Straight Lines Are for Rulers: Why It's Okay to Not Have It All Figured Out

About the Lecture

Join us for a lecture for anyone whose plan has stopped going to plan:

We're told to get the degree, get the job, stay put, marry and have kids, all on schedule. We're also told to live in the moment. Which is it?

Nitika Seth has spent twenty years moving between the fashion industry, media and the classroom, from styling and fashion desks at Grazia and Marie Claire to creative direction for brands, and now a deanship. Her argument is that the detours built range, resilience and a kind of wisdom that no textbook hands over. This session is for anyone rethinking a plan that fell apart, weighing a big decision, or working out how to start over, in a career, or in the unglamorous business of making friends at 30 or 40.

The session explores:

The script: the conflicting messages we're given about planning and living in the moment
Why detours build range, and what moving across fields teaches that no book can
Starting over when the plan breaks, including making friends as an adult
The silent archive: the script of keeping the peace, and an optional, anonymous way to contribute to a larger project
An open conversation with the room

About the Speaker

Nitika Seth is Dean of the Department of Design at IILM University, with over 20 years of experience across academia, media and the fashion industry. A former stylist and assistant fashion editor at Grazia (Worldwide Media, Times of India Group) and Marie Claire (Outlook Group), she has worked on creative direction with brands including Sony, Yamaha and Future Group, and with media networks Zee and B.A.G. through Elite Model Management. She trained at NIFT and FIT New York and graduated from Delhi University. She believes curiosity and empathy are a designer's most essential tools.

About unLecture

unLecture brings experts out of classrooms and into cafés, bars and neighbourhood spaces across Delhi. Created by three friends from college who wanted learning to feel warm, social and alive — unLecture turns an otherwise ordinary evening into a conversation you may think about long after it ends.