An Idea. An idea can change the whole world. This is something that everyone has heard and learnt about innumerable times. But to believe that -- new ideas have led to more agricultural production, or sent thousands of dropped-out children back to school, or  can even restore what the Indian cinema has lost now --  one should have been at TEDx Chennai on Sunday.

The day started with a musical performance by western classical pianist Anil Srinivasan and Carnatic vocalist Sikkil Gurucharan. They took the audience to another realm of world with Katrinelae varum geetham of MS Subbulakshmi. The duo brought the western harmony and Indian classical music together as Anil said: "'East is east, west is west,' said Mark Twain. But we say, east is west and west is east, who care about Twain."

Special: TEDx Chennai

Talking about movies produced these days, film director and writer Sharada Ramanathan compared them with those of Satyajit Ray and said how the content parts of the movies are missing now. We have 2,500 years of tradition with us, she said and pointed out how wisdom tradition has become a rare word now.

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And just before lunch came a man with a straight question. If 80 per cent of Indian population is involved in agriculture one way or the other, how come over 40 per cent of the children in the country are malnourished? R Madhavan, an IITian who chose to do farming than anything else, was apprehensive whether agriculture would interest those present there. But at the end of Madhavan's 15 minutes presentation, everyone present there would have agreed that TEDx has finally arrived in Chennai.

He explained how India, which has conditions to grow anything, unlike the US, still has a very low yield. A simple systematic procedure by studying the elements involved in farming can improve the agricultural yield and can further make food products more affordable, he said.

Then finally the TED moment (an instantaneous standing ovation) arrived when, Kavita Baliga, a faculty member of Oscar winner A.R. Rahman's KM Music Conservatory, was narrating her story. Narrating how she was diagnosed with cancer five years back at an age of 21, she said it was then she was re-evaluating her life. Then the next six months, she spent six months painting, writing, cooking, and making music.  And her life took a different turn from then on.

While N Vittal, the Central Vigilance Commissioner, with his wit brought to light corruption in the Indian system and it can be weeded out, Dr. Santhosh Babu, MD ELCOT, Government of Tamil Nadu, showed how our technology and our will power can empower the people in rural areas. He said how the project, back2school, tracks not only the students who are dropping out of schools in rural areas, but also finds out the cause behind it and follows them.

The day also saw herpetologist and wildlife conservationist Romulus Earl Whitaker introducing the participants to the world of snakes and how they are stupendous beings, while Khurshed Batliwala, Director of World Alliance for Youth Empowerment, not only spoke on yoga and meditation, but also initiated the audience to meditation.

Such an inspiring day of events had a fitting final presentation by a man always "trying to kill himelf" by climbing most of the tallest and most dangerous mountain peaks in this planet-- Satyabrata Dam. In very simple words that no one can miss, he took the hall on a tour of ice-cap mountains and also the poles. He said that while climbing very high mountains they are confronted with a question that also applies to life otherwise: "To do it or not?" And he says: "Just do it!"

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