hi you know I have to tell you a little
bit about my family first I come from
this really boring academic scientific
family and you know every male member is
given the task of bringing back home Ivy
League decals for our classic ambassador
car in India you know my mother’s a
little different she’s a bit of a hippie
she’s the one who taught me how to love
and she hates it when I say that but she
is a hippie and my father’s a
philosophical dude that’s not exactly
how he looks but when I was in high
school I went up to him and I said but
what is the meaning of education you
know he loved philosophical questions
and he said you know education your
education is hijacked by Industrial
Revolution he said real education is
about learning discipline it’s about
learning how to learn
it’s about being curious and all these
beautiful things you know it’s about
good citizenship so I listened very
carefully he also said there’s a big
difference between learning and
education he said education is what a
system does to you
learning is what you do to yourself
education is supposed to lead to
learning so I said Wow all of these are
cool ideas so I went back to my room a
couple of weeks later I came back to him
I said ba I decided I’m going to do all
these things and want to be hard-working
wanna be disciplined and I’m gonna be
emotionally and financially independent
of you guys he was getting so emotional
if he came to give me a hug I said wait
wait hold that thought
can I quit school then
so to cut a long story short I quit
formal education after high school to
pursue learning where the world was my
classroom and what I what I’m really
excited about being here at National
Geographic is that I’ve always seen
myself as an explorer and an explorer
who uses art as a tool for learning more
about myself and the world around me I’m
also excited because I just found out
we’re having our third baby and yeah I’m
really excited thank you I’m shameless
and speaking of babies I asked my my to
my three-year-old daughter why she’s
being ridiculously naughty why she looks
at me like I’m totally mad she shrugs
her shoulders says I don’t know just
because that’s when it occurred to me
that as we grow up we have this peculiar
part of our brain that tells us stories
that makes sense of of our actions it’s
constantly telling us a very cohesive
story of who we are and the world around
us we are all storytellers and you’re
probably going to hear this the whole
day we are all storytellers artists
doctors hackers paleontologists all of
us are solely tellers and I think when
we share these stories with each other
it becomes knowledge I think there are
two ways by which we share knowledge
with the world you must remember I quit
formal education but I continued to
learn and I’ve never understood the
underlying structures of knowledge until
I went to the real world I think there
are two ways by which we learn from the
world one is knowledge deployed by the
expert the individual the school the
magazine and then there’s a newer form
of knowledge which is knowledge deployed
by the crowd but I have an issue with
both these forms of knowledge I think
knowledge deployed by the individual is
full of personal bias some stick whether
it’s education for good citizenship for
innovation whatever it is it’s full of
personal bias knowledge deployed by the
crowd imagine one truth like Wikipedia
one truth emerges from a crowd that
survives all these edit was and it’s
ridiculous it becomes disinterested
I want to see the emergence of a third
form of knowledge one in which multiple
truths coexist to tell a richer
understanding of who we are and when
people ask me who are you so difficult
to answer that I play all these
different roles I’m a philosopher I’m a
businessman a politician I’m an artist
and this is not peculiar to me it is to
everyone and I think for me my art is
about truth and truth for me is about
perspectives now you must wonder why I
think like this I think like this
because I come from a very small country
of 1.3 billion people it’s called India
and in this country what is strange we
know that we’ve heard about the
corruption in the country we’ve heard
about the population we’ve heard about
oh there’s so many stories about the
service economy but what we don’t know
is it’s the world’s most impossible
democracy there’s absolutely nothing
that makes two Indians Indian not
religion not language not food not
culture maybe Bollywood and cricket but
not really look at our banknote we have
15 languages in which it says one rupee
that would scare anybody you know so
when we talk about secularism in India
we don’t say everyone comes to India and
becomes a melting pot we say you come to
India and become a buffet it’s like a
trolley it’s a very different
understanding and this is my education
I’m a Hindu I went to a good Christian
school I start my nuns brothers sisters
all these but basically brought up to be
a good Samaritan and hopefully I am and
then I’d go at the end of the day – the
only Hindu house in an Islamic
neighbourhood and this is not unusual
for most Indians so when I had my art
shows what I would do is I was trying to
recreate Indian history through multiple
perspectives a more honest document of
Industry I think within every thinking
Indian lies a Gandhian a Marxist and a
Cartoon Network character fighting for
supremacy
so when I had my first child I was
thinking how am I going to pass on this
idea of perspectives to him so I want to
share with your children’s book I made
for the iPad you know I have a problem
with children’s books I think they’re
full of propaganda so I said I’m going
to counter this as my own propaganda if
you notice carefully
it’s a homosexual couple bringing up a
child you don’t like it shake it and you
have a lesbian couple shake it and you
have a heterosexual couple but but I
think teaching perspectives is the best
way to learn about a people and that
only when you teach perspectives can you
teach creativity because creativity
comes from exposure and only when you’re
creative can you imagine yourself in the
shoes of someone different from you
so I’d like to argue that perspectives
and creativity and gender empathy and
much needed in this world right now this
book of mine did really well what I made
for my son became a bit of a movement I
got a book award without a single word
in that book and we got International
Press
Ted launched it I had millions of
viewers but there was a part of me that
was really sad because the book that I
created that I started out to create on
India’s independence never happened
because no historian was willing to lend
credibility to this project
that’s because firstly there were many
historians both in Pakistan and India
who would fight amongst each other for
who was right not only that they kept
changing their minds every time new
evidence came along so what I realized
and this was critical for me is that
truth is not just perspectives but truth
consists of dynamic ever-changing
perspectives and for my art to truly
come alive I thought I have to bring
dynamism and I couldn’t do it within the
art world alone I had to reach out to
science as you can see I’m wearing this
cool gadget I want to show you my latest
art project that brings live
perspectives to my art this eg had said
my brainwaves and it tells my computer
what my mental state is how attentive
meditative focused I am and then it
changes my art based on my mental state
I want to introduce you the Mona Lisa
2.0 little older Lisa I’m going to
project my mental state onto her as you
can see live
she’s reflecting my mental state I’m
going to try right now and make a smile
for you by coming down
oh I was saying what was I thinking you
think I could calm down in front of
NatGeo in front of all you guys not bad
at least that came close anyway I want
to quickly show you some of the other
projects I’m working on with Sean
Stevens from new view this is a work I
made for people who bought loved Gandhi
and hate Gandhi use your brainwaves to
keep him smiling everyone’s getting
along you stress them out and he’ll be
the cause for communal violence among
the cartoons you decide how you leave
your Gandhi this is a very simple work I
may get into trouble I have my getaway
car it’s for my American friends it’s
really simple it’s just red but then you
use your brain waves to discover that
there’s an entire spectrum between red
and blue it’s called learning
flexibility America thank you meet venus
2.0 really fashionable because she just
got off a visit from the indian
censorship bureau don’t like censorship
think naughty thoughts use your
brainwaves and you can uncensor huh
and when you completely uncensored her
you can even set her free
speaking of censorship
the one thing it cannot censor are your
brainwaves you may be able to censor
your words but not your thoughts because
half of them come from the subconscious
so the next time you come and see my art
show be careful what you think because
you’re gonna participate to bring my
work to life using your biochemistry
your brainwaves your thoughts and you
can’t even help yourself but be honest
the role of my spectator has now changed
from someone who’s just looking at my
work or buying my work and don’t stop
doing that but but also be a co-creator
participate in bringing my work to life
and for me it’s really exciting that I’m
here because I believe that I could have
never done this within the silos of the
art world I had to learn to color
outside the line and reach out to
science we’re here to explore with the
scientists I think of art and science is
not in competition but really as
complementary to each other and and I
hope that science and art will Science
and Technology will return this favor by
working with artists to explore the
world I think art and science are two
eyes of the same body open one eye and
you see this beautiful world around you
open the other and it adds a kind of
depth
you can’t even articulate you know I
told you I’m having another baby and I’m
thinking about what kind of a world do I
want to leave behind for my child and
the truth is I cannot promise my child a
life with that bias
we’re all bloody biased but I promise to
bias my child with as many perspectives
as possible and I hope you all hear
we’ll use artists to help you share your
story with multiple perspectives and
bias everyone with as many perspectives
as possible thank you so much
you
bit about my family first I come from
this really boring academic scientific
family and you know every male member is
given the task of bringing back home Ivy
League decals for our classic ambassador
car in India you know my mother’s a
little different she’s a bit of a hippie
she’s the one who taught me how to love
and she hates it when I say that but she
is a hippie and my father’s a
philosophical dude that’s not exactly
how he looks but when I was in high
school I went up to him and I said but
what is the meaning of education you
know he loved philosophical questions
and he said you know education your
education is hijacked by Industrial
Revolution he said real education is
about learning discipline it’s about
learning how to learn
it’s about being curious and all these
beautiful things you know it’s about
good citizenship so I listened very
carefully he also said there’s a big
difference between learning and
education he said education is what a
system does to you
learning is what you do to yourself
education is supposed to lead to
learning so I said Wow all of these are
cool ideas so I went back to my room a
couple of weeks later I came back to him
I said ba I decided I’m going to do all
these things and want to be hard-working
wanna be disciplined and I’m gonna be
emotionally and financially independent
of you guys he was getting so emotional
if he came to give me a hug I said wait
wait hold that thought
can I quit school then
so to cut a long story short I quit
formal education after high school to
pursue learning where the world was my
classroom and what I what I’m really
excited about being here at National
Geographic is that I’ve always seen
myself as an explorer and an explorer
who uses art as a tool for learning more
about myself and the world around me I’m
also excited because I just found out
we’re having our third baby and yeah I’m
really excited thank you I’m shameless
and speaking of babies I asked my my to
my three-year-old daughter why she’s
being ridiculously naughty why she looks
at me like I’m totally mad she shrugs
her shoulders says I don’t know just
because that’s when it occurred to me
that as we grow up we have this peculiar
part of our brain that tells us stories
that makes sense of of our actions it’s
constantly telling us a very cohesive
story of who we are and the world around
us we are all storytellers and you’re
probably going to hear this the whole
day we are all storytellers artists
doctors hackers paleontologists all of
us are solely tellers and I think when
we share these stories with each other
it becomes knowledge I think there are
two ways by which we share knowledge
with the world you must remember I quit
formal education but I continued to
learn and I’ve never understood the
underlying structures of knowledge until
I went to the real world I think there
are two ways by which we learn from the
world one is knowledge deployed by the
expert the individual the school the
magazine and then there’s a newer form
of knowledge which is knowledge deployed
by the crowd but I have an issue with
both these forms of knowledge I think
knowledge deployed by the individual is
full of personal bias some stick whether
it’s education for good citizenship for
innovation whatever it is it’s full of
personal bias knowledge deployed by the
crowd imagine one truth like Wikipedia
one truth emerges from a crowd that
survives all these edit was and it’s
ridiculous it becomes disinterested
I want to see the emergence of a third
form of knowledge one in which multiple
truths coexist to tell a richer
understanding of who we are and when
people ask me who are you so difficult
to answer that I play all these
different roles I’m a philosopher I’m a
businessman a politician I’m an artist
and this is not peculiar to me it is to
everyone and I think for me my art is
about truth and truth for me is about
perspectives now you must wonder why I
think like this I think like this
because I come from a very small country
of 1.3 billion people it’s called India
and in this country what is strange we
know that we’ve heard about the
corruption in the country we’ve heard
about the population we’ve heard about
oh there’s so many stories about the
service economy but what we don’t know
is it’s the world’s most impossible
democracy there’s absolutely nothing
that makes two Indians Indian not
religion not language not food not
culture maybe Bollywood and cricket but
not really look at our banknote we have
15 languages in which it says one rupee
that would scare anybody you know so
when we talk about secularism in India
we don’t say everyone comes to India and
becomes a melting pot we say you come to
India and become a buffet it’s like a
trolley it’s a very different
understanding and this is my education
I’m a Hindu I went to a good Christian
school I start my nuns brothers sisters
all these but basically brought up to be
a good Samaritan and hopefully I am and
then I’d go at the end of the day – the
only Hindu house in an Islamic
neighbourhood and this is not unusual
for most Indians so when I had my art
shows what I would do is I was trying to
recreate Indian history through multiple
perspectives a more honest document of
Industry I think within every thinking
Indian lies a Gandhian a Marxist and a
Cartoon Network character fighting for
supremacy
so when I had my first child I was
thinking how am I going to pass on this
idea of perspectives to him so I want to
share with your children’s book I made
for the iPad you know I have a problem
with children’s books I think they’re
full of propaganda so I said I’m going
to counter this as my own propaganda if
you notice carefully
it’s a homosexual couple bringing up a
child you don’t like it shake it and you
have a lesbian couple shake it and you
have a heterosexual couple but but I
think teaching perspectives is the best
way to learn about a people and that
only when you teach perspectives can you
teach creativity because creativity
comes from exposure and only when you’re
creative can you imagine yourself in the
shoes of someone different from you
so I’d like to argue that perspectives
and creativity and gender empathy and
much needed in this world right now this
book of mine did really well what I made
for my son became a bit of a movement I
got a book award without a single word
in that book and we got International
Press
Ted launched it I had millions of
viewers but there was a part of me that
was really sad because the book that I
created that I started out to create on
India’s independence never happened
because no historian was willing to lend
credibility to this project
that’s because firstly there were many
historians both in Pakistan and India
who would fight amongst each other for
who was right not only that they kept
changing their minds every time new
evidence came along so what I realized
and this was critical for me is that
truth is not just perspectives but truth
consists of dynamic ever-changing
perspectives and for my art to truly
come alive I thought I have to bring
dynamism and I couldn’t do it within the
art world alone I had to reach out to
science as you can see I’m wearing this
cool gadget I want to show you my latest
art project that brings live
perspectives to my art this eg had said
my brainwaves and it tells my computer
what my mental state is how attentive
meditative focused I am and then it
changes my art based on my mental state
I want to introduce you the Mona Lisa
2.0 little older Lisa I’m going to
project my mental state onto her as you
can see live
she’s reflecting my mental state I’m
going to try right now and make a smile
for you by coming down
oh I was saying what was I thinking you
think I could calm down in front of
NatGeo in front of all you guys not bad
at least that came close anyway I want
to quickly show you some of the other
projects I’m working on with Sean
Stevens from new view this is a work I
made for people who bought loved Gandhi
and hate Gandhi use your brainwaves to
keep him smiling everyone’s getting
along you stress them out and he’ll be
the cause for communal violence among
the cartoons you decide how you leave
your Gandhi this is a very simple work I
may get into trouble I have my getaway
car it’s for my American friends it’s
really simple it’s just red but then you
use your brain waves to discover that
there’s an entire spectrum between red
and blue it’s called learning
flexibility America thank you meet venus
2.0 really fashionable because she just
got off a visit from the indian
censorship bureau don’t like censorship
think naughty thoughts use your
brainwaves and you can uncensor huh
and when you completely uncensored her
you can even set her free
speaking of censorship
the one thing it cannot censor are your
brainwaves you may be able to censor
your words but not your thoughts because
half of them come from the subconscious
so the next time you come and see my art
show be careful what you think because
you’re gonna participate to bring my
work to life using your biochemistry
your brainwaves your thoughts and you
can’t even help yourself but be honest
the role of my spectator has now changed
from someone who’s just looking at my
work or buying my work and don’t stop
doing that but but also be a co-creator
participate in bringing my work to life
and for me it’s really exciting that I’m
here because I believe that I could have
never done this within the silos of the
art world I had to learn to color
outside the line and reach out to
science we’re here to explore with the
scientists I think of art and science is
not in competition but really as
complementary to each other and and I
hope that science and art will Science
and Technology will return this favor by
working with artists to explore the
world I think art and science are two
eyes of the same body open one eye and
you see this beautiful world around you
open the other and it adds a kind of
depth
you can’t even articulate you know I
told you I’m having another baby and I’m
thinking about what kind of a world do I
want to leave behind for my child and
the truth is I cannot promise my child a
life with that bias
we’re all bloody biased but I promise to
bias my child with as many perspectives
as possible and I hope you all hear
we’ll use artists to help you share your
story with multiple perspectives and
bias everyone with as many perspectives
as possible thank you so much
you
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