0:00:06.500,0:00:10.500
Have all of you[br]suffered from TEDx [unclear]

0:00:10.525,0:00:11.999
(Laughter)

0:00:12.000,0:00:15.000
One of the most[br]ridiculous questions

0:00:15.025,0:00:18.573
that I get to hear from many people[br]at different times

0:00:18.573,0:00:21.650
is "who is superior,[br]a man or a woman?"

0:00:22.000,0:00:26.400
The idea of gender discrimination,[br]it frustrates me.

0:00:26.425,0:00:28.125
It baffles me.

0:00:28.150,0:00:30.650
At times, it really[br]makes me sad.

0:00:30.675,0:00:33.675
So, there is almost[br]divine irony in the fact that

0:00:33.700,0:00:37.700
I was born in Rajasthan[br]which is north west India.

0:00:37.725,0:00:41.225
It's a beautiful place

0:00:41.250,0:00:44.750
with rich culture,[br]colors, and history,

0:00:44.775,0:00:48.775
but the sad thing is[br]that a lot of people decided

0:00:48.800,0:00:52.800
to stick with a lot of[br]damaging traditions.

0:00:52.825,0:00:56.325
One of the most damaging[br]from them is the idea

0:00:56.350,0:01:00.250
that a woman has a very[br]belittling place in society.

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I go to villages, and one of the things[br]I see there is

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10, 12 year old girls who are[br]playing outside their house.

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Except a few months later[br]when I go there, I don't see them.

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So I asked somebody. I said,[br]"What happened to them?"

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They said, "They've attained[br]puberty now,

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so they are not going to be allowed[br]to step out of their house."

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I see eight year old girls[br]getting married.

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Marriage is not always[br]the solution as well.

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It's not always a guarantee[br]that your life will now turn out to be ok.

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So, this notion which is not just[br]an Indian thing

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I see it outside India as well.

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That the dignity of a family or society

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lies on the shoulders of women

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while a man can get away[br]with absolutely anything.

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I find it very, very[br]humiliating sometimes.

0:01:54.225,0:01:57.225
So, all these ideas put together,

0:01:57.850,0:02:01.750
sort of came together to me[br]when I was growing up.

0:02:01.775,0:02:05.800
I grew up in Dubai,[br]and I live in London now.

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When I was growing up,[br]I learned something.

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I learned that we can have[br]two realities, two different realities.

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And, I learned that they can coexist.

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Some people have[br]more than two realities,

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which is fine, I guess,[br]if it works for them.

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But, I realized that I was not okay

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with these realities[br]being completely separate.

0:02:28.525,0:02:31.150
I wanted to find a way[br]to bridge them.

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I wanted one[br]to transcend to another.

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So, my journey took me[br]back to India

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at the age of 26[br]3 years ago.

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Did you notice how nicely I put my age [br]in there making me look young?

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So 3 years ago,[br]I went back to India

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and I wanted to answer this question

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"What is the meaning to my life?"

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I have the luxury to travel[br]to education.

0:02:58.800,0:03:01.725
"What is the point of all of this?"

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I started doing work[br]in the field of education.

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When I was doing that,

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I thought what if we do[br]a TEDx event in the village.

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It will be really fascinating.[br]I've been to TED events.

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I love the whole atmosphere.[br]It's fabulous.

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I was thinking[br]"Can this work in a village?"

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"Can we get the same feeling[br]that all of you are feeling here today?"

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"Can I get the same thing[br]in a rural context?"

0:03:25.725,0:03:27.850
So, I was in this idealistic trance,

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and I thought you wanna do[br]something good for people

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they're gonna welcome you.

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So in 2010, I decided[br]I wanted to organize a TEDx event.

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My TEDx event is called[br]TEDxShekhavati.

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I started running into problems.

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Some of them, things[br]that I got to hear, were

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"Because you're a woman[br]organizing this event

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it's a bad thing.[br]It's against our religion.

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You are corrupting[br][the moral] fabric of our society."

0:04:00.700,0:04:04.725
And after all of that,[br]after working on this for like a year,

0:04:04.725,0:04:09.350
7 days before the event, they finally say,[br]"Okay, how do we stop her?".

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They tell me, "if you[br]wanna go on stage,

0:04:11.675,0:04:14.500
you have to wear niqab[br]to cover your face."

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I said, "No! Because I wear[br]the burkha for myself.

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I don't wear it for other people."

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I don't like the idea[br]of wearing a niqab on stage

0:04:25.175,0:04:28.200
and talking to the same people[br]without it.

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So, after I refuse this,[br]they say,

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"Well, we're taking away the venue.

0:04:31.850,0:04:35.075
We're not going to let[br]you do the event on that venue."

0:04:35.075,0:04:37.500
So, I had 300 people,[br]had speakers coming in,

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and I didn't have a place for them.

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In a couple of days, I managed[br]to organize another ground.

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By then, I was so demotivated[br]that I thought,

0:04:46.675,0:04:50.700
"I'll have 20 people. It's okay.[br]We will just have a nice time."

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And, on the day of the event,

0:04:52.725,0:04:57.650
we had 1,200 people[br]who came for this conference.

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(Applause)

0:05:04.500,0:05:09.025
So, the next year 2011, I thought[br]this time I'll pick a school.

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I took a school which is a school[br]for Harijans.

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Harijians are[br]the untouchable people in India.

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They are not untouchable because they[br]have got an illness or something,

0:05:19.400,0:05:22.425
but because they come[br]from the lowest caste.

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They are stuck in the cycle of poverty,[br]can never get out of it.

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They are denied[br]education as well.

0:05:28.375,0:05:30.900
So, that school is[br]almost a 100 years old.

0:05:30.900,0:05:35.525
It has slowly become a school[br]where poor children go.

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So, when I went to the school, this was[br]one of the classrooms in the school.

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What we did with that school,

0:05:41.775,0:05:46.300
-- I went to that school recently and[br]couldn't recognize it's the same school--

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We built toilets. So, finally there were[br]toilets in the school after a 100 years.

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We painted the school.

0:05:53.050,0:05:55.375
On the day of the event,[br]I remember

0:05:55.375,0:06:00.400
we had 5,000 people[br]who came for this TEDxShekhavati.

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(Applause)

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Some of the really good outcomes[br]from [this].

0:06:10.325,0:06:15.350
The 1st one was youth leadership[br]to groom youth leadership in villages.

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So, what I did was[br]I had an idea of the event,

0:06:18.375,0:06:20.400
what I wanted to be like.

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I took a guy and girl who I've taught[br]through my other education initiatives

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I told them "This is the work that needs[br]to be done. Now, you do it your way."

0:06:29.887,0:06:33.375
They went and made[br]teams and sub teams.

0:06:33.375,0:06:37.400
Basically, what this event looks like[br]was created by them.

0:06:37.400,0:06:41.625
So, the women went house to house[br]telling people about the event

0:06:41.625,0:06:44.050
'cause we don't have social media.

0:06:44.050,0:06:47.375
People don't really, completely rely[br]on newspapers.

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So, the women[br]went to the beauty parlor.

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And, they spoke[br]to the main lady there.

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So, when she was threading eye brows,[br]she was like,

0:06:55.650,0:06:57.875
"So have you heard of TEDxShekhavati."

0:06:57.875,0:07:00.700
That's how everybody[br]got to hear about the event.

0:07:00.700,0:07:04.425
There was a woman who came to me[br]after this conference.

0:07:04.425,0:07:07.450
She said, "I'm so impressed

0:07:07.450,0:07:11.450
that I have enrolled[br]5 of my daughters in the school."

0:07:11.750,0:07:14.275
One of my favorite moments[br]actually is

0:07:14.275,0:07:18.300
that one of our speakers, she spoke[br]about women's rights.

0:07:18.300,0:07:20.025
-- Sorry, that's the school

0:07:20.025,0:07:22.850
that's what it looked like[br]from outside. --

0:07:22.850,0:07:24.575
So, one of the speakers,

0:07:24.575,0:07:28.800
she spoke about women's rights[br]and place of a woman in society.

0:07:28.800,0:07:33.825
I didn't have any woman who came to me[br]and said, "That's really good."

0:07:33.825,0:07:38.350
I had so many guys and men[br]who came to me and said,

0:07:38.350,0:07:41.575
"I'm so glad.[br]That had to be said."

0:07:41.575,0:07:43.800
So, when I looked at all of this,

0:07:43.800,0:07:47.725
I feel that TEDxShekhavati[br]is just the beginning

0:07:47.725,0:07:51.750
to change a mind-set[br]that is hundreds of years old.

0:07:51.750,0:07:54.175
It's very, very difficult,[br]it's not easy.

0:07:54.175,0:07:56.900
And, it's not going to change[br]in 2 years.

0:07:56.900,0:08:02.525
But, what TEDxShekhavati has done[br]is that it is a window of change

0:08:02.525,0:08:08.550
to not only the incredible changes[br]happening in India, but around the world.

0:08:08.550,0:08:13.375
I feel very stubborn in bringing this[br]to my people [and] to my community.

0:08:13.375,0:08:17.743
A lot of people asked me[br]"How did you do this?

0:08:17.743,0:08:19.725
How did you face[br]all these problems?"

0:08:19.725,0:08:24.750
When I look back, I have just one[br]and that's my true answer

0:08:24.750,0:08:30.175
and I tell them, "What you are seeing is[br]the oppositions and problems.

0:08:30.175,0:08:34.200
But when I was there,[br]I couldn't see them.

0:08:34.200,0:08:40.225
The only thing that I could see[br]was a time when people were happy,

0:08:40.225,0:08:43.750
they were positive[br]and they were open-minded.

0:08:43.750,0:08:46.275
I feel after everything[br]eventually

0:08:46.275,0:08:49.300
this is what makes[br]all the difference.

0:08:49.300,0:08:51.325
Thank you.

0:08:51.325,0:08:53.325
(Applause)