he's indian, from a small town called palanpur in gujarat, making waves at mit, and calls himself a "designeer." blowing away the audience at ted 2009 where he first unveiled his invention, he has been named by chris anderson as "one of the ten, best inventors in the world right now", and he's yet to turn thirty :-) he sees living possibility where others see nothing and fittingly called his most famous invention, which won popular science's invention of the year award for 2009, the "sixth sense". it doesn't hurt that pranav mistry has infectious energy and is good looking too :-)
so what is a designeer anyway? over to pranav :-) "i love to see technology from design perspective and vice versa. this vision reflects in almost all of my projects and research work as well. in short, i do what i love and i love what I do. i am a 'designeer' "
alright! i can live with that :-) and whats the "sixth sense?" what is the sixth sense indeed? how to explain it?! i'll let pranav do the talking again :-)
"it's a terrible thing to see but have no vision." this is one of his favourite quotes, he's probably half a decade younger than pranav mistry, graduated from iit kgp a few years ago, and decided to challenge the status quo of computing gadgets. in his first blog announcing his arrival in april 2009 this is what he wrote - "what we are looking for is, giving the user the complete freedom to define the basics and not the industry leaders...we will usher a new understanding of what we actually need. our research will prove that innovation in its exact sense is, revolution. a solution to the problem of adoption of the idea. a notion ink."
wow, what did he just say! but in less than three years, rohan shravan has gone ahead and done just what he said he would. re-envisioned what a computer tablet could be like, put together a team of young indian designers, of funders who he believed in his vision, and unveiled this january the notion ink 'adam' - a computing device that many say is the "most impressive tablet they have yet seen", filled with small and big innovations that redefine the entire tablet experience. take that, apple!
i said that rohan unveiled the concept on his blog, and to understand what adam is really about, you have to experience the blog, and its band of "notion addicts" who have been commenting on it- thousands of fans, young and old, from across the world, who have been following rohan and his dream for the last year and a half. its been a roller coaster of a ride, with hits and (deadline) misses, rumors and speculations, ups and downs, ins and outs - but they've all hung in there - mesmerized by one young man's vision. and its all out there in the blog and its comments, every single heart beat that has skipped. they have encouraged him, they have beseeched him, they have crucified him, and they have canonized him! its a living journey of a ten thousand dreams now - adam!
goethe is once said to have written "whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. begin it now." two young indians, two young dreamers, two young journeys. and its a different world we're living in already :-)
almost fifty years ago, a young african american clergyman announced his dream and changed the fate of a nation. today (monday) is martin luther king day and truly it is his dream of an unprejudiced world that we celebrate. the power of audacious dreams, big and small. and of those who can fearlessly rise up and say "i have a dream." they all change the world in their own ways and their time is now. always :-) heres the song of another dreamer, a nightingale who dreamt "freely" and fought fearlessly.
Song of a Dream
Once in the dream of a night I stood
Lone in the light of a magical wood,
Soul-deep in visions that poppy-like sprang;
And spirits of Truth were the birds that sang,
And spirits of Love were the stars that glowed,
And spirits of Peace were the streams that flowed
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
Lone in the light of that magical grove,
I felt the stars of the spirits of Love
Gather and gleam round my delicate youth,
And I heard the song of the spirits of Truth;
To quench my longing I bent me low
By the streams of the spirits of Peace that flow
In that magical wood in the land of sleep.
Sarojini Naidu
"in that magical wood in the land of sleep." and sometimes, just sometimes, you pinch yourself and realize that you're no longer in the land of the sleep. and the wood is sheer magic.
dreams do come true :-)
much love,
d&s |
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