One of India’s most premium coworking spaces, OneCulture, hosted the LinkedIn Local “Against All Odds” event today. The invited influential social activists were, Veren Mitter (Ex-Army, Blogger and Educationist), Zainab Patel (Human Rights Activist and TedX Speaker), Anju Rani (Social Activist & TedX Speaker), Tania Singh (CEO-Make Love not Scars NGO, &TedX Speaker) and Navin Gulia (Ex Army, Author, Orator & Social Worker).
LinkedIn Local is a global community designed by the people who use LinkedIn to get to know their online connections. It is an event where people create offline relationships and also get a chance to meet new people.
All the speakers in the event spoke about the obstacles they faced in life and how they overcame them to be where they are today. The event was a huge success.
Abhilash Shukla, Founder CEO at OneCulture, speaking at the event stated:
“It was a privilege and honour to host this inspirational session today at OneCulture. The experiences shared by all eminent speakers, were heart-warming and have left an indelible impression on our mind. Such sessions encourage the audience to look at things from a different perspective and to become more attentive to their own talents and abilities. I am thankful to LinkedIn Local for choosing us as their venue partner. We will be hosting many such galvanising events for our members in the coming months”.
The speakers inspired the audience with their stories.
Zainab Patel, Human Rights Activist and TEDx speaker, stated:
“I have struggled with gender identity issues, depression, suicidal tendencies and what not. I even self hurt myself before realizing that this is not the end. I started believing in myself and now I want to share that if you have the right kind of passion, you can do wonders with yourself. What you choose to do with your weakness, that is going to be your individual story.”
People were left spellbound with the stories that the speakers shared.
Naveen Gulia, Ex- Army, Author, Orator, and Social Worker suffered with some unfortunate incidents in his life, but never gave up. He said:
“The fact that you are appreciating me is your braveness. I believe that if someone is praising you, the person is better than you because he had the courage to step up and be happy for your success.I believe that the three most important lessons of life were taught to us when we were in the 3 standard. One, treat your work like worship. Two, God helps those who help themselves and last don’t keep all your eggs in the same basket. Explore your interests, don’t stick to one.”
The 17 year old Anju Rani surprised and inspired everyone with her story. She is a social activist and a TEDx speaker. She stated:
“I come from a small village where women are taught that your entire world is your home. No one was even happy when I was born. When I was 9 years old, I realized children are stopped from going to school. This was unacceptable. I surveyed my entire village, lying to my parents about my whereabouts and sent about 28 children from my village to schools. Today, I have send 698 people to school, stopped 30% of child labour cases and 10% of sexual abuse cases. I was threatened with my life but that did not stop me.”
Viren Mitter’s story left the audience completely speechless. Mitter lost his eyesight in an accident when he was 23 years old. Now he has peripheral vision but that hasn’t stopped him. He spoke at the event and said:
“ I was 23 when I was told that I was going to be blind for the rest of my life. I was confined to my room after this. But I decided this is not it for me. I drove aimlessly, blind on my scooter for 45 min and a new me was born. Today, I am a photographer, teach people trekking and believe in never giving up. My brain has become my vision. I gather information from both my eyes and create a vision for myself. I just want to say,never give up and question life. Thank God for every experience and move on.”
The audience shared some of their stories on the stage and thanked LinkedIn Local for giving them the opportunity. They praised OneCulture, which was the proud host of the event.
Tania Singh, CEO, Make Love not Scars NGO, stated:
“ I was 21, when I suffered major burn injuries. I was in Singapore that time and wanted to go home. When I researched, I found that the medical care in India was so bad that it took hours for a burn injury to get attention. This is when I stopped everything and dedicated my life to acid attack victims. Our organization funds acid attack victims, treat them, take care of their families and help them lead a decent life by educating them. I have learned so much from my job”
LinkedIn Local has taken a great initiative to help people communicate offline and expand their networks. Let us hope for more such events for a unified, happy world.
