Simply magical: Actress Manali Datar is making waves in the theatre world

events like the North America Fashion Week and has travelled to India multiple times for her performances.

Music with a purpose

"I'm using my success to improve the world by shedding attention to crucial issues," said the Global Indian. Majority of her songs have motivational lyrics. "I am deeply committed to speaking up for those who are unable to speak for themselves. For instance, as the Youth Ambassador for the group Unite 4 Good, I recently travelled to the slums of India to empower children. The youth are our future after all," she said.

Passionate about music since as far as she can remember, Hitha’s songs are based on her own struggles as a youngster entering adulthood. The teen singer writes and sings in the hope that through her songs young listeners can develop relevant insights about the new phase of their life.

Hitha’s recent single release touches upon the various facets of teen anxiety. The album titled In My Head reassures that not feeling at your best at all times is acceptable. "This song was intended to encourage teens and help them feel heard," she said. Similarly she was inspired to write We Will Last, when she realised that everyone needs support and someone or something to lean upon.

[caption id="attachment_34216" align="aligncenter" width="593"] Hitha[/caption]

Her song Tell me Why is about losing someone close to one’s heart. “We are emotional beings. Many times, losing someone may seem like the end of the world and we may not have all the answers. It is written to provide comfort to people going through this phase of life,” she said during the release of the song.

Finding her calling

Her affinity for music developed at a very young age. She was only four when her grandma introduced her to music and enrolled her to Indian classical singing classes. "But I never considered it as a possible career for me. Since my parents were immigrants and I was an Indian girl, I only saw people graduating from high school and going on to college to pursue careers in engineering, medicine, or the law," she said in an interview. That is what she believed her path would be.

However, as she grew up, her passion for music also grew. Hitha has been fortunate that her parents encouraged her to do what she loved. “Music became a viable career for me when I wrote my first song at 11 and released it at 13. It was at that time that I realised that there is nothing else I could possibly do.”

After writing her debut song, Standing Up with Pride, the youngster had realised that she needed to write music to motivate people. Since then the young artist has devoted her creativity to the purpose.

Supportive parent

Hitha’s father was the one who first encouraged her to pursue a career in music. “The first step in my professional career was realising that I had his backing,” Hitha shared.

The singer’s father has been her travelling companion in her tours to different cities for recordings and performances. “Without him, I would not be here, either literally or figuratively,” she said. More than just being an ardent admirer, her father is one of her greatest inspirations and Hitha tries to live by some of his morals and convictions.

“My dad is truly one of the kindest human beings I know,” she said while talking about a song she dedicated to her father. “It honestly felt like fate to release Forever on Father’s Day. It couldn’t have been a better time,” she said adding, “I am just happy I could share this song with other sons and daughters on such a celebrated day when fathers truly deserve to shine.”

The song is a thank-you letter wrapped in EDM music. “My love for my dad is all-consuming and will last forever. Both as a father and daughter and as a teacher and student, my dad and I get along well. I learn so much from my father, and without him, I genuinely would not be who I am today,” the singer said.

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achment_27204" align="aligncenter" width="757"] Taj Pabari is one of Australia's youngest entrepreneurs.[/caption]

The disconnect began for him as early as third grade, when he couldn't wrap his head around long division, and didn't understand why something that could be solved with a calculator was used as a means to assess a child in school. "When calculators became mainstream in schools, the educators, the education department and the government started banning it. There was a significant level of confusion with calculators, but ultimately, they realised that calculators are an amazing tool, and won't replace mathematicians or quantum," he says, adding that now ChatGPT has caused a similar confusion years later. With the buzz around ChatGPT taking over assignments and jobs, reams of print are being written on the general-purpose chatbot that creates AI-generated content.

"We need to move towards assessment based on problem solving and human skills. If people are worried about kids doing their assignments on ChatGPT, it's probably not a very good assignment to begin with. ChatGPT cannot do an assignment that can assess human skills. Humans should be competing against machines on human skills, because machines will never be able to demonstrate human skills. No matter how advanced a machine or AI technology may develop, it's a skill that machine will never be able to demonstrate," says Taj, at a time when ChatGPT has reached 100 million users within two months of its launch.

The 23-year-old calls ChatGPT an "incredible tool", and believes that "instead of banning or frowning upon systems like this, we should be urging young people to be taking up these platforms." The entrepreneur explains, "During school, teach them appropriate usage of techniques, teach about responsible AI techniques to make sure they know how to make the most of it. Going back to the basics of the future of any work, we know that any task or job that can be simplified down to a series of sequential and logical steps can and will be automated by AI. Government and educators are afraid of young people using ChatGPT. However, the assessments they are giving younger people are not in alignment with the needs of the real world."

Taj, who was awarded Young Australian of the Year for Queensland in 2017, believes that real-world skills are should be the focus of the education system. "If we are looking at skills of the future then rather than trying to compete with the machines on the skills that machines can probably do better, such as knowledge-based tasks, let's compete on human skills," the entrepreneur adds.

Disengagement led to purpose

Born in London in 1999 to Indian mother who was brought up in the UK and a father who has many generations living in Kenya, Taj moved to Australia at the age of one as "Kenya wasn't one of the safest places to raise a child due to increasing crime rate."

Growing up in Queensland, Taj had a hard time getting accustomed to the conventional way of education where he saw every other child "doing really well" in academics. Being the only person who wasn't keeping up with his classmates was "an isolating experience" that continued throughout primary school. "I couldn't connect the dots between the things that teachers were teaching me in school and the things I really needed to succeed in the real world. The mix of these two problems led to my disengagement from mainstream education." The disengagement led to many detentions and suspensions throughout the school, making his parents furious. But those days made him realise his interest and passion for technology. "I loved pulling off electronics and exploring the insides of the softwares. I realised that technology was the path that I would want to pursue when I grow up."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1nqkrWxGRQ&t=50s

As young as nine, Taj began his first "informal business" - a tech blog - where he was reviewing electronics, and that's when he realised that tech is something beyond a hobby for him. Amid the "boring" school classes, he had found something that made sense to him. Being a child of the tech era, he couldn't fathom the need to learn long division in school, when calculators could easily do the job. "I couldn't understand why you would assess a child, in an examination setting, on his ability to demonstrate long division. In the work space, they will have access to a calculator. The purpose of the school is to prepare young people for the future of work, and if we know that the future of the work involves calculators and AI systems, we should be adjusting our assessments in school to assess tasks that are in line with the needs of employers."

First brush with entrepreneurship

As a teenager, he was keen to grasp skills that would help him thrive in the real world, and that pushed him on the path of self-learning. At 14, he started 56 Creations, to teach young people digital literacy. "We started by developing a DIY tablet for kids, by kids. Its tagline was the Lego of 21st century. I wanted one while growing up, and that's why we started the business." After two years of successfully running the business with the tablet model, they switched to running workshops for young kids with regard to STEM skills and digital literacy, and reached out to over 50,000 people across the planet.

His first real business gave him confidence, making him believe that he was a kid with a career, and grades wasn't the only criteria to assess a child's ability. "It was actually my first taste of what a career in business would actually look like."

Helping build business

After running 56 Creations for seven years, Taj wanted "a bit of change." "While I liked tech, I realised my passion was actually the business and entrepreneurial side. I thought, let's teach kids how to build businesses, and find kids who were in similar positions as me while growing up - some who were disengaged and some from disadvantaged backgrounds as well." This gave birth to Australian School of Entrepreneurship in 2020.

With the world facing a global crisis in the form of Covid-19, it was a difficult year to start a business. "However, we realised that some of the biggest businesses like Instagram and WhatsApp came from global crisis, when youth unemployment was on the rise. We thought we could actually use self-employment to solve some of the biggest problems. We worked with a group of disengaged kids who were learning new skills by the end of the program, and also making money. We realised that self-employment and entrepreneurship can solve youth unemployment."

The ASE Group has two initiatives - Australian School of Entrepreneurship that works with young people, and Australian School of Employment that works with adults. While the former provides entrepreneurship training and life skill programs through workshops and online education, the latter provides self-employment programs to help Australians contribute to their local communities through micro-businesses. "Collectively, we have worked with 180,000 people across the planet. We do a lot with online education and that's how we are able to reach people internationally. More than 1.5 million Australian dollar of income has been generated by our alumni," says the proud entrepreneur.

Much of Taj’s learning was done on the go, and it was challenging to start with almost "no worldly wisdom and no life experience" because he would make "significantly more mistakes than the average business owner." Moreover, he had to learn to manage stress and his wellbeing. "I had to put together strategies which were beneficial and helped me get through extended period. Entrepreneurship is a tough spot," he says.

Having already reached 180,000 people in the last three years, the entrepreneur is keen to expand the impact to a million people by 2030. "That's lifting a significant number of people out of the poverty trap, out of youth unemployment trap. And instead of applying for work, start your own business. Create your own future is essentially the vision."

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