Collecting ideas for the future you | Rakhshanda Jalil | TEDxMirandaHouse

Rakhshanda Jalil returns to Miranda House at age 62 to address students about finding one's voice and building a meaningful life. She begins by reflecting on her own college experience, including a memorable performance as Romeo in a college spoof, emphasizing how seemingly random experiences can become valuable later. Jalil stresses the importance of developing a 'magpie mind' that stores knowledge and experiences for future use. She makes a crucial distinction between fleeting information (like train timings) and enduring knowledge gained through reading, conversations, and curiosity. Jalil advocates strongly for extensive reading beyond social media, encouraging students to spend money on books and browse bookstores regularly. Regarding education, she recommends having a solid undergraduate degree in a core discipline but pursuing interdisciplinary approaches for higher education. Drawing from her own experience of completing her PhD 20 years after her master's degree, she argues against rushing through education back-to-back and suggests that taking breaks can be beneficial, like letting agricultural fields lie fallow. Jalil shares her career journey from teaching English to working in publishing, eventually finding her voice through translation from Urdu to English, which became a stepping stone to her writing career. She explains her role as a literary historian, someone who examines the intersection between literature and history, studying how literature represents historical events. Having written 51 non-fiction books, she reveals her pride in her 'unborn child' - her first novel written at age 62, currently seeking publication. This represents her willingness to try new genres despite having no prior fiction-writing experience.