Skip to main content
Hearth_Bangalore_BlackFlames-V2

WHERE WELLBEING AND SOCIAL CHANGE GATHER

at BANGALORE CREATIVE CIRCUS

21 & 22 November, 2025

HOSTED BY
IN COLLABORATION WITH
Anchor PARTNER
Community partner
Partner

ABOUT SUMMIT

Invoking the spirit of a hearth – the space around a fire, where since the dawn of humanity, we have met to gather, bond, and connect – the Hearth Summit is a gathering to spark a new culture of social change. The time is now to advance a vision where the inner wellbeing of changemakers enables them to be more impactful and effective at addressing our most pressing global challenges.

The Hearth Summits are groundbreaking events inviting changemakers around the world to explore and embrace the wellbeing for welldoing movement. Building on the success of The Wellbeing Project’s first-ever global summit in Bilbao, 2022, we hosted the first Hearth Summit in India, in Bangalore in 2024.

The 2nd Hearth Summit in India, is being hosted in Bangalore in 2025, and is focussed on shaping a culture of care!

 

Hearth Summit Bangalore is hosted by Bangalore Creative Circus, an urban living lab for regenerative systems, communities, and cultures.

Program

Hearth Summit Bangalore is a gathering to bring together diverse changemakers to advance a vision of the interconnected wellbeing of individuals, communities, systems, and planet.

The summit is designed to provide an emotional and intellectual journey exploring the relevance and need for wellbeing in social change, approached from many different perspectives. It will bring together around 200 changemakers who work at various levels and capacities, across sectors of climate, health, justice, equity, and education.

Rohini Nilekani

Keynote speaker

Aaron Pereira

Keynote speaker

Conversations at the Hearth: Wellbeing for Welldoing

Shruti Shibulal

speaker

Dr. Bindu Kutty

speaker

Vishal Talreja

speaker

Conversations at the Hearth: Ecological Belonging

Abhayraj Naik

Speaker

Dr Mala Kapadia

speaker

Naveen Vasudevan

speaker

Spiritual Ecology by Abhayraj Naik

Avoiding the Rat Race by Rajni Bakshi

Ancestral Healing by Sahil Raina

Dance of Oneness by Natasha Mahindra

Sufi Perspective by Basit Jamal

Thinking Living Ecosystems: A Framework for Organisational Wellbeing by Aakash Sethi

Art for Thought by Museum of Art and Photography (MAP)

Listen to You by Kshetra Foundation For Dialogue

Magic Carpet Ride by Viridus Impact Solutions

The Rest-less Changemaker by Foundation for Arts and Health India (FAHI)

Conflict Alchemy by Roy Jacob

The Conscious Breath by Arjun Lall

Farm to table meals by The Circus Canteen
Engaging collective practices like Dances of Universal Peace
Interactive art installations in the space
Co-creation of art
Captivating folk and classical fusion performances and experiences

Agenda coming soon

meet the contributors (2025)

Aaron Pereira

Project Co-Lead at The Wellbeing Project

Read More

Abhayraj Naik

Educator (Climate, Justice, Spiritual Ecology)

Read More

Dr Achyuthan Eswar

Naturopathy Physician & Co-founder of NutritionScience.in & Sampoorna Ahara

Read More

Anshu Gupta

Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Founder of Goonj & Gram Swabhimaan, Ashoka & Schwab Fellow

Read More

Anubha Jaswal

Embodiment Coach and Ceramic Artist

Read More

Aparna Uppaluri

Founder of Antara Advisory

Read More

Aranyani

Dancer, Choreographer & Artistic Director, Vyuti Dance Company

Read More

Arjun Lall

Yoga & Conscious Breath Facilitator

Read More

Ashif Shaik

Founder, Jan Sahas and Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC) CEO, People’s Courage International (PCI)

Read More

Bryan Furtado

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Let'z Talk

Read More

Dances of Universal Peace

Collective Practice

Read More

Jasmeen Patheja

Founder, Blank Noise

Read More

Kalyan Akkipedi

Founder, ProtoVillage

Read More

Kotiganahalli Ramaiah

Founder of Buddideepa

Read More

Martin Dubois

Musician & Multi-instrumentalist

Read More

Meghana AT

Theatre Artist & Founder of Tafreehwale

Read More

Naagha Shyamala and Stuti Desai Moorchung

Kshetra Foundation

Read More

Naghma Mulla

CEO, EdelGive Foundation

Read More

Pallavi Chander

Artist and Creative Arts Therapist

Read More

Ram Bhat

Co-founder of Maraa

Read More

Ramnath Chandrashekar

Photographer-turned-educator

Read More

Ranjini Rao

Writer, Professor & Curator, Quest Learning Observatory

Read More

Romana Shaikh

Author, Educator, Embodied Presence Facilitator

Read More

Ruchi Kashyap

Chief Executive Officer, Atmashakti Trust

Read More

Sachin Malhan

Lawyer, Entrepreneur, & Co-builder of Agami

Read More

Siddharth Venkat

Musician, Educator, and Sound Therapist

Read More

Sunil Mathew

Social Entrepreneur and Blind Football National Coach

Read More

Suprabha Seshan

Educationist, Forest Custodian and Earth Doctor

Read More

The Bangalore Chorus

Children's Choir led by Dr Maya Mascarenhas

Read More

Tim Mchenry

Curator of Rubin Museum's Mandala Lab & founder of Brainwave series

Read More

Vasu Dixit

A composer, song writer, musician, and filmmaker

Read More

Vishal Talreja

Co-founder, Dream a Dream & Founder, The Cocoon Initiative

Read More

Attend (2025)

Hearth Summit Bangalore 2025 is an opportunity to spark a shared conversation around wellbeing in changemaking, build relationships and enhance collaboration, and co-create a strong, engaged and compassionate network of changemakers. Express your interest in attending now with this form

Express your interest

Contact Us

  • info@blrcreativecircus.com
  • hearthsummitbangalore@gmail.com
  • 12/2 Yeshwantpur Industrial Estate, Bangalore 560086

© 2025 Hearth Summit Bangalore.         Web Experience Engineered by Sorcify Labs

© 2025 Hearth Summit Bangalore.
Web Experience Engineered by Sorcify Labs

Aaron Pereira

Project Co-Lead at The Wellbeing Project

Aaron is excited about the interplay between our inner lives and the broader world. Aaron Pereira is currently Project Lead for The Wellbeing Project. The Wellbeing Project is focused on catalysing a culture of inner wellbeing for all changemakers. It emerged from a 7 year sabbatical ending in 2012. The Wellbeing Project is co-created with Ashoka, Georgetown University, Impact Hub, Porticus, the Skoll Foundation, and Synergos.

Aaron worked with the Guggenheim on an urban labs project, co-founded a pilot social enterprise to address housing issues in Mumbai slums, and explored neighbourhood life through a project in Paris. Aaron was co-founder of CanadaHelps and Vartana. CanadaHelps engages over 3 million Canadians and raises over $400 million a year for social sector organizations. It also works with over 20,000 charities on capacity issues. Vartana was focused on addressing financing needs in the social sector. Vartana played a key role in the early development of the field of social finance in Canada, and with early policy development that led to significant financing for social enterprise. In addition Aaron co-founded a multimedia business in the early days of the internet.

Aaron is an Ashoka Fellow and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. Aaron completed a degree with a minor in Economics from Queen’s University, studied at Oxford University as a Skoll Scholar, and completed an executive education program at Harvard.

Aaron Pereira was born in Goa, and grew up in India, the Middle East, and Canada. He now loves making his home in Paris, with a lot of time in India.

Abhayraj Naik

Educator (Climate, Justice, Spiritual Ecology)

Abhayraj is an activist, educator, community builder, and system change practitioner. His current work focuses on decolonial climate justice, spiritual ecology, and transformative learning. He coordinates strategy and research at Pipal Tree (https://www.pipaltree.org.in), and is a co-founder of the Initiative for Climate Action (https://actionclimate.org), a visiting faculty member at Krea University (https://krea.edu.in), a justice/transformation/evaluation consultant, and an advisor to a number of progressive social and environmental causes in India and other parts of the world. He is also the vision-holder for: an online resource space -“Climate Justice India” (https://climatejustice.in), an emergent educational network called the South Asia Network for Justice Education (https://sanje.org), and an upcoming centre for spiritual ecology in Bengaluru, India.

The workshop and conversation will explore facets of spiritual ecology

Dr Achyuthan Eswar

Yoga & Naturopathy Physician, TEDX Speaker, & Co-founder of NutritionScience.in & Sampoorna Ahara

Dr. Achyuthan Eswar dedicated his life to healing without medicines when his grandparents significantly reversed Diabetes, Hypertension and Obesity through lifestyle changes in just ten days.

Dr. Achyuthan is a Yoga and Naturopathy physician from SDM College of Naturopathy and Yogic Sciences.

He is empowering people to ‘Be Your Own Doc’ using the latest, evidence-based nutrition and yoga.

In 2014 Dr. Eswar co-founded PHC Lifestyle Clinic and NutritionScience.in, an evidence-based nutrition website. His clinic and website have reached 50,000+ people today through nutrition programs, cooking courses and personal consultations.
Their online programs include experts like Dr. Vamitha Rahman from PCRM and Chef Nina Curtis who prepared the plant based meal for Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his White House dinner.

In 2019, Dr. Eswar co-founded SampoornaAhara.com, India’s first Whole Food Plant Based Social Enterprise to make Healthy Eating Easier. Today, he and his team have home delivered 200,000+ healing meals healthy food products all over India. Their fantastic cakes, cookies, snacks, and desserts are popular among all age groups and groups like BCCI, FANUC, AT Kearney, and HCL.

Dr. Eswar and his team are spearheading the lifestyle medicine revolution in India today.

Anshu Gupta

Ramon Magsaysay Awardee,
Founder of Goonj & Gram Swabhimaan,
Ashoka & Schwab Fellow

Ramon Magsaysay Awardee, Ashoka and Schwab Fellow. Anshu Gupta is a systems thinker and a Social Architect who has spent over two decades reimagining the frameworks of development, dignity, and disaster response. He founded Goonj with a vision to bring “clothing and material poverty” into the development agenda. For over 26 years, he has led a movement that turns under-utilised material into a currency for development-bridging inequalities where climate change continues to expose the growing gap between the resourceful and the resource-scarce. By transforming the culture of giving in India, his work questions why we wait for disasters to stand with people when economic and social poverty itself are the biggest ongoing disasters.

In recent years, Anshu launched Gram Swabhimaan (Village Self-Respect)- a nudge to shift how
people perceive themselves by reigniting the dignity and pride rooted in every citizen.

Anshu speaks regularly at national and international forums, including TED and the World Economic Forum. He serves on the boards and advisory groups of several grassroots and national-level organisations. He is a Forbes-recognized rural entrepreneur, an Ashoka Fellow, and a Schwab Fellow. Under his leadership Goonj has won numerous prestigious recognitions,
including the World Bank’s Development Marketplace Award, Jamnalal Bajaj Award for Fair Business Practices, Lien i3 Challenge and Changemakers Innovation Awards by Ashoka among many others.

Anshu is a passionate writer, photographer, thinker and doer. His popular thought collection Sochta Hoo.. ( I Wonder ) !! explores themes of dignity, invisibility, and social justice. His poetry piece Safar, written during the COVID lockdown on the migrant exodus, was turned into an award-winning animated short film, translated into six languages, and acclaimed internationally. His photo exhibition Disasters: Myths and Realities, drawn from years of frontline disaster work, has toured multiple cities in India and globally, to build awareness and empathy. Anshu holds double postgraduate diplomas in Journalism, Advertising, and PR from IIMC, and a Master’s in Economics. A journalist at heart and a foodie by soul, he continues to challenge mainstream thinking while building quiet revolutions rooted in dignity.

Anubha Jaswal

Embodiment Coach and Ceramic Artist

Anubha is an embodiment coach and a ceramic artist who weaves together physical awareness, creativity, expression and compassion to support holistic well being.  her aim is to help individuals reconnect with their body, cultivating harmony and balance in everyday life. As people fine tune their inner wisdom, fostering self-empowerment and trust in the body’s innate intelligence, magic and transformation happens.As a ceramic artist, Anubha brings these same principles into the tactile realm of clay, where the process of shaping and forming is an act of embodied expression. she believes in the power of connection through compassion and in honoring the intuitive, abstract and whimsical –  especially in a world so often governed by reason and intellect. Whether it’s body awareness, movement, or tactile expression, all are the means towards the journey to oneself and living ones best life with ease and harmony.

Aparna Uppaluri

Founder of Antara Advisory

Aparna Uppaluri is a global executive and a senior philanthropy advisor. She founded Antara
Advisors, a specialised philanthropy and research and strategic advisory. She is Special Advisor to the Grow for Climate Fund and serves on the advisory bodies of Equal Measures 2030, and the Sustainable Futures Collaborative. She was the Chief Operating Officer, leading philanthropic programs at the Tata Trusts with operational and strategic planning oversight over all thematic areas including livelihoods, health, nutrition, WaSH as well as Arts & Culture. In a previous role, she served as Senior Global Program Officer at the Ford Foundation and acting Program Director of the Foundation’s India, Nepal, Sri Lanka office. Her global work has included nurturing philanthropic collaboratives, intergovernmental partnerships, and strategic field building. She led the Science and Society Program at the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), India and founded a performing arts collective which she ran for 10 years.

Aranyani

Dancer, choreographer, researcher, educator and Artistic Director, Vyuti Dance Company

Aranyani is a Bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, researcher and teacher. Over time, Aranyani has developed her own distinctive approach to Bharatanatyam, inspired by her explorations of Bharatanatyam in greater depth and engagement with other movement vocabularies. It also prompted her to approach dance academically. Aranyani wrote her thesis at Oxford University on the multiple modernities within Bharatanatyam and has written several articles in newspapers and journals.

Aranyani is Artistic Director of Vyuti, which attempts to transcend the tradition-modernity binary and offer another perspective on Bharatanatyam. Hailed as an organic conversation between tradition and modernity, Vyuti has performed in India and abroad to critical acclaim.

Aranyani is also the co-founder of “Re-Cognising Dance”, an academic online platform that aims to bridge the gap between dance scholarship and practice; and ‘Indian Dancers for Gaza’s children’, an artist-led humanitarian initiative to raise awareness about the plight of children trapped in conflict zones. Through this initiative, Aranyani has organised over 30 fundraisers across the world and raised over $22000 for the children of Gaza.

Aranyani is empanelled with ICCR and is centrally featured documentary films on dance Bharatanatyam commissioned by PSBT India and MAP, Bangalore. Aranyani continues to practice, teach and perform based out of Bangalore.

Arjun Lall

Yoga Teacher and Conscious Breath Facilitator

Arjun learns (ed) yoga from his mother, her stories and her old books, injuries and heartache, many masters (young and old), his charioteer, eagles, acceptance, abundance, silence, new books and the internet, his breath, wife and daughter.

He retired from a two-decade career in corporate law to explore the breath – mind- body relationship through conscious breathing practices and mindful movement. He is certified yoga teacher (RYT 500) and a breath coach and facilitator.

He shares his love for yoga and the breath through group and one on one classes at his studio in Frazer Town, Bangalore – Ujjayi Movement Studio. He works closely with corporates on building a culture of consciousness, coherence and community through conscious breathing, mindfulness and other modalities.

His workshop will explore the conscious breath. The workshop will feature some different breath modalities, setting the tone for a deeper self-discovery dive, just with the power of the breath

Ashif Shaikh

Founder, Jan Sahas and Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC) CEO, People’s Courage International (PCI)

Ashif Shaikh is a social entrepreneur and systems leader, internationally recognized for advancing safe migration, strengthening the resilience of invisible communities, and promoting climate adaptation for informal workers.

Twenty-five years ago, he founded a community-based organization to support some of India’s most excluded populations, including manual scavengers, survivors of rape and sexual violence, and other marginalized groups.

Currently, as CEO of People’s Courage International (PCI), Ashif leads initiatives across South and Southeast Asia to design and scale transformative solutions addressing some of the most urgent social challenges of our time.

He is the visionary behind the Migrants Resilience Collaborative (MRC), one of South Asia’s largest initiatives supporting migrant workers and their families. MRC unites governments, the private sector, and civil society to strengthen social protection systems and enhance the resilience of vulnerable migrant households.

Ashif regularly advises national and international institutions on labor rights, social protection, and inclusive economic growth. His insights have informed major policy frameworks and catalyzed collaboration across government and multilateral platforms.

His pioneering leadership has been recognized globally with several prestigious honors, including the Gleitsman International Award from the Harvard Kennedy School (2022), Social Innovator of the Year from the Schwab Foundation (2020), and an Ashoka Fellowship (2016).

Ashif’s work continues to shape global discourse on migration, climate resilience, and social equity, offering scalable, evidence-based models for inclusive and sustainable development across regions facing similar challenges.

Bryan Furtado

Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Let'z Talk

From global leadership to creative campaigns, Bryan now leads Let’z Talk in India – bringing people and organisations closer through fresh, human-centered storytelling

Bryan is an employer branding and recruitment marketing expert who blends creativity with strategy to spark real connection. With a career that’s taken him from event management to television to global leadership, he’s now back in India, leading Let’z Talk—a movement to make emotional safety and honest conversation the norm at work.

He understands the pressures employers face today: building cultures that drive both performance and wellbeing. His superpower? Crafting bold, human-centered approaches that help organisations stand out and speak to the heart. Known for his creative edge and warm, fluent messaging, Bryan thrives on finding fresh ways to bring people and workplaces closer together.

Dances of Universal Peace

Collective Practice

Dances of Universal Peace as a collective attunement practice for all the attendees at Hearth Summit Bangalore!

From the beginning of time, songs, stories and dance have brought people together in daily life, ceremonies and celebrations. Born from this timeless tradition is a simple yet powerful collective practice called the Dances of Universal Peace. Drawing on the sacred phrases of the many spiritual traditions of the world, the Dances blend singing, live music and guided meditative movement into a prayer for peace and a celebration of oneness.

Jasmeen Patheja

Founder, Blank Noise

Jasmeen Patheja, founder of Blank Noise, is an award-winning artist in public service, working at the intersection of art and feminist movement-building. She mobilises for the right to be defenceless and builds methodologies to end sexual violence.

She initiated Blank Noise in 2003, a community of Action Sheroes, Theyroes, and Heroes: individuals stepping in to end gender-based violence. Over the past two decades, Blank Noise has designed art interventions to shift public consciousness.

Her practice is rooted in listening to survivors, calling in the collective capacity to listen. She facilitates the naming of desire, embodying it through collective action. Recurring themes in her work include fear, memory, shame, belonging, solidarity, defencelessness, and the politics of fear.

Key projects include I Never Ask For It and Meet To Sleep. Her work spans performance, community building, facilitation, photography, installation, sound, and video.

Patheja is a TED speaker, and both a TED and Ashoka Fellow. She was awarded the CARE Arts for Gender Equality Fellowship by the Rockefeller Foundation. Other honours include the Visible Award, the International Award for Public Art, the Jane Lombard Fellowship from the Vera List Centre for Art and Politics. The BBC named her one of the “12 Artists Changing the World”.

Residencies include Akademie Schloss Solitude, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio, and Srishti Institute of Art, Design, and Technology.

Patheja and her grandmother, Inderjit Kaur, collaborate on Indri, a photo performance series exploring ageing and agency.

Kalyan Akkipedi

Founder, ProtoVillage

After quitting his corporate career in early 2008, Kalyan traveled exclusively through rural India for about 2 and ½ years, and slow-traveled for 1 year through the central Indian tribal communities right from Kuchchh all the way to the Sundarbans. Having lived with scores of families that were below the so-called poverty line and right down at the bottom of the pyramid, his views on development and poverty turned 180 degrees.
Instead of reacting or responding to the symptoms of poverty, he wanted to create a new possibility in which poverty just cannot emerge. He found the idea of “creating Resilience” more empowering than that of “eradicating poverty”.

Kalyan has been living and working in a remote drought-prone village called Tekulodu in the second driest and one of the poorest districts in India (Anantapur district, Andhra Pradesh) since August 2011, to co-create ProtoVillage – the prototype of a Resilient village being built by the villagers, for the villagers. His vision is a rural India that is a network of resilient communities.
Kalyan has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering, and Masters in Business Administration.
Kalyan is a Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellow and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network since 2016.

Kotiganahalli Ramaiah

Founder of Buddideepa

Kotiganahalli Ramaiah, is poet, pedagogue, playwright, philosopher, and cultural activist since the 1970s. In his early years, he was one of the founding members of Dalit Sangharsh Samiti and has contributed to ending caste discrimination in Karnataka through a mix of public activism, journalism and mass mobilisation. His work has pioneered community-rooted cultural movement in Karnataka by blending theatre, film, education, and oral traditions. The consistent focus of Ramaiah’s work is to nurture an anti-caste-consciousness, dignity, and creative expression among marginalized communities in the Anthargange/Shivagange region. His work in Kolar – first through the renowned Adima Arts and Cultural Centre and now through the Buddideepa organisation has served as a “living school” where children from communities living in Kolar learn through experiential arts—acting, storytelling, public speaking, and traditional crafts. He has written more than 30 plays for children, and is a prolific author of several books. As one of the foremost public intellectuals in Karnataka, he continues to write and speak on a wide range of contemporary public interest issues.

Martin Dubois

Musician & Multi-instrumentalist

Martin Dubois aka M’dub is a multi-instrumentalist who offers a journey through sounds and emotions, through percussions, handpan, kora (African harp), vocals, Mongolian throat singing, flutes, drums and human beat effects. For 30 years now, he has followed the path of a musician’s life with the evolution and experience of jazz, African music, funk, rock, reggae and world music. Currently, he often plays solo, and also with Trance Fusion Music, and likes to be invited to different projects in India and Europe. He is also heavily invested in the ‘healing’ dimension of sound, with ‘musical naps’ and multiple collaborations with yoga teachers in workshops, courses and festivals.

Meghana AT

Theatre Artist & Founder of Tafreehwale

Meghana AT is a theatre artist/addict experimenting as an actor, writer, director, producer, production manager, teacher, dramaturg – with more experiments to come. She is the founder of Tafreehwale, a theatre company engaged in original, political, and playful theatre making and training.

Naagha Shyamala and Stuti Desai Moorchung

Kshetra Foundation

Kshetra Foundation for Dialogue aims to drive social change through ecosystems for and through dialogue by enabling changemakers – from Civil Society, Businesses and Government – to solve complex societal problems using the Dialogic Method practice framework. This draws on multiple disciplines, including mediation, behavioural science, and systems thinking, to help changemakers define, understand, and solve complex problems. The Dialogic Method has been applied by over 25,000 end-users in diverse fields such as peace building, education, gender, climate change, criminal justice, policymaking, and organisational culture shift, among many others.

Naagha Shyamala- Senior Associate at Kshetra Foundation for Dialogue, has a background in Social Work, and her expertise lies in designing and facilitating dialogic spaces.

Stuti Desai Moorchung- the Head of Operations at Kshetra Foundation for Dialogue, brings a unique blend of experience from corporate law, academia, and project management to lead the organization’s growth in the social sector.

Naghma Mulla

CEO, EdelGive Foundation

Naghma Mulla serves as the CEO and Director of EdelGive Foundation, where she has dedicated over a
decade to fostering collaborative philanthropy. Her mission is to democratise access to grants by bringing together government, business, philanthropic, and grassroots leaders to co-design ambitious projects. Her work emphasises creating solutions that integrate high accountability with measurable  impact, particularly for smaller organisations striving for sustainability and serving the most marginalised and socially excluded communities in India. A chartered accountant by education, Naghma has leveraged her financial expertise to forge valuable partnerships with diverse stakeholders, both international and Indian.

Under Naghma’s leadership, EdelGive Foundation has transformed from a grant-making entity into a philanthropic asset management platform. Her commitment to collaborative philanthropy and innovative partnerships has driven this evolution, positioning EdelGive as a leader in the sector. Naghma Mulla’s work exemplifies a blend of strategic vision, collaborative spirit, and unwavering dedication to social justice and empowerment. Her contributions continue to create meaningful and lasting change in the philanthropic landscape of India.

Naghma’s leadership extends beyond the EdelGive Foundation. She is a General Board Member at Goonj, a Board Member at Social Lens, India Climate Collaborative, and a Core Advisor to the Migrant Resilience Collaborative. Additionally, she serves as an advisor to One Future Collective, a feminist youth-led non-profit organisation.

Pallavi Chander

Artist and Creative Arts Therapist

Pallavi Chander is an artist and creative arts therapist based in Bangalore, India. She works with individuals with disabilities, neurodiversity, young people, and adults challenged with mental health concerns, and caregivers. Her practice uses drama, movement, visual arts, storytelling, and play to integrate creativity, imagination, and co-create creative processes in learning spaces, for therapy and healing. She currently runs community-based projects with various grassroots organizations and institutions. Her work explores feminist approaches to building mental health practices, research, and education that are culturally relevant and locally accessible. She works with the Foundation for Arts and Health India, Hasiru Dala, and the SMArT Studio.

Ram Bhat

Co-founder of Maraa

Ram Bhat is a co-founder of Maraa, a media and arts collective. As a proponent of democratizing media and communications, he worked to set up some of the first community radio stations in India and has trained community media teams all over South Asia. His doctoral research is about the ways in which digital infrastructure, as an indispensable part of daily life, has shaped both politics and identity in India. He has also written extensively on the emerging problem of misinformation and hate speech on digital media networks.

Ramnath Chandrashekar

Photographer-turned-educator

K. Ramnath “Ram” Chandrasekhar has spent twenty years listening to the wilderness; walking along rivers, tracing the edges of oceans, staying in rainforests, and climbing glaciers. A photographer-turned-educator and community organiser from India, Ram has captured not just the beauty of the natural world but its silent cries for help. He carried these stories into classrooms, where over 50,000 children have rediscovered wonder, curiosity, and care for the planet. Today, as co-founder of the Youth Conservation Action Network (YouCAN), Ram and his partner Rachita are building a movement, empowering a new generation of educators across India to weave ecology into the heart of schooling and rewild learning for a healthy and conscious world.

Ranjini Rao

Writer, Professor and Curator of Programs, Quest Learning Observatory

Ranjini is a communications professor, coach, speaker, writer, and workshop facilitator. In a career spanning over 25 years, she’s written six books, taught over 10,000 hours across global classrooms, hosted more than 60 writing, cooking & culture immersion workshops, written over 150 articles and columns in newspapers, hosted and participated in several panel discussions, and curated food experiences for local communities.

Romana Shaikh

Author, Educator, Embodied Presence Facilitator for inner leadership and collective liberation

A global education leader and presence oriented facilitator, Romana integrates the science of trauma with the wisdom of wholeness.

‘Weaving Wholeness’ is her first book and her social enterprise that nurtures intergenerational, intercultural and intersectoral communities of Love and Justice — where leadership is cultivated through a process of healing intergenerations, shifting power and expressing truth.

Over the past 2 decades, she has developed her expertise in facilitating personal and systemic transformation that weaves an understanding of the human body-mind, sexuality, power relations and systemic oppression. Romana’s experience spans across fields of mental health, education, peacebuilding, social entrepreneurship, and leadership. This combined with her lived experiences makes her a distinct and compelling voice in the revolution of Love and Justice.

As the co-founder of Kizazi, a global not for profit, she has led the development of education models that are contextually responsive and restorative of culture and identity in various parts of the world. She is a Salzburg Global Seminar Fellow and serves as a teaching assistant for the Presence Oriented Psychotherapy Diploma. Previously, she served as the Director of Training & Impact for Teach For India and as a faculty member for Comprehensive Sexuality Education Certification with Seeds of Awareness.

Ruchi Kashyap

Chief Executive Officer, Atmashakti Trust

Ruchi Kashyap leads Atmashakti Trust, a grassroots organization empowering Indigenous communities across India to access their constitutional entitlements and lead change from within. Under her leadership, Atmashakti has built a powerful people’s movement advancing access to food, land, health, and education, while fostering local governance, ecological restoration, and community-led enterprises. 

Through Atmashakti Global, Ruchi is expanding the organization’s impact internationally – connecting Indigenous wisdom with global conversations on climate justice, care economies, and the cultural commons. Her work embodies the belief that sustainable change begins with empowered communities, rooted in care for both people and the planet.

Sachin Malhan

Lawyer,Entrepreneur & Co-builder of Agami

Sachin Malhan is the co-founder of Agami, an organization catalyzing innovation and collaborative action to advance new and improved systems of law and justice. Agami’s critical role on advancing Online Dispute Resolution and Digital Courts in India is well recognized. Before Agami, Sachin was the Executive Director of the Changemakers program of leading non-profit Ashoka. Sachin has previously co-founded three ventures in India – test prep pioneer Law School Tutorials (LST, now called CL LST), Rainmaker, a learning and talent platform that ultimately spun off Vahura and mylaw.net, and Inclusive Planet, a policy and platform venture focused on greater literary access for the visually impaired. For his work in technology, media, social impact and education, Sachin became an INK Fellow in 2010. Sachin is a graduate of National Law School, Bengaluru, and began his career with law firm Amarchand Mangaldas in their Mumbai offices. Sachin cares deeply about helping unlock the potential of every young person in India.

Siddharth Venkat

Musician, Educator and Sound Therapist

Siddharth Venkat is a musician and educator focused on resensitizing our ears, bodies, minds and hearts to the sensations of sound and vibration.

Under his moniker, Xenkat, he works with tribal instruments to facilitate wellness, curiosity and education into the nuances of sound.

He facilitates live performances, workshops and sound therapy sessions from a multi disciplinary lens, especially considering holistic aspects of community living and the power of nature. 

In his free time, he produces fermented foods like kimchi and kombucha.

Sunil Mathew

Social Entrepreneur and Blind Football National Coach

Sunil J. Mathew is a social entrepreneur dedicated to empowering the visually challenged community through sports, technology, and employment. He serves as National Head Coach of the Indian Blind Football Team and Sporting Director of the Indian Blind Football Federation (IBFF), also represented Asia in the IBSA World Blind Football Advisory Group (2022–25).

Since 2003, he has led the Society for Rehabilitation of the Visually Challenged (SRVC) in Kochi, training hundreds in IT and telemarketing, and currently manages Envision Trust, which employs 15 visually impaired telesales professionals. As Founder and Managing Director of Sightica Innovations Pvt. Ltd., and Systica Systems Pvt. Ltd., he develops accessible technologies and apps  for the blind and elderly.

Sunil pioneered India’s first Blind Football Academy in Kochi and has been instrumental in promoting inclusive sports and technology. His initiatives have received national recognition, including the mBillionth South Asia Award and NCPEDP Universal Design Award. Beyond his work, he is passionate about advocacy, technology, travel, and the arts.

Suprabha Seshan

Educationist, forest custodian and earth doctor

Suprabha Seshan is a long-term custodian of the Gurukula Botanical Sanctuary in Wayanad. She intertwines rainforest conservation with community-based ecological nurturing, facilitating immersive educational programs to rewild humans. Suprabha’s essays have been featured in The Indian Quarterly, Local Futures, The New Internationalist, The Journal of Krishnamurti Schools, Countercurrents.org, Scroll.in, and The Economic and Political Weekly. She is a recipient of the UK’s Whitley Award for Nature and the Green Teacher Award from the Sanctuary Nature Foundation.

The Bangalore Chorus

Children's Choir led by Dr Maya Mascarenhas

Our incredibly talented young performers represent families, schools, and communities from across Bangalore.

“The idea of starting TBC came from my experience that children, given an opportunity, can shine and make a difference, not only in their lives, but in the lives of those around them”, admits Dr Maya Mascarenhas, the Chief Inspiration Officer of TBC. To give talented young children early exposure to singing together, and showcase their talent to Bangalore, Maya resolved to make this choir happen. TBC started in August 2015 with over 60 children, ranging from 5 ½ – 17 years old, coming to practice from literally all corners of Bangalore.

The choir first publicly performed after a 6-month course which focused on singing styles, voice lessons, choral singing, choreography and show choir singing. Since then, TBC has grown to a strength of 120 children (and about 30 adults who still think they’re children). The kids have performed at several choral concerts, the Bangalore International Airport during Christmas, and at orphanages and old age homes.The workshop and conversation will explore facets of spiritual ecology

Tim Mchenry

Curator of Rubin Museum's Mandala Lab & founder of Brainwave series

Tim McHenry has been presenting Rubin Museum audiences over the past twenty years with what the Huffington Post has called “some of the most original and inspired programs on the arts and consciousness in New York City.” McHenry initiated some of the early public conversations on neuroscience and contemplative practice in the context of his long-running series Brainwave. At the Rubin, McHenry specialized in art-contextual experiences that broke the traditional mold, such as an event that converted the museum building into an olfactory Memory Palace; the Dream-Over—a sleepover at the museum for grown-ups— ; and The Game of Life a museum-wide game of emotions that fostered cooperation. He is the curator the Mandala Lab – a secular experiential translation of the Vairocana mandala with the involvement of Ponlop Rinpoche, Mingyur Rinpoche, Peter Gabriel, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Laurie Anderson, Amit Dutta, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and other artists and scientists. It is now on view in a travelling free-standing version that has been seen in Bilbao, London and Milan, and is available in workshop form as well as in a classroom version rooted in Social, Emotional and Ethical Learning (SEE Learning ® ) in a partnership with Emory University. He is also curatorial advisor for the forthcoming Dalai Lama Center in Bodhgaya.

Vasu Dixit

A composer, song writer, musician, and filmmaker

Vasu’s rich, resonant voice is a boundless celebration of life, an uninhibited expression of music that transcends boundaries.
As the frontman of Swarathma and an independent artist, his inimitable style of singing, coupled with his spontaneous and invigorating presence, makes every performance an experience. His music weaves narratives, evokes emotions, and transports listeners into different worlds, much like a well-crafted story would. They highlight his ability to use music as a storytelling medium, making his performances immersive and meaningful.

A composer, song writer, musician, and filmmaker in equal measure, Vasu brings an artistic synergy that blends soulful melodies with evocative storytelling. His music stirs something deep within, awakening the goodness in us, while his lyrics tug at the heartstrings, evoking nostalgia for the simplicity of yesteryears.

Beyond the stage, his commitment to social causes, be it advocating for the environment, addressing waste management issues, or standing up for animal welfare, shows that his art is not just about entertainment but about making a difference. With wit woven into his words and raw energy in his voice, Vasu is not just a performer; he is an experience; one that stays with you long after the music fades.

Vishal Talreja

Co-founder and Trustee of Dream a Dream and Founder of The Cocoon Initiative

Vishal co-founded Dream a Dream along with 11 others. Vishal is an Ashoka Fellow, an Eisenhower Fellow and a Board Member at PYE Global and Goonj. He has previously been a Founder Director of Unltd India and Board Member of India Cares Foundation. Vishal is a Steering Committee Member of Karanga – A Global Alliance on Social Emotional Learning and Life Skills. He is a Founding Member of The Weaving Lab – A Global Learning Ecosystem of weavers who are advancing the practice and profession of weaving thriving learning ecosystems. He is a Founding Member of Catalyst 2030 – A global movement of social change innovators collaborating to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He is also part of the Informal Working Group on the Future of Education & Skills 2030 project by OECD where he has been a Co-chair and Moderator at various convenings.