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About 75 years ago,

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my grandfather, a young man,

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walked into a tent

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that was converted into a

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movie theater like that,

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and he fell hopelessly in love

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with the woman he saw on the

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silver screen: none other than Mae West,

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the heartthrob of the '30s,

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and he could never forget her.

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In fact, when he had his daughter

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many years later, he wanted to

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name her after Mae West,

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but can you imagine an Indian

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child name Mae West?

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The Indian family said, no way!

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So when my twin brother Kaesava

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was born, he decided to tinker

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with the spelling of Keshava's name.

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He said, if Mae West can be M-A-E,

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why can't Keshava be K-A-E?

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So he changed Kaesava's spelling.

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Now Kaesava had a baby boy

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called Rehan a couple of weeks ago.

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He decided to spell, or, rather,

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misspell Raehan with an A-E.

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You know, my grandfather died

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many years ago when I was

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little, but his love for Mae

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West lives on as a misspelling

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in the DNA of his progeny.

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That for me is successful legacy. (Laughs)

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You know, as for me,

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my wife and I have our own

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crazy legacy project.

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We actually sit every few years,

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argue, disagree, fight,

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and actually come up with our

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very own 200-year plan.

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Our friends think we're mad.

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Our parents think we're cuckoo.

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Because, you know, we both

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come from families that really

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look up to humility and wisdom,

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but we both like to live

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larger than life.

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I believe in the concept of

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a Raja Yogi: Be a dude before

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you can become an ascetic.

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This is me being a rock star,

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even if it's in my own house.

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You know?

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So when Netra and I sat down

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to make our first plan

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10 years ago, we said

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we want the focus of this plan

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to go way beyond ourselves.

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What do we mean by beyond ourselves?

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Well 200 years, we calculated,

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is at the end of our direct

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contact with the world.

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There's nobody I'll meet in

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my life will ever live beyond

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200 years, so we thought

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that's a perfect place where

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we should situate our plan and

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let our imagination take flight.

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You know, I never really

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believed in legacy. What am I

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going to leave behind? I'm an artist.

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Until I made a cartoon about 9/11.

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It caused so much trouble for me.

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I was so upset.

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You know, a cartoon that was

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meant to be a cartoon of the week

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ended up staying so much longer.

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Now I'm in the business of

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creating art that will

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definitely even outlive me, and

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I think about what I want to

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leave behind through those paintings.

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You know, the 9/11 cartoon

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upset me so much that I decided

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I'll never cartoon again.

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I said, I'm never going to make any

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honest public commentary again.

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But of course I continued

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creating artwork that was honest

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and raw, because I forgot about

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how people reacted to my work.

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You know, sometimes forgetting

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is so important to remain idealistic.

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Perhaps loss of memory is so

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crucial for our survival

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as human beings.

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One of the most important things

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in my 200-year plan that Netra

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and I write is what to forget

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about ourselves.

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You know, we carry so much

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baggage, from our parents,

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from our society, from so many

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people -- fears, insecurities -- and

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our 200-year plan really lists

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all our childhood problems that we have to expire.

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We actually put an expiry date

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on all our childhood problems.

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The latest date I put was,

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I said, I am going to expire

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my fear of my leftist, feminist

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mother-in-law, and this

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today is the date! (Laughs)

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She's watching. (Laughter)

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Anyway, you know, I really

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make decisions all the time

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about how I want to remember

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myself, and that's the most important

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kind of decisions I make.

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And this directly translates

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into my paintings.

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But like my friends, I can do

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that really well on Facebook,

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Pinterest, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.

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Name it, I'm on it.

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I've started outsourcing my

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memory to the digital world,

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you know? But that comes

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with a problem.

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It's so easy to think of

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technology as a metaphor

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for memory, but our brains

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are not perfect storage devices

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like technology.

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We only remember what we

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want to. At least I do.

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And I rather think of our brains

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as biased curators of our

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memory, you know? And if

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technology is not a metaphor for

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memory, what is it?

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Netra and I use our technology

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as a tool in our 200-year plan

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to really curate our digital legacy.

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That is a picture of my mother,

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and she recently got a Facebook account.

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You know where this is going.

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And I've been very supportive

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until this picture shows up

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on my Facebook page. (Laughter)

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And I actually untagged myself

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first, then I picked up the

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phone. I said, "Mom, you will

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never put a picture of me

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in a bikini ever again."

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And she said, "Why? You look

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so cute, darling." I said,

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"You just don't understand."

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Maybe we are among the first

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generation that really understands

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this digital curating of ourselves.

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Maybe we are the first to even

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actively record our lives.

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You know, whether you

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agree with, you know, legacy

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or not, we are actually leaving

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behind digital traces all the time.

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So Netra and I really wanted

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to use our 200-year plan

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to curate this digital legacy,

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and not only digital legacy

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but we believe in curating

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the legacy of my past

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and future.

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How, you may ask?

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Well, when I think of the future,

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I never see myself moving forward

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in time. I actually see time

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moving backward towards me.

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I can actually visualize

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my future approaching.

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I can dodge what I don't want

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and pull in what I want.

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It's like a video game obstacle

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course. And I've gotten better and better

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at doing this. Even when I make

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a painting, I actually imagine

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I'm behind the painting,

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it already exists, and

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someone's looking at it,

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and I see whether they're

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feeling it from their gut.

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Are they feeling it from their

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heart, or is it just a cerebral thing?

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And it really informs my painting.

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Even when I do an art show,

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I really think about, what should

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people walk away with?

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I remember when I was 19,

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I did, I wanted to do my first

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art exhibition, and I wanted the

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whole world to know about it.

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I didn't know TED then,

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but what I did was I closed

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my eyes tight, and I started

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dreaming. I could imagine people

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coming in, dressed up, looking

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beautiful, my paintings with all

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the light, and in my visualization

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I actually saw a very famous

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actress launching my show,

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giving credibility to me.

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And I woke up from my

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visualization and I said,

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who was that? I couldn't tell

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if it was Shabana Azmi or Rekha,

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two very famous Indian actresses,

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like the Meryl Streeps of India.

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As it turned out, next morning

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I wrote a letter to both of them,

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and Shabana Azmi replied,

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and came and launched

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my very first show 12 years ago.

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And what a bang it started

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my career with! You know,

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when we think of time in this

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way, we can curate not only the

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future but also the past.

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This is a picture of my family,

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and that is Netra, my wife.

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She's the co-creator of my

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200-year plan.

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Netra's a high school history

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teacher. I love Netra,

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but I hate history.

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I keep saying, "Nets, you live

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in the past while I'll create

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the future, and when I'm done,

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you can study about it."

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(Laughter)

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She gave me an indulgent smile,

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and as punishment, she said,

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"Tomorrow I'm teaching a class

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on Indian history, and you are

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sitting in it, and I'm grading you."

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I'm like, "Oh, God." I went.

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I actually went and sat in

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on her class. She started by

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giving students primary source

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documents from India, Pakistan,

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from Britain, and I said,

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"Wow." Then she asked them to

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separate fact from bias.

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I said, "Wow," again.

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Then she said, "Choose your

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facts and biases and create an

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image of your own story

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of dignity."

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History as an imaging tool?

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I was so inspired.

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I went and created my own

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version of Indian history.

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I actually included stories from

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my grandmother.

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She used to work for the

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telephone exchange, and she used

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to actually overhear conversations

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between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten.

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And she used to hear all

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kinds of things she shouldn't

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have heard. But, you know,

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I include things like that.

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This is my version of Indian history.

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You know, if this

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is so, it occurred to me that

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maybe, just maybe, the primary

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objective of our brains

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is to serve our dignity.

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Go tell Facebook to

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figure that out!

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Netra and I don't write our

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200-year plan for someone else

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to come and execute it

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in 150 years. Imagine receiving

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a parcel saying, from the past,

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okay now you're supposed to

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spend the rest of your life

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doing all of this. No.

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We actually write it only

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to set our attitudes right.

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You know, I used to believe

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that education is the most

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important tool to leave

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a meaningful legacy.

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Education is great.

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It really teaches us who

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we are, and helps us

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contextualize ourselves

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in the world, but it's really

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my creativity that's taught me

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that I can be much more

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than what my education told me I am.

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I'd like to make

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the argument that creativity is

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the most important tool we have.

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It lets us create who we are,

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and curate what is to come.

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I like to think -- Thank you.

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I like to think of myself

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as a storyteller, where my past

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and my future are only stories,

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my stories, waiting to be told

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and retold. I hope all of you

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one day get a chance to

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share and write your own

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200-year story.

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Thank you so much.

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Shukran! (Applause)