ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Raghava KK - Artist
Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world.

Why you should listen

Raghava KK began his career in art as a newspaper cartoonist, and the cartoonist’s bold line -- and dead-on eye for truth -- still powers his art. His work spans painting, sculpture, installation, film and iPad art, always linked by his challenging opinions on identity, conformity, gender, celebrity, ceremony. (He even views his lavish Indian wedding as a piece of performance art.)

His early work as a painter made a complete break with his cartoon career -- he painted watercolors on canvas using only his hands and feet. Since then, his work has grown to knit together aesthetics from both worlds, as collage and complication play against flat color and precise lines. He shows in galleries and performance spaces around the world and often collaborates with other artists, most recently with musicians Paul Simon and Erykah Badu.  In 2011, he launched his children's iPad book, Pop-it, shaking up the concept  of an ideal family. He is currently working on a project that promises to shake up everything! From news to education.

More profile about the speaker
Raghava KK | Speaker | TED.com
TEDxSummit

Raghava KK: What's your 200-year plan?

Filmed:
857,873 views

You might have a 5-year plan, but what about a 200-year plan? Artist Raghava KK has set his eyes on an ultra-long-term horizon; at TEDxSummit, he shows how it helps guide today's choices and tomorrow's goals -- and encourages you to make your own 200-year plan too.
- Artist
Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:16
About 75 years ago,
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my grandfather, a young man,
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walked into a tent
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that was converted into a
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movie theater like that,
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and he fell hopelessly in love
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with the woman he saw on the
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silver screen: none other than Mae West,
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the heartthrob of the '30s,
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and he could never forget her.
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In fact, when he had his daughter
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many years later, he wanted to
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name her after Mae West,
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but can you imagine an Indian
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child name Mae West?
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The Indian family said, no way!
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So when my twin brother Kaesava
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was born, he decided to tinker
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with the spelling of Keshava's name.
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He said, if Mae West can be M-A-E,
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why can't Keshava be K-A-E?
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So he changed Kaesava's spelling.
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Now Kaesava had a baby boy
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called Rehan a couple of weeks ago.
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He decided to spell, or, rather,
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misspell Raehan with an A-E.
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You know, my grandfather died
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many years ago when I was
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little, but his love for Mae
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West lives on as a misspelling
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in the DNA of his progeny.
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That for me is successful legacy. (Laughs)
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You know, as for me,
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my wife and I have our own
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crazy legacy project.
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We actually sit every few years,
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argue, disagree, fight,
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and actually come up with our
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very own 200-year plan.
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Our friends think we're mad.
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Our parents think we're cuckoo.
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Because, you know, we both
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come from families that really
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look up to humility and wisdom,
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but we both like to live
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larger than life.
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I believe in the concept of
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a Raja Yogi: Be a dude before
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you can become an ascetic.
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This is me being a rock star,
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even if it's in my own house.
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You know?
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So when Netra and I sat down
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to make our first plan
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10 years ago, we said
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we want the focus of this plan
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to go way beyond ourselves.
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What do we mean by beyond ourselves?
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Well 200 years, we calculated,
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is at the end of our direct
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contact with the world.
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There's nobody I'll meet in
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my life will ever live beyond
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200 years, so we thought
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that's a perfect place where
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we should situate our plan and
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let our imagination take flight.
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You know, I never really
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believed in legacy. What am I
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going to leave behind? I'm an artist.
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Until I made a cartoon about 9/11.
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It caused so much trouble for me.
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I was so upset.
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You know, a cartoon that was
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meant to be a cartoon of the week
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ended up staying so much longer.
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Now I'm in the business of
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creating art that will
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definitely even outlive me, and
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I think about what I want to
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leave behind through those paintings.
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You know, the 9/11 cartoon
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upset me so much that I decided
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I'll never cartoon again.
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I said, I'm never going to make any
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honest public commentary again.
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But of course I continued
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creating artwork that was honest
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and raw, because I forgot about
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how people reacted to my work.
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You know, sometimes forgetting
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is so important to remain idealistic.
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Perhaps loss of memory is so
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crucial for our survival
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as human beings.
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One of the most important things
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in my 200-year plan that Netra
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and I write is what to forget
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about ourselves.
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You know, we carry so much
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baggage, from our parents,
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from our society, from so many
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people -- fears, insecurities -- and
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our 200-year plan really lists
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all our childhood problems that we have to expire.
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We actually put an expiry date
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on all our childhood problems.
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The latest date I put was,
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I said, I am going to expire
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my fear of my leftist, feminist
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mother-in-law, and this
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today is the date! (Laughs)
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She's watching. (Laughter)
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Anyway, you know, I really
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make decisions all the time
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about how I want to remember
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myself, and that's the most important
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kind of decisions I make.
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And this directly translates
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into my paintings.
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But like my friends, I can do
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that really well on Facebook,
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Pinterest, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.
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Name it, I'm on it.
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I've started outsourcing my
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memory to the digital world,
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you know? But that comes
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with a problem.
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It's so easy to think of
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technology as a metaphor
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for memory, but our brains
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are not perfect storage devices
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like technology.
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We only remember what we
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want to. At least I do.
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And I rather think of our brains
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as biased curators of our
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memory, you know? And if
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technology is not a metaphor for
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memory, what is it?
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Netra and I use our technology
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as a tool in our 200-year plan
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to really curate our digital legacy.
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That is a picture of my mother,
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and she recently got a Facebook account.
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You know where this is going.
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And I've been very supportive
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until this picture shows up
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on my Facebook page. (Laughter)
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And I actually untagged myself
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first, then I picked up the
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phone. I said, "Mom, you will
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never put a picture of me
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in a bikini ever again."
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And she said, "Why? You look
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so cute, darling." I said,
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"You just don't understand."
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Maybe we are among the first
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generation that really understands
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this digital curating of ourselves.
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Maybe we are the first to even
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actively record our lives.
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You know, whether you
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agree with, you know, legacy
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or not, we are actually leaving
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behind digital traces all the time.
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So Netra and I really wanted
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to use our 200-year plan
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to curate this digital legacy,
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and not only digital legacy
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but we believe in curating
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the legacy of my past
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and future.
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How, you may ask?
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Well, when I think of the future,
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I never see myself moving forward
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in time. I actually see time
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moving backward towards me.
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I can actually visualize
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my future approaching.
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I can dodge what I don't want
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and pull in what I want.
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It's like a video game obstacle
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course. And I've gotten better and better
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at doing this. Even when I make
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a painting, I actually imagine
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I'm behind the painting,
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it already exists, and
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someone's looking at it,
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and I see whether they're
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feeling it from their gut.
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Are they feeling it from their
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heart, or is it just a cerebral thing?
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And it really informs my painting.
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Even when I do an art show,
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I really think about, what should
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people walk away with?
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I remember when I was 19,
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I did, I wanted to do my first
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art exhibition, and I wanted the
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whole world to know about it.
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I didn't know TED then,
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but what I did was I closed
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my eyes tight, and I started
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dreaming. I could imagine people
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coming in, dressed up, looking
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beautiful, my paintings with all
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the light, and in my visualization
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I actually saw a very famous
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actress launching my show,
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giving credibility to me.
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And I woke up from my
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visualization and I said,
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who was that? I couldn't tell
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if it was Shabana Azmi or Rekha,
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two very famous Indian actresses,
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like the Meryl Streeps of India.
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As it turned out, next morning
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I wrote a letter to both of them,
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and Shabana Azmi replied,
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and came and launched
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my very first show 12 years ago.
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And what a bang it started
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my career with! You know,
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when we think of time in this
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way, we can curate not only the
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future but also the past.
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This is a picture of my family,
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and that is Netra, my wife.
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She's the co-creator of my
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200-year plan.
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Netra's a high school history
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teacher. I love Netra,
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but I hate history.
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I keep saying, "Nets, you live
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in the past while I'll create
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the future, and when I'm done,
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you can study about it."
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(Laughter)
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She gave me an indulgent smile,
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and as punishment, she said,
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"Tomorrow I'm teaching a class
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on Indian history, and you are
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sitting in it, and I'm grading you."
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I'm like, "Oh, God." I went.
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I actually went and sat in
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on her class. She started by
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giving students primary source
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documents from India, Pakistan,
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from Britain, and I said,
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"Wow." Then she asked them to
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separate fact from bias.
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I said, "Wow," again.
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Then she said, "Choose your
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facts and biases and create an
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image of your own story
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of dignity."
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History as an imaging tool?
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I was so inspired.
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I went and created my own
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version of Indian history.
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I actually included stories from
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my grandmother.
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She used to work for the
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telephone exchange, and she used
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to actually overhear conversations
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between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.
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And she used to hear all
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kinds of things she shouldn't
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have heard. But, you know,
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I include things like that.
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This is my version of Indian history.
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You know, if this
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is so, it occurred to me that
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maybe, just maybe, the primary
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objective of our brains
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is to serve our dignity.
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Go tell Facebook to
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figure that out!
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Netra and I don't write our
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200-year plan for someone else
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to come and execute it
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in 150 years. Imagine receiving
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a parcel saying, from the past,
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okay now you're supposed to
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spend the rest of your life
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doing all of this. No.
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We actually write it only
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to set our attitudes right.
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You know, I used to believe
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that education is the most
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important tool to leave
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a meaningful legacy.
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Education is great.
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It really teaches us who
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we are, and helps us
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contextualize ourselves
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in the world, but it's really
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my creativity that's taught me
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that I can be much more
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than what my education told me I am.
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I'd like to make
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the argument that creativity is
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the most important tool we have.
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It lets us create who we are,
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and curate what is to come.
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I like to think -- Thank you.
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I like to think of myself
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as a storyteller, where my past
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and my future are only stories,
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my stories, waiting to be told
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and retold. I hope all of you
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one day get a chance to
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share and write your own
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200-year story.
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Thank you so much.
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Shukran! (Applause)
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Translated by Joseph Geni
Reviewed by Morton Bast

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Raghava KK - Artist
Raghava KK's paintings and drawings use cartoonish shapes and colors to examine the body, society, our world.

Why you should listen

Raghava KK began his career in art as a newspaper cartoonist, and the cartoonist’s bold line -- and dead-on eye for truth -- still powers his art. His work spans painting, sculpture, installation, film and iPad art, always linked by his challenging opinions on identity, conformity, gender, celebrity, ceremony. (He even views his lavish Indian wedding as a piece of performance art.)

His early work as a painter made a complete break with his cartoon career -- he painted watercolors on canvas using only his hands and feet. Since then, his work has grown to knit together aesthetics from both worlds, as collage and complication play against flat color and precise lines. He shows in galleries and performance spaces around the world and often collaborates with other artists, most recently with musicians Paul Simon and Erykah Badu.  In 2011, he launched his children's iPad book, Pop-it, shaking up the concept  of an ideal family. He is currently working on a project that promises to shake up everything! From news to education.

More profile about the speaker
Raghava KK | Speaker | TED.com