TGELF Conference India 2018 – An Enlightening Experience

You may remember reading about my LIFE Competition experience early this year, in short, I entered a sustainable development competition with a group of friends where we designed an energy generating wagon for Rohingya migrants. Our idea and presentation carried us to second place with honourable mention in the competition. As runners up we did not receive the grand prize of $10,000 funding for our project, however, we were provided tickets to the 2018 Global Education and Leadership Foundation’s (TGELF) annual Conference in India. And so, August 2018, just after an amazing summer and trip to Kenya, I found myself on a plane to India along side my older sister and her best friend (whom had won the LIFE competition) as-well as one other boy and teacher from my school.

TGELF is the leading leadership and education organisation in India. Every year they hold an exclusive conference where they invite top entrepreneurs, activist, politicians, authors, musicians, sports players, spiritual leaders and other figure heads to engage in conversations about controversial topics, current events and more. As you may have noticed already, I was the youngest person in the conference of over 300 participants and amongst the only 10 students at the conference. Usually, this conference is held in Mumbai in a 5 star hotel, however, this year TGELF decided to try something new, in light of the recently introduced spiritual aspect of the conference the 2018 conference was held in a rural ashram along the banks of the Ganga river in Rishikesh.

The sun was setting after our 2 flights and 3 hour drive along a dangerously narrow and steep road up the mountain to the Rishikesh ashram. Although they had told us that the conference was in a very rural part of India, looking at the photos from previous years we didn’t believe that it could be as out there as they claimed. However, when we stepped out of the van onto a wet dirt path, under a Buddha statue dressed with ferns, it finally hit us just how real this experience would be.

There were two big things that I quickly came to realise about this experience that were inevitable if I was going to get the most out of this conference. Firstly, comfort was a luxury of the developed world and if I did not come to terms with the lifestyle in this rural ashram I would not be fit to absorb all the content of the conference. Secondly, there is something to learn from every person you meet, if your conversation ends at an introduction you will never know what more may lay beneath ones name.

In light of the second principle, I met some amazing people during my time at the conference. Actually on my first day in the ashram I went to breakfast rather early and I sat down next to a man, we introduced ourselves and talked about how we had each ended up here, 15 minutes into the conversation he says, casually, that he is a story writer in Hollywood, he had created and written the story line for the famous Universal’s Water World. A simliar thing happened the following dinner when 30 minutes into a fascinating conversation with a young Chinese man he revealed that he was the number one ranked DJ in Asia. From genius college students, to billionaire entrepreneurs one of the most memorable parts of the conference for me was the networking. I learnt just how little you really know about a person until you have a proper conversation.

The conference itself was also amazing. In a huge air-conditioned tent next to the Ganga river there were circles of chairs arranged in groups. For each 10 minute discussion you were assigned a group and you would go to that circle with 7-10 other random participants and have a conversation mediated by an organiser about a unique topic. The cool part was that you could be in a circle with the CEO of a company, a dancer, a government official, an activist, a member of a tech start up and be having a conversation about the effects of social media. It was amazing to hear the different perspectives and how everyones lives have given them different interpretations on different topics. At first I was a bit nervous to give my input was I was usually the only non-adult and a lot of the discussions were about youth in this generation, however, I quickly came to learn that often a students input can be as valuable and insightful as an adults’.

I truly believe that the rural aspect of the conference added to the entire experience. There we were, having conversations about relevant issues in an air-conditioned, carpeted tent… along the banks of the Ganga river, with the sounds of cattle and the soft humming of prayers from the ashram in the background. Between conference sessions there was a variety of other activities that we participated in. For example, morning yoga, meditation by the Ganga, walks through the temples, photography, a trip to the Beatles ashram, spiritual talks and assemblies after dinner; where all participants came together and took part in a variety of activities. The group of us from UWC actually ended up winning a talent show one night and were awarded tickets to a music festival in South Africa.

One of the most amazing people I met was a billionaire named Shiv Vikram Khemka. Sir Khemka is on the board of TGELF and runs a variety of different enterprises around the world. His daughter actually goes to my school and is in the same grade as my sister. Sir Khemka is the kind of man you meet and say ‘WOW’. Aside from his business successes, Khemka has opened himself up to so many different spiritual practises and is such an enlightening person to talk to. Despite his money and power he does not put himself above anyone, making time to have conversation with even me, the youngest person in the entire conference. Khemka opened all of our minds and hearts in long spiritual discussions about life and meaning, he also got on the floor and danced during a disco on the last night!

My trip to the TGELF Conference this summer has changed my life. Each individual moment brought me closer to myself. One of the big ideas that was focused on as a teaching in the ashram, was taking emphasis off of the external self and focusing on the internal self. What this means to me is that often we can get overwhelmed with how we come across to others, the things we own, the cars we drive and so on, however wealth really comes from inside, wealth of the body and wealth of the mind. Becoming more aware and conscious of our true internal self is what will bring us love and happiness. I am sad to have left the Rishikesh Ashram and I know that the Ganga river will forever flow somewhere inside of me.

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