Prachi Jha

Blogger, Engineer, Student, Technologist, Writer/Editor

I am training to be a technologist in the field of Surface Coating Technology from one of the pioneer institutes of technology in India. That’s my professional description and work profile but on the personal front, I would like to call myself an amalgamation of arts and science because while it is technology that I am training in, it is writing and inter-personal interaction that comes to me almost naturally.

According to me, being passionate about an issue is driven by the desire to learn, explore new ideas and conquer the horizon. On the creative front, I would like to call myself an ardent lover of reading. It is because of this fondness for reading that writing comes to me almost naturally and I am very fond of it. Hence I aspire to write soul stirring stories in the future. My current literary work is in incubation stage. Dance is liberation for me and I particularly enjoy dance forms such as Kathak (an Indian Classical dance form), contemporary style dancing and Ghoomar (a Rajasthani folk dance style), despite of not being a trained professional.

It pains me to see the adversities that certain people undergo through their course of life, especially orphaned children, who, for no fault of their own, have to deal with social stigma, ignorance, economic instability, emotional trauma and lack of opportunities. Children are the future of our race and while all of us talk about the importance of having a secure one, very few really step up to make a difference. My parents and I have provided for the partial education and development of the children of my maid, in our own limited capacity. I hope to bring some positive change in the lives of these poverty-stricken children by being the support system of at least some of them.

Writing

I hail from the Defence background. My father served the Indian Air Force (IAF) in my formative years of life. The nature of this job included regular transfers, which did take a toll on me as a child but gradually I learnt to adjust and adapt to the prevailing circumstances. I would hence like to call my childhood a lesson that affected my life, to a great extent, for the best. Change is the only constant and I believe, having the ability to adapt to it makes for a progressive society. However, adaptability to change doesn’t come easy. For a society to be progressive, change and adaptability should go hand in hand. I was first exposed to a TED talk in class 9. My favorite author is Malcolm Gladwell and after having read his book OUTLIERS, I was frantically looking for an insight into the ideas that he had planted in my mind through that book. That’s when I chanced upon his TED talk named “Choice, Happiness and Spaghetti Sauce”. As expected I was enamored by that talk and that’s when watching TED talks became an integral part of growing up. However, my desire to organize a TEDx event was provoked much later, only in the second year of my discipline when I physically got to be a part of TEDxICTMumbai as a volunteer. As I worked closely with the team, I realized that the motto of the event is basically all that I had ever believed in while growing up. I would hence attribute my desire to organize the event and the inspiration to do the same to the few experiences that I have had so far.

Interpersonal interaction.