Why were you interested in taking part in the ProjectCHAKRA Internship and serving in India?
I had a theory I wanted to test. I believed that tackling material poverty was one of the most urgent challenges of our time, and I’d set an intention to be part of that work. But I also knew it’s one thing to believe it in the abstract and another to go and experience what it actually takes to try and solve these challenges. I had a desire to do something different, something more real, and I was blessed that this connected me with Anand and ProjectCHAKRA. From there, I felt like I found the opportunity I was looking for.
What excited me about ProjectCHAKRA specifically was its vision of bridging service and cross-cultural learning, which is exactly the kind of test I wanted for myself. India added its own richness too. I’m a historian and philosopher with a strong affinity for Hindu and Buddhist traditions, so working with an organisation so deeply connected with Gandhi’s life and teachings felt especially meaningful. And of course there was the culture, the food, the sheer vibrancy of it all.
What did you do in India?
Primarily my focus was serving with Manav Sadhna, specifically in developing a skills based education training programme to lead to skilled employment for young people in slum communities. For this I spent time building relationships with lots of diverse stakeholders: employers, training facilitators, the center co-ordinators, education leads at each center and of course the beneficiaries themselves and their community. We were able to create this pathway and pose Manav Sadhna as a ‘broker’ to these training facilities, with a live pilot currently being rolled out.
Additionally, I spent a few weeks working with a multilingual voice AI startup, Awaaz.ai. My work consisted of writing a credible and compelling go-to-market strategy, key defensibility analysis and Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), which are core documents now helping in Awaaz.ai’s pre-seed funding round.
The ‘work’ part really is just one part though - I also had so many incredible experiences with so many incredible people! Far too many to list, but to name a few: going for Indian dance lessons, listening to (and singing) bhajans (devotional songs), playing badminton with the kids outside of where I stayed and having the most profound conversations with so many incredible leaders!
What were the biggest learnings you took from your time in India?
Personally
To really lead with love and to move with childlike joy. If I'm completely honest I probably became a little too earnest in my work and in how I approached my professional and academic life. But what the incredible leadership at Manav Sadhna, Awaaz.ai and ProjectCHAKRA taught me is that by re-invigorating oneself with that childlike sense of joy and to lead with love and openness, doesn’t mean being less focused on these genuinely key issues. I felt that in such a powerful way every day, and since I have begun and continued to practice that in my life, I’ve not only had much more fun; I’ve also been more effective.
Professionally
To step back and assess stakeholders from all angles. I had assumed the hardest group to mobilise would be the beneficiaries, then the training facilitators, and that the NGO would be the least challenging. In reality, it was the other way around. Not because the centre leads weren’t amazing, they were! But because, like any organisation with limited resources, they’d seen it all before - another volunteer with another idea. So professionally I really had to unlearn and reassess how I approached inter-organisational stakeholders and key decision makers. Once I understood and focused on that, it made the work both more frictionless and more effective.
What did you find most challenging about your time in India and how did you overcome these challenges?
The hardest part was the internal pull between ego and service. Around weeks 3 and 4 it really came to a head, I was caught between the anxiety of delivering a ‘successful’ project, living up to both Anand’s and ultimately my own expectations. That pressure pushed me into forcing things, and the more I did that, the heavier it all felt. I’d known in theory that this tension is counterproductive, but living it in real time was very different.
What I eventually realised was that I was projecting that tension onto the work itself. When I carried myself with anxiety and insecurity, the project slowed. When I managed to let go a bit, to show up with more positivity and trust, things genuinely started to move; people responded differently, doors opened, and the whole process felt lighter. It wasn’t like a eureka moment, but with consistent reframes and reflection, it was a positive slow shift. It really impressed onto me the notion that everything comes from within, and how one balances that internally shapes everything else.
What did you find most inspiring?
What inspired me most were the people who have given their lives to service. All the leaders at Manav Sadhna and so many others, who embody a kind of quiet strength and grace that is rare to encounter. They have spent decades serving their communities, not for recognition or personal gain, but because service speaks to the deepest part of who they are.
To see fulfillment not in self-advancement, but in the daily, steady negation of self for the good of others, was profoundly humbling. These are people who have lived that reality for thirty years or more. And to be alongside them, to watch how naturally and joyfully they move in that calling, was one of the most inspiring experiences of my life. It's one thing to think it, but to experience it close up with people who really live it, transforms the idea and deeply shows me that true leadership and true fulfillment are not found in chasing after more for oneself, but in giving fully to something larger.
After you returned from India, what has this experience inspired you to go on to do?
At the time of writing I’ve only been back a month, so I look forward to updating this in the coming weeks, months and years. It is however already shaping how I'm moving forward. Genuinely leading with openness and that sense of child-like joy has transformed my experience as I exchange at CUHK in Hong Kong. I’m getting involved in cross-cultural exchange programmes with Chinese Universities and meeting people from all over the globe, which is a natural continuation of what I began in India.
A big part of what I learned at Manav Sadhna was that service isn’t just about the project in front of you; it’s also about the internal journey and how you carry those values into all elements of life. This has motivated me to focus more efforts into my online channel, where I share philosophy and reflections on how we can live meaningful lives, and the huge merit in embodying those values, in ways big or small and the real difference that can make. India reminded me that change starts from within, and that when you live those values openly, it has a way of multiplying outward.
What advice would you give to future ProjectCHAKRA Interns?
The biggest piece of advice I’d give is: go in with as few assumptions as possible, and accept that you’ll still make them. That’s fine, what matters is how you respond.
One of the best pieces of guidance I received came from Anjaliben (long term MS volunteer from the USA): if you resist India, it will be a constant battle and you will lose; if you surrender to it, it will open doors and take you to experiences and connections that you can’t even imagine.
Also, take time to reflect constantly, write notes, talk things through, bounce ideas off others and then reflect on it all. You won’t capture everything (too much happens), but even small reflections keep you grounded and make the experience much richer. And finally, work and live with relentless intensity, but don’t be shocked when you’re completely wiped by Sunday. That’s normal. Rest, reset, and then go again.