This is a transcript of the first episode of Charcha, an interview series that I am hosting with my long time enablers and mentors in the global disability rights world.
Padmini (01:33)
How did you get into this world of service? Whether it was as a graduate student or as an undergrad, how did you first venture into it? And especially here in the US as somebody who is an immigrant, I can call you an immigrant, right? How did you get to here from where you started?
Krishna Kanth (01:48)
Yeah, Seva is part of our Indian culture to begin with. So, within our family systems or societies, we always believe in sharing, whether it is our family values or even with friends. So, that was there as part of the culture I come from. And fortunately, when I came to United States in 98, the university where I did my masters, there was an organization called Child Rights and You.
So, I volunteered as a coordinator for the university and we were raising 200-300 dollars initially towards child education and definitely I was fascinated by some of the facts, right? Awareness is the key. Like how many children do not have basic right for education or food and how are the lives of street children are in India. So, that’s what motivated me initially into service.
And after graduating too, I continued to volunteer and that always gave me joy, So, I found a purpose in that. And every day I ran into friends who have similar thought process. That is what is still motivating me.
Padmini (02:51)
Over the years, if you would have to list three challenges that you faced in your life as a volunteer, If you had to pick the top three challenges that you had to literally grow yourself through, what would those challenges be? To be a volunteer for a cause.
Krishna Kanth (03:06)
Yeah, it’s a very good question and the organization for which I have been actively volunteering itself is called as volunteering together for seva, VT seva. So volunteering, right, or in fact any task that we do cannot be done by one person. So when we want to even do something good, we need to take along people with us. So
The number one challenge I think I still face is mobilizing people to understand our vision and join hands and believe in the causes and that too with commitment. Short term, lot of people get inspired when we interact with them. But when it comes to a shared vision that we want to accomplish, that’s the biggest challenge. And there are ways how to overcome them.
That would be the first challenge, would say. Second challenge is volunteering does not mean only volunteering time. It’s also resources such as whatever talent we have, whether it has to do with raising awareness or getting people along or presentations. And equally important, the biggest challenge I would say is fundraising. For anything to happen in the society, we need funds.
So, that is also a field I would say would be challenging for any volunteer if it is not properly thought through.
Padmini (04:23)
So you’re constantly looking also who after me. That is also part of the challenge you experience when you’re growing.
Krishna Kanth (04:29)
Yes, yes. So, again I would say in Indian tradition there is a world called parampara. So, even the time-tested scriptures or the knowledge that’s been passed to us,
great sages or great people in the past have already done good things for the welfare of the world, but they made sure it’s passed on. So, as a leader, we need to always make sure even if we don’t exist tomorrow, people should not talk about what a person did, but people should talk about what society did together at that person’s time.
So if we can build such kind of legacy when we are working with others, think we are doing a good justice in terms of volunteering too, so that whatever vision we have started, it continues.
Padmini (05:15)
That’s really well put because I think the moment you ask somebody what the challenges are, they typically give you a standard, say, fundraising is a problem. But I think the way you have articulated it explains how you were able to evolve as a volunteer. And when you initially mentioned that you came in from that background where service was happening around you growing up. So, if we go back to Krishna Kant before he turned 18, in the younger years between say 14 to 18. If you could take one example from back home, where you saw somebody or anyone in your ecosystem participating in volunteering. Because I think it happens quite a lot in India and also coming from the culture that we come… We are not coming from generations where our elders talked a lot about the service they did. But what did you grow up watching? Because I’m curious about that young impressionable age where you saw service around you. In which form did you see it?
Krishna Kanth (06:07)
Yeah, again, right? So, in Telugu, we say during summer holidays, “Ammamma gari intiki velladam!” So, I am very blessed to have a big family where my grandmother, in fact, there are like my grandmother and even her sister and one more grandmother, three grandmothers, I would say. They had a huge influence on me from the childhood because it was a big joint family they used to take care of 50-60 people sharing time and even their hearts with everybody. That itself, I think, it put a seed in my mind and even my grandfather also, he was part of Raitanga Sangam, which means taking care of the rights of the farmers. So, that kind of put a seed in my thought that we need to do something for the society. during the age of 14 to 18, Even when I was going to school, I think I believe at Jubilee Public School when I was in 8th grade, one of our teachers, she introduced the concept of buying greeting cards and just raising some money for them for UNICEF. Nice. Right? So that’s where I understood there is a need for not only within India, but throughout the world, like nations such as African nations, etc.
That gave me a lot of joy when I raised, I think 10 rupees or 20 rupees, 15 rupees, I don’t remember now. And then, even I happened to go to one of the debate competitions where I read something from Swami Vivekananda. If wealth is lost, nothing is lost. If health is lost, something is lost. If character is lost, everything is lost. Still, I remember it so fresh in my mind.
So, where the concept of character is very prominent in terms of my life. And that character building happens when you take care of people around you is what I understood in theory when I was in India. was not much into volunteering to be honest when I was in India because I busy with preparing for my engineering examinations, then coming to United States. But only after I came here, it gave me a better platform where I felt…
I’m doing okay in terms of finances. That’s where I thought, okay, time to give back.
Padmini (08:14)
As a systems theorist, think I’m always obsessed about what type of systems surround a child. And that is where that question came from. I’m like curious, okay, I know you came here because it’s very structured here in the US, right? You can sign up for volunteering. Whether you have a friend or not, you show up and you can do it. But I think I was always curious is if you did not have that early childhood development or the adolescent impressions, you would not come towards this. You would be going doing something.
Krishna Kanth (08:41)
Absolutely, right. So there should be some role models within the family, even our teachers. So I mentioned an example of my grandmother and also a teacher who introduced us when we did not know much about anything. So that laid a path, big path.
Padmini (08:55)
Yeah, that’s a great answer because I think… I’m always trying to bring that information out of everybody. like, what did you do in your childhood? Yeah. So, I think looking forward from here, you’ve come this far, you’ve done all this work you’ve done. I know you always consider yourself a lifetime volunteer for any service activities. But what next? I know you are already in the process of engaging with one particular organization.
But what do see Krishna Kanta as an individual doing if there is no institutional engagement? If just by yourself, does Krishna Kanta have a vision of something he wants to do, even in the smallest way? On an individual basis, do you have a vision for service?
Krishna Kanth (09:32)
Yeah. Yesterday only, in fact, I had a discussion with one of my friends who called me regarding investing in something in the city of Dallas. So he was again brainstorming with me for my well-being too. What to do next after we retire, right? And how do I want to end my life with? And then I told him honestly, basically, When I self-reflect in terms of what gives me joy every day, can honestly say volunteering and also talking to the people who have similar thought process who care for the world, that motivates me and it’s my literally like lifeline. And so far thanks to the opportunities provided by this VT Seva organization, last 17 years have been very fulfilling to me.
When I reflect on them, even if I don’t open my eyes tomorrow morning, I don’t have any regrets. And I want to continue that journey until my last minute because I believe I found something purposeful. Whether I’m with a particular organization or not, or what cause it may be, it’s immaterial because there is so much to do in the world. Wherever I’m needed, and it’s a dynamic thing. I talk to…Padmini today and maybe talking to someone else tomorrow, whatever cause that motivates me, I think I want to be part of it and I want to say something, right? This volunteering or leadership or any qualities, I do think we should ever tie them with any title or organization.
Padmini (10:56)
I was just about to ask you, does Krishnakant as an individual, the ego inside him as a human being, does it have a desire to want to hold a visibly leadership position or do you want to become a non-profit leader? You know there are people who make non-profit operations as a career and a business opportunity also. Do you ever see yourself gravitating towards something?
Krishna Kanth (11:18)
Oh yeah, definitely. thought about it multiple times because I believe volunteering is more of living to me although the work I do outside for my livelihood is different. But again social service or volunteering today, at least to my awareness, are not as lucrative as normal careers people are chasing in today’s world. But at end of the day, An individual has to decide what he or she is aiming for in life. But from my perspective, after of course my responsibilities of my family, the main objective or the main goal for my life is to serve wherever it is needed as long as the cause is doing something good to the society. So I can say I am a volunteer for any organization, anybody as long as it is a genuine need.
Padmini (12:04)
I want to ask you a little bit about VT Seva. I know we have a lot of information on the website when we go to vtsworld.org. But I am curious particularly to know from your side as a very long time volunteer of this organization. How did the numbers look initially? I I’m not asking for specific, very accurate statistics, but approximately how did the numbers look when you started and how are the numbers looking now? In the case, I mean in the size of volunteer groups. or in case of projects you driving at a dollar value. Those are the type of details I just would like to know at the top level.
Krishna Kanth (12:39)
Yeah, right. Again, seed when it becomes a tree and it has flowers and fruits, people appreciate that and recognize it, but what goes
working with some youngsters and three or four branches together. And I’m humbled to say, gradually, year after the year, it did not happen within no time. At least within a decade, we went from $5,000 to $1 million. Wow. And today, we are almost at $1.7 million. But again, the dollars or the fundraising doesn’t do any justice in terms of what impact we are having. It’s a transformation of lives. It’s not the numbers about 15,000 tribal families have been positively impacted, about 2,500 visually challenged children got educated and more than 500,000 volunteer hours and thousand plus president volunteer award winners. So, this don’t do justice in terms of the impact, but end of the day when a volunteer says, this made my day and when a volunteer says, thanks for the opportunity and when a parent of a blind child says, you brought light to my life. You cannot measure the value. So we have come a long way but there is so much to do and we are very fortunate that we have so many good volunteer leaders coming up in organizations especially youth and we believe organization is in very good hands and we recently even had a meeting where we put a vision together for 2040.
Padmini (14:45)
You went past the UN SDGs 2030 and you went to another decade.
Krishna Kanth (14:51)
Another decade, 2041. So we hope we rise to it and also we believe in producing more and more leaders. So that’s where we want to work on, especially the youth leadership is the key. The next generation, we want them to lead us because they’ll be fresh with a lot of new ideas, new world. We’re actually looking for youngsters. So if you’re looking to volunteer, vtsworld.org.
Padmini (15:04): You put out your volunteer pitch. So I made a list of questions, but I still sometimes when you’re talking my brain, because I’m a qualitative researcher, I’m just going off into that. I’m trying not to do it. It’s very exciting, especially when you mention the projects that you have with blind children, especially because that is close to my heart. The cause is close to my heart. I have seen you interact with the children, the blind school students and the college kids. And I have also seen a childish excitement for you when you engage with them, as you would with your own children. And the other beautiful thing I think I have also witnessed with VT Seva is the children, I know they have an education vertical and such, what I have witnessed is how much of emphasis is also given for them to grow. whether it’s spiritually or also art and culture, for that matter, art mainly. And I’m sure in the culture part is where the sports comes for me especially. The art part, what fascinated me always was how many children perform arts and they are not commodified if that is the right word because what has happened I think growing up in India also many people witness this. Blind people are singers. They only sing. And often times they were travelling orchestras of blind people who would come in to raise funds and stuff. And I think the best part for me with VT Seva, something that I deeply appreciate is I did not see the commodification of the blind children. I know there are other organisations and institutions in India where that commodification does still happen. The one thing I think I deeply appreciate and I want to take the opportunity to say here is that I appreciate that part about VT Seva whether it’s in India or here.
We do not bring out our students and children to say, we need money. We are already finding out what they need and VT Seva is already providing for and making the individuals have that experience or speak about their experience. So that’s something I think a lot of people don’t know. The moment you’re a nonprofit and you’re working with blind children, they think you’re using the blind children to raise the funds. But I think I want to highlight here also is that
That’s not what has always happened. It’s always the youth here. I’ve seen, especially in Dallas, for about a decade. I’ve seen youth here, high schoolers, do bake sales, everything from bake sales to car washes. So for me, think I am deeply grateful for an organization like that to be existing. Beyond that, when you talk about blind children or the projects related to blind children, if you had to identify one challenge that you’re still trying to beat through. in India for blind children, what would you say that is?
Krishna Kanth (17:42)
Yeah, so again before I answer that question right since you spoke about how we make sure we treat our visually challenged children with dignity. want to remind you about your journey also with VT seva. Because when I think initially during one of our. That’s why I say I will remind you. When we had this cancer awareness walkathon in Dallas.
Padmini (17:57)
It all feels blurry because I think I’m so edgy now. I’m not remembering.
Krishna Kanth (18:07)
We engaged you because you expressed interest in volunteering as a photographer. That’s when we spoke to each other and then after talking a couple of times I understood that you have a great experience in the field of adaptability sports and the two very good writing skills and I could always see that spark that you genuinely believed in serving others.
Right, having that kind of commitment we rarely see in youth. And that’s what motivated me to engage you into writing grants for VT Seva.
Padmini (18:37)
That’s funniest part is that I even did all that now it just feels like a blur looking back.
Krishna Kanth (18:42)
And you were instrumental in getting, I think about $5,000 or so for…
Padmini (18:47)
I never forget the companies name because I always thought they just made calculators. don’t know why it’s Boston Scientific. But I didn’t know. It felt like a huge victory for me personally being in the academic world doing that. So I always tell people when I talk passionately about grant writing, I first mentioned that grant because it was a journey. There was lot of people hand holding Madhavi Dhanipudi. It’s a lot.
to get that opportunity at such a young part of your academic career and so that I am always grateful for.
Krishna Kanth (19:18)
And you made it happen and thing is not only that you even worked on VTCS souvenir for fifth anniversary reading the articles, editing them. still remember those days and more importantly one thing I personally believe a lot is when we talk about volunteering or a cause instead of talking about it or telling about it I believe in showing it. So, that is where I requested you to visit our Netravidyalaya in India.
Padmini (19:44)
That was I.
Krishna Kanth (19:45)
You showed your commitment in staying for I think couple of weeks I believe. Even you went to Washington Council for blind here.
Padmini (19:49)
Yeah, the state school for the blind and Kiran Vangala Garu had. So that’s what I was… When my nieces asked me the other day, we were sitting and making a map of all the states I visited. And Vaishnavi was like, what? You went to Washington? And I said, I stayed there for two weeks. And then I had to tell them about Kiran Garu, the current president of VT Seva. And they were like, what? There are people who put you in their houses? I said, they put me in the houses, they drove me across cities. And she’s like, to what end?
You know when children, when young teenagers ask you those questions, I’m like, to what end? And I felt that was a very deep question. I said, okay, why did Kiran do it? Why did Sushmita support him? Because I think they saw what you saw in me. It was amazing and even to this date, I have a great relationship with Dr. Stenjum. So I think those type of things have told me that I may not be solely associated with Viti Seva, but I still feel like I’m a part of the family in my own unique way.
Krishna Kanth (20:47)
And the reason even we engage you in those is we wanted to learn from your experience and even we wanted to learn from those institutions where we can also as an organization where we are supporting or visually challenged children can implement things which we may not be aware of. Yes.
to answer your question about what are the challenges that we have. We are doing our level best in terms of sports. We have produced Paralympics champions from our school, World Cup winners in cricket.
Padmini (21:14)
back then it all looked like not possible and today when I’m you guys are just like breezing through the whole thing you don’t need any more hand holding I’m like
Krishna Kanth (21:21)
No, but we still need support.
Padmini (21:23)
Yeah, yeah, but I the recent visit of the children when they came here right last year The world championship when they came and they were talking to me and when we were out there in that park with them It sort of told me that my god. This is actually happening something that I dreamt about a decade ago that people are blind children from our country going and doing international stuff that was just a blur back then it just looked like a mountain that you could not claim now
Krishna Kanth (21:27)
Robotics World Champion.
Padmini (21:48)
Children are figuring it out, learning from each other and growing by themselves and I think that I am optimistic that it can only go to greater heights in the future. I am positive about it because I have spoken to the children and when they came here and they were so confident to be in a foreign environment, that is the day said, we have broken some barriers for sure.
Krishna Kanth (22:07)
next big thing also we are planning to enter into is goal ball.
lovely. Recently, couple of years ago when Chinnajierswami ji was also in ⁓ Texas, we visited the Texas school for blind. ⁓ here in Austin. And we have contributed about $50,000 to them towards building an audio block for the visually challenged in Austin, for the interstate of Texas. That’s where we learnt about this goal ball. And right now, ⁓ similar infrastructure is being laid out in ⁓ India.
So, those children are preparing to take participation in competitions for goal ball in Egypt.
Padmini (22:45)
yeah, the championships.
Krishna Kanth (22:46)
So we are going a long way as we are getting more awareness. So even any insights into what else we can do in terms of sports, arts, academics, we welcome anybody to let us know and we are in there for our children.
Padmini (22:58)
See, because one of the biggest networks I have within the disability community globally, the first population are my friends who are blind. And oftentimes, I think early on when Facebook was not meta and when Facebook was allowing us to upload pictures, they did not have, it was not like so Microsoft, it didn’t have accessibility like any of the Microsoft tools to Facebook. So you would upload pictures, but you would not have any image description.
So at that point what I used to do was I would describe my entire image as an audio file in a transcript beneath it and it would look like an elaborate description of the image. I got more friends globally from the blind community because I started describing my images. So if I was wearing a Kanchipattu saree that was pink in color, I was wearing a bunch of flowers and everything I would literally describe me as a story in the description. It is not ideal for captioning for image description.
Krishna Kanth (23:45)
Okay.
Padmini (23:49)
But back then my goal was, I have this friend Janice who gets excited because I used to take a class with her. But Janice is blind and she had to see this stuff, So, I would write for Janice. I would be like, how will this person feel if they saw me? So, would write it for a friend. So, was writing a letter for a friend. That is how I got introduced into the world of accessibility with the blind community. So, from there on…
it became a whole another education for me about UX and UI with regards to technology. Even today, I will not rate myself as anybody who can do anything with technology. But anytime I’m wanting to put out a piece of information on the worldwide web, I’m immediately thinking, I have all these blind friends. Will they be able to access that content? I think that bit of conversations we are still not having in India, where we are one of the largest growing markets for content creation and everything with AI and everything.
I don’t think we really know what it is to be blind and engage with the World Wide Web. So at some point, if anybody who’s listening to this, think one of the things I’m interested in the information technology world is people for fun even, to curate experiences where you’ll be forced to use a World Wide Web without full accessibility. You take away the mouse and ask them to use only a keyboard. Now if a website is designed to be fully accessible for people with disabilities,
you can navigate it with just a keyboard. But we don’t have the skill for it because we don’t need it technically. So those type of things, I think engaging with VT Seva’s content or updates, even when I was not physically volunteering here, repeatedly that was like a reminder for me to say, okay, I need to stay on track with this. Going forward, what happened is I got introduced to the deaf community because I was taking up these cases for advocacy. Now my accessibility learning had to go up.
another level because now suddenly I’m going from accommodating for designing for blind people my content also to accommodate the deaf deaf people. Now just audio description of something is not going to now it had to become closed captioning text under stuff. Yeah inclusive but now I know that it is often times it comes almost back to design thinking at the design level itself you’re thinking
Krishna Kanth (25:42)
and enough here.
inclusive.
Padmini (25:54)
I have a checklist of people with different types of sensory needs. design to accommodate for that problem. Then I’m creating something that is 100 % accessible. I think going forward, the reason I picked this up is the other day I went and visited VT Savers website, right? Or I’m visiting other few top nonprofits in India. Every time you run an audit that I told you, right?
Krishna Kanth (26:03)
Thanks.
Padmini (26:15)
Kiran Vangala had introduced me to a gentleman in Washington who was a part of the VT Seva Network who was working for Microsoft back then. He was the one who introduced me to that accessibility audit website.
Krishna Kanth (26:25)
Reddy Dugampudi,
Padmini (26:27)
he was the person who showed me that accessibility audit tool. Apparently to this date, that is the go-to tool for people to run audits. So that’s something that I would like for people to get more familiar with. So you know, on VT Seva website, you’re writing articles. You’re publishing articles. I think at some point, whoever is taking care of your accessibility, which is pretty good. Somebody should do a small…
Krishna Kanth (26:30)
Okay.
Padmini (26:49)
guidance for an audit tool that they’re already using for VT Seva work. If they could write something, because I have a feeling when at least in India and Dallas, the moment you say VT Seva, people are saying blind schools and rights of children who are blind. I think if on the website you could have some article on the main page, how you guys are addressing the accessibility needs, that would be great because that would be like reliable information for…a lot of things. Because I think I was looking for it the other day and I’m like, okay, this is nice, this is flowing through well, everything is contrast friendly and everything. the moment I’m looking to see is there, did they write anywhere how to do this?
Krishna Kanth (27:14)
people.
I think definitely, very good point. We were more focusing on some of the projects and education of the children in terms of making sure accessibility is taken into account. Like I think we are the first ones in India who introduced ⁓ empowering this visually challenged by educating them on laptops. Even where they even attempted for their examinations on the laptops for first time in India.
And recently too, for the last three or four years, there’s a youngster, Meghana, from Frisco here in Dallas. started a project for digitizing all the books of Dota. So more than 1,500 volunteers work together to digitize books right from kindergarten until 10th grade. think we are putting a lot of effort in that area, but I think maybe even in our
Padmini (27:58)
Mr. Fani’s daughter, yeah.
Krishna Kanth (28:11)
website or
Padmini (28:13)
I was not physically volunteering with VT Seva, was still learning from you guys through your work. That is what I was trying to tell. So there are people like me, I’m sure, who coming back to the VTSWorld.org website looking for information to learn about the causes because they want to come up with their own ideas and stuff. learning about how you are addressing the accessibility thing would be great because we will probably use it like a Bible. Like some of the stuff I learnt in Washington state, I will probably keep coming back and learn.
I’m doesn’t, I know it’s like the contrast pattern is very good because I felt if somebody had low vision and other issues, there was quite a good bit of contrast. But when you compare it with the other non-profit websites in India, you’re not able to. So the moment, you don’t get the same type of accessibility features. So what I feel is something like this on the website could make more people learn from you guys. So I have just two more questions before I want to wrap up. And how do you deal with
burnout when you are, because this is something I know you laugh, but this is something that a lot of volunteers across the world experience. How do you deal with emotional fatigue and burnout, especially when you work in causes like cancer, camps, the women’s health or children who are blind. This involves a lot of emotional investment. How do you cope?
Krishna Kanth (29:26)
Yeah, again, I think it’s something a lot of people never ask, but we all go through doesn’t matter what kind of life we have, how many hours of volunteering we do. We definitely, especially some of the causes, right, as you mentioned about cancer. In fact, last night only, it’s so relevant. I was talking to Madhavi Ravindra, who I…
call her as my sister. She lives in Vijayawada. She is the coordinator for Mahila Arogya Vikas, where we have screened more than one and a half million women for any women health problems, especially in the area of cervical health. So she was mentioning to me, Krishna Kanth,
Padmini (29:52)
Which is based out of India, right? Yeah.
Krishna Kanth (30:11)
Doing a camp from morning to evening, that too in rural areas, where you have to examine cervix of a woman for all the abnormalities, tests, and even educating them day after day, year after year, it will really burn you out, not only physically, but even the energy you need to have to educate and be compassionate, right? So more than a person like me who is in United States volunteering for the causes here or maybe supporting them through some funds in India.
the people who are at the ground level. There is more burnout and we were just talking about how does she deal with that side of challenge and even she was asking me how do you deal when you are working, taking care of other things too. And the answer seems to be when we self-reflect on why, why are we doing this, right? As long as we have clarity on why.
we are even volunteering that itself will bring us back. And for me personally, the way I channelize my energy again whenever I feel low or when I am run out of energies, I try to talk to people like Madhavi Ravindra. And there many volunteers, friends like Kiran or Aparna, so many good volunteer friends all over the nation. And when I…
share about some service activity that’s going on our side I am involved or they are talking about some activity with the childlike enthusiasm like I talked to Madhuji from Atlanta every activity she does I mean so many names right I don’t want to do injustice taking only few friends who always uplift me so but company of the people who believe in good causes is where I lean on when I’m down
They pick me up that day, another day they may be down. I charge them with some inspirational stories. So one good thing in the area of volunteering is we don’t have to go and read some news articles or attend some personality development trainings or read some books. We volunteer and we are surrounded by all such kinds of leaders including you. When I talk to you even an hour or two or three, four hours, it doesn’t mean
Padmini (32:09)
There were times we’ve spoken for 4 hours, right? And I think a lot of people… I think I have met people in my life who say, Oh my God Padmini, you can go on and I’m like, give me a problem. If you want me to actually put my energy to a good use, you give me a problem that everybody said cannot be fixed. I’m telling you, if there is a problem, there is a solution out there. And I think that’s something I’ve learnt between you and interacting with you and Kiran Garu. I think I’ve learnt that a lot.
and so that part yeah I think it’s the partnerships.
Krishna Kanth (32:39)
The partnership right, volunteering together, I think that is how our organization name is so apt. one person cannot do much, but it leaning on each other right, that is what pushes us day after day, there will be highs and lows. But since we are already in this volunteering world and committed, we already have the taste of the joy in that. So, all that needs sometimes when we are down is somebody who is already.
going through the same journey just to remind us and take us along. any friend I made through volunteering, I consider them as lifelong friend and I want to be friends with them even including you forever because we count on each other and it is very rare to find good people with such amount of passion and long term commitment to nowadays especially.
Padmini (33:24)
I think sometimes I don’t feel it’s passion. think we are almost eccentric in that way. Really, feel otherwise. Passion seems to be a very small word. Sometimes you have to be crazy to want to do this. I So I am happy that I not the only crazy person. Even though we are scattered globally, I think we are a nice group.
Krishna Kanth (33:42)
There is a poem right, the road not taken.
Padmini (33:44)
yeah, yeah. Dude, I’ve always been on roads that have not been taken, paths that have not been laid. I think, what would you say to your younger self is a question that people would ask me sometimes and I would say, I would have wanted me to not be unhappy for wanting to be a service individual. I think growing up in India, in the times I grew up, wanting to just only commit your life to service was considered a lack of ambition or lack of…
clarity in life. But I think I’ve always been clear about wanting to be in the service world. So if I had gone into an ecosystem like Tamil Nadu, where social work is celebrated, I would have probably been this whole thing differently. Coming from the region where I was born and raised, it was a very isolated experience, especially in Telangana, in Hyderabad, in that political scenario. I think coming to Dallas was a great thing for me that way.
The last question I think I would end with is, want to know from you, is when you are a leader in a nonprofit organization, what are some of the checks and balances you would like to put in place? I’m not talking about the financial compliance part. I’m only talking about some basic checks and balances that you usually like to have in place when it comes to a large group of people coming together and working.
Krishna Kanth (34:54)
Yeah, so number one is the environment, right? We have, so transparency in communication is the most important thing. And then, most important thing for any person, not only is an organization is being accessible, somebody wants to call you, talk to you, especially if you’re in leadership role.
You should not be intimidating, should be approachable, And you should have mutual respect towards each other. And it doesn’t matter whether you donate one dollar or whether you giving one hour, you need to be treated with dignity and respect. And if a person feels that they are heard more than being told, they automatically will be part of the organization.
environment is contagious too. So we need to be very careful to make sure in terms of checks and balances not to get any kind of differences whether it has to do with nationality caste or any kind of gender or any differences come in when we talking to each other it has to be with that mutual respect and the upbringing that we have in our Indian culture where we are more
prepared with some spiritual insights as well, right. That helps us but constantly remembering each other and even if somebody is crossing the line, making sure other person is immediately.
And equally important is there are some policies in place like whistleblower policy, somebody is breaking the rule, we can report to anyone. we get audited by a chartered accountant and for the people leadership roles, have state registrations where we get audited by the government.
for corporate social responsibility also we make sure we constantly educate people the rules and regulations of the corporations. We conduct ourselves with integrity, compassion is important, equally important is sense of duty towards the law of the nation. So we need to be aware of it and constant training and standing for each other learning.
say yeah those are the checks and balances.
Padmini (36:48)
That’s nice. These type of conversations I would like to keep going. But I think this is something that I would like to do on a more periodic basis with you. But for the first time, me sharing this conversation, I was also a little selfish that I wanted to document it. Because we’ve had so many great conversations. And I always felt, this conversation should have been recorded because more people should hear it. That way, I think I’m very grateful that you took time for this. But I would definitely like to keep coming back.
to talk to you as you evolve more because that way I am very selfish. I want to learn from the people who already learned. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel for me in the field of service.
Krishna Kanth (37:24)
Likewise, it’s mutual, right?
Padmini (37:25)
Yeah, so I really thank you and if you had one advice for me, further time being parting advice you would give me.
Krishna Kanth (37:31)
Yes, so keep believing. don’t think you need to change because I have seen one thing unique in you is you are a strong woman with clear vision of what you want to do, right? And even when we had discussions about certain policies in India in the area of physical, physically challenged, especially sports area, with limited knowledge I have about that.
that side of the nation. I was ignorant and I was asking you some basic questions and maybe I was even trying to preach you based on my good intentions but you were very strong in disagreeing and even standing for what should be done and I loved that kind of side from you. I don’t know whether I have told you this anytime. Typically I enjoy conversations with the people with good intentions, good vision who
disagree with what I know because I want to learn too. As long as it is for good cause right. that is where I always learn in the area of sports especially adaptability sports. In fact, I even went through your entire PhD dissertation. I have to. You did not expect that.
Padmini (38:33)
Oh! my god
Somebody I know from my academic world would always make fun of me because it was so hard going through the entire process. There came a point where said, can’t do this. It is a very bad thing to say about my own journey. And I remember at that point, that professor making fun of me and saying, hey, Sri, nobody’s going to read this stupid thing. Just get over with it. This was at the peak of COVID, right? He was like, get over with it. Nobody’s going to look at it. You’re not going to read it.
Krishna Kanth (39:01)
Now you have proof on record, right? You did not expect this. So the reason I went through it is because when I asked you some questions you were disagreeing and educating me and I wanted to understand what this is. That’s where I put my time into learning something new and I have some data about what it means especially for the sports, especially related to physically disabled in India.
And I want to learn more where we can even do something from an organization perspective in that area. So looking forward to it.