Superpowers I grew up with: Interesting 2009
I spoke at Interesting 2009 yesterday, a fabulous one-day conference organised by Russell Davies. The most important rule of the conference is: “Talk about something interesting as long as its not your work”.
My talk was titled “Superpowers I grew up with”: I talked about the Superpowers not in the marvel sense of the world, but instead referring to the dichotomy between progressive science and age old mythologies which form an important part of our everyday urban lives in India.
What I like about this dichotomy is the amazing paradoxes it produces, and how a population as large and diverse can in large parts believe in these paradoxes. Out of an extraordinary sense of faith, often in the most difficult circumstances. The magical, mythical effect that these paradoxes produces leads me to believe that they are indeed ‘Superpowers’.
I will upload the slides on slideshare after the busyness of the ‘Power of 8‘ opening is behind us, but meanwhile here are some key slides.
[...] Jain talked about her Indian Superpowers including rumours of an Indian atomic weapon 10,000 [...]