out anything so by the time I
completed the last internship that I did
before started working they told me
listen we have seen your face so many
times in all the possible media
buildings now stop maybe explore
something else and that that’s exactly
what I have been doing all my life I
mean I really take a lot of pride and
joy in being one of the youngest I might
not be the youngest but one of the
youngest to do certain things like I
mean even in this gathering that we have
today we have such illustrious people
with amazing body of work talking to you
and again I happen to be the youngest
right so that’s how things have been and
I have always tried to do different
things when so I wrote a book called
footprints of life which was my debut
novel it was so interesting because
there was this incident which was of
national importance which happened and
which really shook the country and I was
totally totally fascinated with that
story so once so that I used to talk
about it all the time and you know I
used to talk to my family my friends and
my friends were clearly not interested
because you know you are 16 17 and your
boys so they have the boy talk and
nobody was interested in it but they
used to somehow tolerate me there was a
day when there’s this friend of mine
called acumen so I was going on and on
and on about it and he was so frustrated
he is just like wait stop if he was so
interested in it go and write a book
about it though he said it out of
frustration and as a passing I thought
that okay maybe that’s not a bad idea
you know I might try writing a book on
it I did still remember I was just 16
when I completed my 10th board exam and
I will I happen to be in Delhi in my
maternal aunts place and I decided to
dig in and research and although you
know there have been a lot of incidences
and experiences while researching the
book one incident which you know was
very funny
so I happen to visit the school of this
person on whom I was researching and I
got an appointment with the principal
and this is like a very posh school in
Delhi okay one of the Pasha’s schools in
Delhi and
I got the appointment saying that you
know I’m supposed to research on a book
and it was already a confident
controversial subject so she was
hesitant but she gave in when I entered
the room and you know she got up with
full excitement because it was like you
know creaking of the door and I was
entering and then she saw me so she
stopped midair okay and she was looking
me from top to bottom and even before
asking me to take a chair she is like
are you sure you are the person who is
supposed to do the interview and you
know research on the book because I
don’t believe you I don’t trust you yeah
so I researched on it and you know once
I was done researching I did take some
time to start writing it because the
findings were not only gripping but at
the same time quite disturbing to me so
I took my own suite um to start writing
it and the funny part is like I haven’t
shared this with anybody but so I
completed my book when I was 18 and 70%
of the book I wrote during my 12 board
you know exams because we used to have
like a long holiday okay like a study
leave up two months three months and how
much will you study I mean it’s okay you
have then today’s study but how much to
study so I decided that okay I have this
entire day sitting at home and we all
have Indian parents so you are not
really allowed to go out and do too many
things no matter how liberal they are so
I was sitting at home so I made it a
point that every night at 10 o clock no
matter what happens I would sit in front
of my desktop and I’ll start writing my
novel and that’s how I completed my
first book footprints of life then it
took some time and around when I was 19
is when I finally published it and
there’s this publisher called general
presence there from Delhi who showed a
lot of interest and I published it with
almost no aspirations because you know
the experience of holding your book like
the physical copy of your book specially
your first book is an experience which
cannot be expressed in words because it
is something that you need to feel it’s
like delivering your first child you
know when you hold your first child that
that experience is so divine that it
can’t be
splits inwards and later on it went on
becoming like a best-seller and all that
happened and there was like they call me
one of the youngest again oh you know
writers in the country doing well so
that thought of being the youngest again
in the writing field was also fulfilled
time moved and you know eventually I
have a very strong connection from
Gujarat because I did my first
documentary the Gujarat promise so here
and I did in 2014 and I did travel the
nooks and corner of the state and I
covered a lot of issues by the end of it
while I was really proud of it because
it took a lot of effort and hard work to
make it not everyone was quite happy
with the findings and there was a lot
happening there were death threats and
hate mails and you know people on broad
daylight in am debarred people have run
behind me with all sorts of weapons you
know with the thought of killing my
somehow it skipped I really thank on
diksha guys were standing there who took
me out otherwise I wouldn’t be standing
here deleting the story to you and it
you know I say it with a really heavy
heart that eventually due to some
anti-social elements they confiscated
the entire thing and I at this moment I
don’t have even one single copy of that
documentary which took more than a year
to make and so much of hard work but you
know this atmosphere of hate this
atmosphere of for you know curbing
freedom of expression and not letting
your opinion go odd because it differs
from somebody else’s opinion is taking
over the country right now when it is so
important to address because it is not
only taking over in general it is taking
over on social media as well and I would
like to come in because you know
trolling has become such a huge part of
social media today that even if you are
trying to put forward an honest opinion
on social media you will be labeled
right if you say a certain kind of thing
you will be labeled as okay you are from
X category or you are from by category
or from Z category which is so
unfortunate because you are just trying
to put forward your opinion like we all
have
you know differences in terms of our
open and I think that’s the beauty of
our country like our country is not a
country which believes in dividing
people our country is a country well you
know we believe in uniting people and
going forward meeting everyone you know
diverse there’s so much diversity in our
country I mean look at me I am a Bengali
from Assam which happens to be in the
Northeast studied in Bombay and now
delivering a TED talk here in Gujarat I
mean what can be more fascinating than
this simple journey with just one
individual and think about so many
billions of stories which you know are
coming up each and every day in this
country
so I feel that the most important aspect
of social media which needs to be curbed
in a big way is trolling because I
formed my social media agency little
monk at the age of 22 and you know let
me tell you I was mocked at I was
laughed at people said I have gone crazy
because I had just been working what for
two years and they said you want to open
an agency like that – in Bollywood which
runs totally on networking
no taboo not going to work out but when
somebody tells me not going to work out
I become more stubborn so I said okay
let me try
so I started and I started the company
with you know reaching out to one
director in Bollywood and within six
months I had 25 top clients from
Bollywood which had a lister celebrities
directors photographers actors you name
it and we had it and it was a very
interesting and fascinating journey for
me because while I started approaching
people I realized that over a period of
time when I have been working and doing
internships for in so many places I have
met so many people who actually love me
that they were willing to take those
risks they were willing to engage with
me they were willing to try out whether
I’d be good enough or not and that is
what really counts you doing whatever
you do from your heart is what is going
to take you forward in life don’t do
something with
somebody else is telling you to do I was
never the topper bracketed topper
student in my school but I happen to
talk in 12 boards and the people who
actually talked I mean they are doing
something not to take away from their
hard work but sacraments that okay I
must say this that there was this one
guy who was you know again in the topper
category who everyone thought will end
up becoming a doctor and he also aspired
to become a doctor by the way but that
was not what he wanted that was
something that people told him he should
do at that point so he was aiming for
that today that guy is an extremely
successful fashion designer he did he
passed his science stream he did a BSC
then he disappeared for two years and
then now I came to know that he has
become fashion designer so clearly he
has followed his path after he realized
that okay whatever I was doing I was not
doing for myself but I was doing for
somebody else
please don’t do that because you know
what everyone will tell you that how do
you measure success you measure success
by Fame you measure success by money you
measure success by recognition but let
me tell you these are not the parameters
on which you should measure success of
course these are important these are
very important aspects in life but the
only thing that matters the most is your
inner peace what gives you satisfaction
at the end of the day after you do your
job you know no matter how hard you have
worked no matter how much time you have
taken but it actually gives you a lot of
satisfaction that is the work that you
should do that is the work that you are
meant to do and that is the work in
which you will excel shine and do
wonderfully well and not what people are
telling you that you need to do don’t
get bracketed in a particular category
don’t think that okay if you’re scored
an X number you need to go to an extreme
and follow an X career path know you
know your talents sit down one day just
take one hour do self introspection and
write five things that you are good at
if you you know in no time you would
realize that you have five career of
that you can excel in which you would
actually enjoy doing and not because
somebody else is telling you to do it so
it is very important and I cannot stress
over this fact over and over again
because I am like extremely proud of my
ambitions I feel we all should be
extremely ambitious and you know I am I
am very shameless in the matter and I
take a lot of pride in everything that I
do because I feel at least I am trying
right I might not be the best but at
least I am somewhere and you know I I
come from the Northeast and you know I
take a lot of pride in being a
northeastern because for me me being a
northeaster than identity comes first
irrespective of my caste irrespective of
my Creed irrespective of my religion and
that is how we all should be we should
take pride in things that matter so to
conclude I would like to say chase your
dreams carve out your niche and celebrate your individuality thank you
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