?????, ????, ????- 11: Tinkerers, Assemble!

TLDR: I am assembling a group of young Tinkerers!

"...to bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together when we needed them to, to fight the battles that we never could" - Nick Fury, Avengers

One Year of Graduation!

Three weeks ago, I reconnected with a fellow tinkerer and maker, Rehana Al-Soltane , virtually. As we pondered upon our first graduation anniversary from Harvard University , we pondered upon the impact of this one year.

What makes a makerspace ecosystem survive and thrive?

Turns out, the success of 'Building and Sustaining a Successful Makerspace' is not just about the infrastructure but also about a system-level Theory of Change. We unpacked that the success of building such a space is deeply connected with the narrative of a collective community.

With the Tinkering Lab program of India, the quest was how to pick the most promising places, identify what resources they need, how we can enable a learning ecosystem, and what we can do to celebrate success stories.

Once we achieved that, we saw the next milestone - what makes a tinkering lab successful, and how can we evaluate and measure it? Finally, what can we do to evolve multiple learning pockets with local champions, leading to the vision of 'Democratize Tinkering for the World!'

During my year at Harvard, the institution introduced and preached a repackaged idea of a collective community - empathy, equity, and inclusivity. However, it also came with an undercurrent of individualism; perhaps this is where it failed. When the rubber hits the road, and you must act to solve problems, you are given empathy instead of solutions. In my opinion, this is what I felt was one of the critical shortcomings of my alma mater a year ago, the core of the dissatisfaction of a maker who lives to solve problems.

Realizing that Harvard is a collective of people rather than a shiny red shield helped me. My 'inner narrative' of tinkering, making, and problem-solving (thanks, Deepak Ramola ) makes me who I am, not Harvard, and by extension, not Atal Innovation Mission and not NITI Aayog. And this inner narrative results from the resilience of countless people who make me - family, friends, mentors, colleagues, and my young tinkerers.

So, long story short, my first graduation anniversary reflection is that I (along with many students) was not the only one who graduated from Harvard; a community graduated with me.

One Lens to Refocus!

And that is the inner narrative lens. In the noise, you drift away, you doubt. This is what happened to me. In my struggle, the following helped:

• Go back to your friends. (the ones who know your shortcomings, but still love you)
• Remind yourself of what you have done, and its positive impact.
• The past is the Past. The cards have been dealt. So don't beat yourself up.
• There are no bad people, there are only bad circumstances. (mostly)

Perhaps Harvard was a waste of time, but there is no point in looking at the past. But when I clean my spectacles, I don't see a crimson logo with the word Veritas, I see a collective group of people. A group who are what they are not because of Harvard, but because of what they did before Harvard.

Full circle moment! It's a collective of people! I doom-scrolled my WhatsApp to find a group full of young tinkerers and innovators whom I first met back in 2018. 5 years ago, before these students presented their work to the Hon'ble President of India at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, I said, "This is not the end. You did not travel this far to only travel this far!"

A message on the group, 'How is everyone doing?' started a chain reaction of love, laughter, and memories. And then, a young innovator turned entrepreneur, Ravinder Bishnoi , reminded me -

????, ???? ?? ???? ?? - ???? ?????? ???? ?? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ???? ?? ????        

(Translation - Bro! you told me - You did not travel this far to only travel this far!)

The last two years of this jugaadu mechanical engineer were too rusty. Funnily enough, the color of rust is also Crimson! Sandblast the rust, and get to work!

Two weeks ago, we organized to meet virtually.

?? ?? ?? ??????! - (Tr. - One and One is Eleven!)

Two heads are better than one, but why stop there? Eleven tinkerers turned innovators assembled, collaborated, and organized a group. The goal - is to share knowledge, resources, and journeys with each other, with the spirit to help each other when the opportunity arises.

So, we started by sharing what we have been up to since 2019, and the answers were unsurprisingly inspiring!

• Royston Vedamuthu is on his quest for flight, working on vertical take-off technology for emergency response drones.
• Muskan Rajak aspires to build a career in UI/UX research, and contributes to skill-building of young girls from slums
• Samarth Talati is working on water and forest conservation and preparing to join the Civil Service as an officer in the Indian Forest Service (IFS) - Government of India .
• Pratham Gupta continues his passion for robotics, mathematics, and computing. He helps young children learn these skills during his free time.
• Tatiana Kurmasheva is learning how to make autonomous cars safe using cybersecurity tools at Hyundai Motor Company (?????)
• P. Biswanath Patra made his mark at the Startup20 G20 India with his AR/VR venture - Twinverse to help other startups build AR/VR products quickly!
• Abhinav Udupi balances his life between studying at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras , serving his tinkering community in #Udupi, and exploring spiritual wellbeing at Brahmakumari Asharam.
• Madhumita aspires to work on cancer research and is learning about Chromatography Research as part of her undergraduate program in Biotechnology.
• Hrishikesh Bhandari made the country proud by winning the IBM Call for code challenge. He continues to fight water contamination worldwide with Saafwater
• Shruti Kulkarni ventures into psychology and intends to do fundamental research on how we can foster creativity at a young age.
• Aayushi Jain is breaking barriers as a young #WomaninSTEM and aspires to become a thought leader and mentor for other young girls.
• And then you had yours truly. I am a son, brother, friend, and maker, trying to find and support these tinkerers with every ounce of my energy!

This group had equal representation of boys and girls in STEM Education. Was that a happy coincidence? Not really! This happened because the spirit of equity and inclusion was preached and practiced at the foundational stage of designing the program 8 years ago!

Equity, in action! bhaisaab!

Let's Act - One more time!

Getting directly to the point, we are building this community! Here is the Link !

And, as always,

#HappyTinkering

#MakersGonnaMake