Experiential, immersive, and unstoppable

Time of India

30-04-2025

Amit Kumar was trained as a Mechanical Engineer with specialization in thermal engineering from the University of Roorkee (now Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee) where he was awarded the University Gold Medal. Post his graduation, he decided to pursue a career in renewable energy, a novelty in the early eighties. He had retired from TERI in July 2021 whereas Senior Director, Social Transformation, was responsible for initiatives focusing on energy access, holistic rural development, and community engagement. There he had also led research activities in the fields of renewable energy and resource-efficient process technology applications. As Dean (Distance & Short-Term Education), TERI University between 2014 and 2016, he was responsible for the development and outreach of the University's online courses, management & faculty development programmes, and skill enhancement initiatives. LESS ... MORE
From curated to experiential to immersive, the world seems to be full of superlatives nowadays. Gone are the days when the annual holidays meant travelling to ones' maternal/paternal places and spend summer vacations with near and dear. More likely than not, journeys were through trains in unreserved compartments – the luxury of having reservations in sleeper class came much later – journeys tedious but still enjoyed by all (not maybe, by the parents). Indeed, the whole vacations were all about experiencing something or the other. Be it the close bonding among the relations or simply the local offerings. In fact, one of the popular topics for post-summer vacation essays in schools used to be on the benefits of tourism (called Deshatan in Hindi) and not surprisingly, we all wrote about the experiences that we gained through travel and tourism. Ironically, when travel has become so commonplace as any extended weekend, travel companies now have to design packages offering experiential (or is it immersive?) holidays. Naturally, it is no more tailor-made or custom-designed but curated. And at times, not just curated but curated `carefully', never mind that the term curated itself means `chosen carefully'. But then in these highly competitive times can we fault such immersive marketing?
It's not as if superlatives are reserved for recreational activities alone. Certainly not. Take out any advertisement for popular educational institutions or courses and more likely than not, those would be peppered with the superlatives. While someone is busy in `redefining education through innovation' others are `re-Inventing teaching and learning' with teaching methods to suit `visual or auditory or both' types of learning, whatever that means. Programmes are designed to help students to be `future-ready' or `grow their leading edges'. On the other hand, some others are promising one's `leadership potential to be unlocked' or enabling `one's career path to go to next level' – levels of course are left vague because that's how those very careers are `elevated'. Lest you assume that such programmes are meant for yesteryears' professionals, we are helpfully told that on the contrary, these `contextually designed' programmes are meant for 'modern-day professionals.' But what takes the cake, perhaps, is this phenomenon of `Active learning', which include such active activities e.g., group discussions and hands-on projects; something that we used to engage in even under passive learning mode. But even that Active learning is so yesterday because now it is, yes you guessed it right, AI powered.
Incidentally, what is an investor in a company? According to Cambridge dictionary an investor is `a person who puts money into something in order to make a profit or get an advantage'. But wait, there is a class within this community too: a `strategic' investor, and apparently that magic prefix makes all the difference nowadays in the startup universe. And if you think that a solution is meant to address some problems to begin with, you are so behind the times. Today, it must be `problem-oriented' solution, no less.
A few days ago, I bought a smart fan and connected it to Alexa. As an aside, I prefer Alexa because I can converse with Alexa easily in Hindi, being a Hindi-medium person – in those days one was either Hindi-medium or a convent educated. But more importantly, calling `Hey Goggle' does not gel with my old Kanpur upbringing where some honorific or the other was de rigueur (for instance it would always be Sharma ji, Gupta ji, Saxena ji, or Mathur Saheb) and not some indecorous Hey or Tu; Lucknow-wallah's pretensions notwithstanding. However, having installed this smart fan I am experiencing a big problem because I am unable to stop this fan. I should have known better because the ad for the fan says it upfront: Built to be Unstoppable. That is the power of superlative marketing.
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Views expressed above are the author's own.