E157 | Joy of Giving P1 | Venkat Krishnan

What if success and significance weren’t opposites but the same metric—impact? That question runs through our conversation with Venkat Krishnan, the quiet builder behind platforms like GiveIndia and DaanUtsav, which have helped millions find clear paths to care. Venkat’s compass formed early: reading Gandhi in grade school, wrestling with dharma in the Mahabharata, and growing up amid stark contrasts in 1980s Bombay. Those lived lessons shaped a simple, disarming credo he wrote at IIM: “I see myself as a tool for the welfare of society.” From there, every decision got measured by one variable—what creates the most good.

We trace the move from programs to platforms: why a philanthropy marketplace made sense in a country where people wanted to help but didn’t know how, and how trust and transparency were engineered before e-commerce was mainstream—the moment a national crisis (the 2001 Gujarat earthquake) validated online giving at scale. Venkat breaks down DaanUtsav’s “taste to believe” design—let people experience the joy of giving once, and many will return on their own. Along the way, we explore introversion as an asset to be leveraged, not a flaw to be hidden: hire complementary strengths, utilize reflective channels, and treat communication as a craft, not a performance.

The throughline is a countercultural hierarchy: cause first, organization second, self last. Venkat explains why he declines awards, how that stance strengthens collaboration, and how de-centering ego increases total impact. This is a masterclass in building movements that outlast moments—rooted in moral clarity, obsessive simplicity, and systems that make it easier to do the right thing. If you’ve ever wondered how to turn conviction into infrastructure, or how to navigate rejection while staying true to mission, you’ll find pragmatic, field-tested insights here.

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Transcript

Framing Purpose Over Applause

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And just seeing early in life that where you are born makes a complete difference to what your potential to do well in life is going to be. The kind of ecosystem support you get out of being born in the right place had a very deep influence. I think that for me led actually, I started reading the Communist Manifesto when I was in class 11. Thanks to a dear friend of mine. And I I would call myself a socialist even now. In that sense, very early in life, I was very clear that the goal of life was to have impact. When I was in IM and we used to write reflective notes for this course on entrepreneurship. And I remember I wrote a sentence which maybe it was the first time I articulated it explicitly, but probably something I felt earlier. That I actually said that I see myself as a tool for the welfare of society. That is the only purpose of my existence. If you seek something, sometimes it becomes even more abusive. And if you focus on doing the right thing, then all this parapornia gets taken care of by itself.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Listeners of Inspire Someone today, all across the globe, welcome back for yet another episode. Some people are driven not by applause but by calls. Our guest today is one such individual. A quiet force who has built his life around creating impact without ever staking the spotlight. In a world that often celebrates the loudest voices, his story reminds us that true influence doesn't come always with titles, followers, or something. What makes him remarkable is not the scale of his work but the consistency with which he has shown up, despite the rejections, the setbacks, invisible hours of effort. He proves that you don't have to be the most extorted person in the room to inspire change. You just need conviction, resilience, and courage to stay the course. It's an absolute joy to have Venkat Krishna on this episode of Inspire Someone Today. Welcome to the show, Venkat.

Roots, Books, and Early Moral Compass

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Oh, thank you so much, Vikam. It's a pleasure to be here.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

It's a pleasure to hear you out. It's a pleasure to all of our listeners to get to see the man behind such a powerful impact that you are creating, Venkat. So it's so lovely to have this conversation with you. So I want to kind of call this podcast segment as the choices that shape life. And I want to kind of get started with my first question for you, Venkat, which is who are the people or experiences that had a deep influence on your values?

SPEAKER_01 3:03

In terms of people, I think reading uh Gandhi's autobiography, the story of my experiments with truth, was very, very significantly influential. I read it very early in life. I was in class four or something like that, and a very profound impact, especially the piece where he tells about the uh where he told a lie in a flash and how that affected him later on and he resolved not to speak the untruth anymore in life. That had a profound impact. There's this movie that I again remember when I s uh which I saw when I was very young, called Duhankya Barahat. Savishantara movie, black and white film uh from the 50s. And I must have been again under ten years old when I saw the movie. It's a very powerful story of a jailer who takes consent to pay twelve convicted uh life uh sentenced criminals to a reformed place and works with them and very powerful, very, very moving. In the end of the movie, he actually dies. Uh the hero died, the sacrifice was night. But conviction that these people can be reformed and can become better people remained with him till the very, very end. So that was again a very, very powerful influence on me early in life. And finally, of course, the two big epics, Ramayan and Mahabharata, both of which I would have read at least 20 times each when I was in class three and four. Uh Rajagopalchary's version both had profound impact. And Mahabharata, in particular, uh there are many quandaries or questions of dharma that you come across throughout that book. Right? Whether it is Yudhishthira being asked to tell that lie about Ashwatana being dead, or about whether Arjun can shoot Karna when he's trying to lift the chariot up during the war, or the whole conversation of Yiddishti with the Yapsha when they are in their uh one-year incognito period at the forest. All of these had very profound impact on me. Uh, about like understanding what is the right thing to do in life and focusing on the right thing to do, as opposed to what benefits you or what is the most convenient to you to do?

SPEAKER_00 5:19

You remind me of a wonderful title written by Gulchar and Das, The Difficulty of Being Good.

SPEAKER_01 5:25

Yeah. So that's it on the Mahabharata, actually.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

It is on the Mahabharata. Brilliant. So, with that kind of a backdrop, with that kind of an influences that you had, how did your schooling or your graduation have an impact on you? What were those influences? What were the choices that you made later on?

School Diversity and Seeing Inequity Up Close

SPEAKER_01 5:45

So I think very early in life, uh plus five to ten actually in school, I went to a school called Airport High School, which was a very interesting mix of children. Unlike today's schools, uh, this was a government-aided school. So we had a very diverse set of children, children from slums and children from well-to-do families all coming to the same school. And I think that had a very profound impact on me because I would go and play with my friends at their home, they would come to my home, etc. So I would go to a friend's house where in those days, I'm talking of the early 80s, uh, there were some homes in slums where they still didn't get electricity 24 by 7 in Bombay. Uh, and therefore they would have to struggle to study in the night. They could not because there were no electricity. Or their mother would send us to get just Pesikael, 10 pesas oil. And oil and sugar were luxuries that were bought only when there were guests at home. It was not part of their daily routine. And on the other hand, I would go and play with friends who lived in what in those days in Bombay was a luxury, two and three bedroom houses with, you know, VCRs and two-in-one cafe systems, which are the ultimate luxuries of those days. And we would go to play and we would get the choicest of cream biscuits, which were also a luxury in those days. And just seeing early in life that where you are born makes a complete difference to what your potential to do well in life is going to be. The kind of ecosystem support you get out of being born in the right place had a very deep influence. I think that for me led actually. I started reading the Communist Manifesto in us in class 11. Thanks to a dear friend of mine. And I I would call myself a socialist even now. Uh although I would call myself a socialist who believes in locket forces, which is kind of like a paradox of sort. But this thing about the need to build a society which is more equitable, where everybody gets a fair chance to do well in life, is something that I still feel very, very strongly about. During the later days of school, class 11, 12, and 10, 11, 12, and college, I think I got a lot of exposure to being entrepreneurial. So that again was a very deep influence on me when I was in college. A group of us got together, we set up a road track club in our college, we did a whole bunch of very innovative things there. We convinced our college professors to encourage extracurricular activities and went on to participate in a lot of intercollegiate competitions. We, in fact, one more in the goal idea at IIT Bombay, then went to Karakur IIT and did a whole bunch of interesting things like that. So that left me with a very strong entrepreneurial state. I think that was also a very, very big influence. In IM, I would say there was one influence which was Professor Aniel Gupta, very deep influence on me, who very deeply encouraged my interest in uh looking at society through the lens of what is fair to everybody, how do you build a more just and equitable society, etc. He was very supportive. He encouraged me to do my summer internship in a government organization, Khadiya and Village Industries Commission. Uh and the other was Professor Sunil Handau, who's also a businessman, who took a course on entrepreneurship. And that again was extremely inspiring. So I would say these were like the major inspirations during the whole academic student.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

So it looks like the books you read, the company that you have around, and the individuals that kind of walk you through some of these definitely plays a very, very pivotal uh role.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

Absolutely, absolutely. I think you can't overstate the importance of finding the right mentors, the right friends, the right company to keep. And the right company, I would say, also from the sheer diversity of company, right? That I think, in especially even in early ages, if we are able to surround ourselves not by people who are like us, but by a wide different array of people who are different from us, you actually learn a lot, lot, a lot.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

That's a great call out. And what was the turning point? You did mention about a couple of uh instances. Was there a specific turning point where you chose significance over success?

Mentors, Entrepreneurship, and Social Lens

SPEAKER_01 10:05

I'd say two things. One is that I think successful it depends on how you define it, right? And so I think the way I define success, significance and success become the same. Actually, your impact and success become the same. I think that choice that I wanted to make a difference was very, very early, right? Maybe early teens. Uh during my school days, etc. Uh, which is what led me to read the Communist Manifesto and books around that, and different, you know, there's uh gentleman called Kumarappa who wrote a beautiful book called Ram Swaraj. He was a Gandhian. Uh reading about Vinobaba's Buddha movement. All of those kind of things happened very early in life. And even Vivekananda for it, very profound uh writings by him. Uh reading stories about uh uh Madhanmo and Malvia going literally door to door and raising money to set up Panar Centu University. Some of those things had a very profound impact on my life. I think in that sense, very early in life, I was very clear that the goal of life was to have impact. Uh, when I was in IAM and we used to write reflective notes for this course on entrepreneurship. And I remember I wrote a sentence which maybe it was the first time I articulated it explicitly, uh, but probably something I felt earlier. I that I actually said that I see myself as a tool for the welfare of society. That is the only purpose of my existence. And therefore, my choices have to be determined by the best use of this tool and nothing else. Uh, not by what will preserve the school longer, what will the tool enjoy doing. My needs, my preferences, my likes uh are the most inconsequential in decision making. And what will have a greater impact on society is the most important factor for me to decide what I will do.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

So that's so beautiful. In one word, you've kind of summarized so much that people take a lifetime to figure it out, which was the goal of life is to have an impact. And for a 20-year-old to have this kind of a clarity is not the easiest thing. So, what made you or how did it shape that kind of sense of clarity for you?

Defining Success as Impact

SPEAKER_01 12:23

I would just say gratitude to everything, right? I was and that's the thing about being born in privilege. I mean, I was born in a middle class family, so we never had to struggle to survive, right? I mean, and I was born the last child in the family, the third youngest. And so I had the privilege of having the opportunity to read a lot because I could read books that my elder brother and sisters were reading. I got to do math two years ahead of class, etc., all of that. And so that entire support ecosystem at home, at school. Uh, my friends, one of my friends, Jatin is now a professor in Germany, the guy who introduced me to socialist thinking, and he gave me a lot of books to read. So, you know, Dostoes Key, Cry and Punishment, which I read when I was in class 12, where he has this very beautiful line, he says that crime is often a reflection of the inequities of society, which again, uh, you know, I think very differently about this. And so I think books, talking to people, the kinds of social circles, like throughout my childhood and throughout even my college days, undergraduate college days, I always had friends who came from the entire social spectrum. I mean, entire probably never knew a billionaire when I was a child, but from very wealthy people to very poor people. That I think had a very, very important role in shaping what I became.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

That's wonderful. That spectrum definitely has had an impact on you. And for somebody who has done so much, has created so much of an impact, doesn't want to be in the spotlight. And you call yourself as I'm a bit of an introvert. I don't think your work kind of talks about it, saying that you are an introvert. You have kind of done fantastically well. But again, for the benefit of a lot of our listeners who feel that okay, I'm an introvert, so hence I cannot contribute that much, hence I cannot come to the spotlight. I would want to kind of get your perspective on some of these things, Vinkat. Uh, one is did you ever feel that introvertion might hold you back or will hold people back because they think they are introverts? I'm saying they think because I don't think he was an introvert for the kind of stuff that you had done, the kind of uh articulation that you kind of bring to a lot of the conversations.

Introversion, Communication, and Leadership

SPEAKER_01 14:42

No, I think second person is you know, there are a lot of uh psychology research around what are introverts, how are they different from others, etc. So introverts are not necessarily hesitant or shy to talk when they're talking about their work, uh, or they're talking about something significant, important, or meaningful. They are terrible when it comes to casual conversations, superficial conversations, etc. I am a deep introvert, actually, not a little bit. Uh, and with age, my introversion has been growing. When I started off early in the early days of Givindia, etc., I think the passion for the work I was doing helped me overcome the introversion because I had to go out and meet tons of people every day to sell the idea itself, to get people excited about it and all of that. And I think that being an introvert doesn't come in the way of that. If you're deeply passionate about something, you figure out ways to, you know, pull yourself out of the cave and go out there and do whatever you need to do. I I have seen a lot of others who have been introverted and you've gone on to do very well in life. In fact, I think a lot of tech nerds would in general be introverted. I my suspicion is people like Billy Aitz and you know some of the others would, if you are assessed, would find that to be introverted and it would have still gone on to do well in wines. In today's world, one of the positives is digital media, you know, whether it's emails, messaging, social media, etc., it allows introverts to communicate much more freely because the introverts' problem is not in communicating. The introvert's problem is in having to recognize social use, you know, not having them. You may reflectively say something and then regret it, etc. kind of stuff. Well, then email, social media allows you time to reflect and respond. So you're able to overcome those weaknesses. I think in many ways, today the world is not so bad if you're an introvert, you can get along. Having said that, I think it is not a virtue that you should wear on your seat. I think if you are an introvert, I would say don't look at it as a virtue and celebrate it. Accept it that that's what you are. There's no need to be apologetic about it. But but to the extent you can, I think we should try and go out and meet as many people as we can because that's where we learn the most. I think the big area that introverts like me suffer from is because we don't interact so much with people, we tend to lose out on a lot of learning opportunities. I think to the extent you can try and overcome that. Uh, I think throughout my youth, one of my biggest advantages was that I used to travel by local trains in Bombay. And those local trains are crowded. You can sit quietly in one corner, but you will overhear so many contradictions. You will see so many people talking to each other about their everyday lives, their work, their homes, their families, etc., that you get that exposure, even if you are not actively participating. But I think in today's, especially the social media world where everybody is tied to their devices, I worry that a lot of borderline people, people who are neither introverted nor extroverted, will tend to become more and more introverted. I think it's important to recognize that as a limitation rather than if a spell. And to see if there is an opportunity for people to overcome their hesitancy to meet strangers. Like yesterday, coincidentally, I just saw a reel that uh there's this lady who was being interviewed somewhere in. She was asked, if there is one thing you would want to tell millennials to do differently, what is it? And she says, Go out and meet strangers. And I thought it was a very powerful idea.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

I I think there is also this very quiet woman that is going on, which is called as the power of quiet leaders. Why introverted person can also kind of be uh very, very influential uh personalities in their own uh like?

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, I think one of the challenges is we're trying to build stereotypes around everything, right? Like there will be a stereotypical assumption that introverts are more deep thinkers or more deep people, etc. But it's not true that all extroverts don't think deep. I know quite a few extrovert friends of mine were extremely hate thinkers just when. So I think introversion, extroversion is just something that you learn about yourself and accept. I think if you obsess about it too much, then you know you waste too much energy saying, why am I like this? Instead of wasting that energy on it, just accept that I am like this and put that down and say, How do you make the most of it? Right? I mean, identify your strengths, identify your areas of weakness, surround yourself with people who will help you overcome your weaknesses and leverage your strengths to be full of.

SPEAKER_00 19:28

To a large extent, uh Venkat, I feel we are all more ambivalent than either of this. Because if the situation demands, the extrovert quality will kind of come up without you realizing about like you said, if you're passionate about something, you might label yourself as an introvert, but in that situation you act as an extrovert. Correct. Absolutely. Fantastic. Any tips for people? I I think we did touch upon some of those elements, but any tips on people who feel that they are they're labeling themselves as introverts, what would you tell them if they had to step out into leadership roles, if they have to step out of their own comfort zone to do things for them to feel who they are?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Yeah. No, I think two, three things. First, I'll repeat again first and most important, accept what you are and don't feel bad about it. I think I am not, I don't regret that I'm an introvert at all. At the same time, I don't think it's something that I wear as a chip on my shoulder or feel very cocky about. It's what I am, first simple as that. Uh certain is to surround yourself with people who are very complimentary strengths. Uh, not just on this introduction explosion, but everywhere. Like, I mean, I'm very deeply analytical as a person myself, but I like to surround myself with people who are deeply empathetic. Because that balances out my analytical tendencies with the right brain that I often lack in my work, right? Uh similarly, I surround myself. So, in fact, when I'm hiring, for most positions nowadays, I look for explosion as a quality to hire people because that helps balance out my introversion, and therefore, they become my eyes, ears, hands, and legs in helping me reach out to people, talk to them, etc. So I value that and that helps me overcome it. Last, I would say, is Peter Trucker used to say this that the biggest mistake we make in organizations is we focus on identifying people's weaknesses and helping them improved. And he says that that's a month. The right thing to do is to focus on people's strengths and help them achieve the most they can with that. And find others to help overcome the weaknesses. Right? Others whose strength is in those areas where I am have weakness. That I think is very important.

SPEAKER_00 21:37

Great. Thanks for that. Now let's get to the crux of who Vencurt is. Vencurt is known for a lot of good stuff that is happening in the country, the Give India platform, Dan Utsau, all of it. But what was intriguing to me, uh Vencurt, was you focused on not creating an NGO, but you focused on creating platforms. Platforms of scale, platforms of size. Why did you choose that path?

Platforms Over Programs: GiveIndia and DaanUtsav

SPEAKER_01 22:04

So I kind of go back to that original thing I said earlier, right? That I always look at my suit as a tool. So I may enjoy working with children or teaching or whatever it is, but I I don't think, and you know, we remember that Ikidai, which has those four cells of which one is what do you enjoy the most? But I think if in my case at least, what will have the highest impact is so important to me that I can do a lot of what I don't enjoy and able to do a lot of what I don't enjoy because what I enjoy the most is being able to see the impact that one is able to create. And uh so for me, in a sense, the idea of a platform, it wasn't that I said I want to build platforms necessarily as a goal. But uh when I came, when I spent two months in the US in 1998, traveling around the country visiting schools, because I was running a school then. But for me, the most significant learning of that trip was that people in the US care for their country uh a lot more than people in India care for our country. And uh so when I came back from that trip, I said we need to do something to get people to care. And when I started speaking to people, I realized that people actually weren't so bad. They wanted to care, but they didn't know how to. Uh and therefore building a platform seemed a better option than just setting up an MEO. Because I was less worried about making sure children are learning or making sure nobody is dying because of lack of health care or all those issues. And I was much more worried about what I call a meta-issue, which is how do you get people to care? And I would say, in many ways, since 2000, that has been my primary work, purpose in the philanthropic space, which is how do you get people to care? And therefore, the logical first step was to build a platform that would help people make donations, uh, which is how Kevin D was born. Uh, the idea of Jhanut's came from a group of us getting together, actually, group of friends. Interestingly, from business, from corporates, from social sectors, from schools, colleges, like across different social economics. I go back to that point about surrounding yourself with very, very diverse people is like really a great way to learn. And that's how the whole idea of Danutso was born because different people came at it from different lenses. Somebody looking at how can I get children to show that they care? Somebody talking about how do we get young people in colleges to show that, how do we get people in corporates excited about doing something bad or society, and so on and so forth. So the idea is that can we get people to you know, my favorite story uh or example is when you go to a Mikhail shop, a sweet shop, uh, a really good sweet shop guy will always break a piece of a sweet and make you taste it. And that comes from that confidence or belief that if you taste it, you will buy it. So, in many ways, Danutsa is that, right? It's a festival that where we hope that a lot of people who may not throughout the year, like are not NGOs and folks like that, but busy with their own lives. If we get them to taste the joy in giving to somebody else, then hopefully we can get them addicted to it and get them to do it throughout the year as well.

SPEAKER_00 25:20

That's how beautifully it's been coined also, joy of giving. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

Because that's the whole idea, right? That there is far greater joy in giving to others and helping others than beyond the point just accumulating more and more for yourself. It becomes an endless race. I can, I mean, I have had the fortune of interacting with more than 40 of India's billionaires. I think I have never seen anybody tell me that I have now so much money that that makes me happy. But on the other hand, again, I have a lot of friends who now work in the social sector, and I can see the sheer joy in their lives every day when they get up to go to work. And I see a lot of people who are at stakes level in corporates who are for whom Monday mornings are still blues. And I'm like, is that what is a happier life to have then? Right? Wouldn't you rather just be bouncy and eager to get to your workstation at six in the morning on a Monday? Uh I would rather live that life than live a life where I'm just counting it in terms of number of talk options.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

So while this vision was big, you wanted to kind of create that impact, make it pan-country level. I'm sure it also had its own share of challenges, frustrations. Was it very hard to convince people to get onto the bandwagon? What was some of the challenges that you had to overcome?

Challenges of Building a Giving Culture

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Uh, initially, a little yes, in give India. I think firstly because the concept didn't exist. There was internet itself was very, very new in India in 2000. And to tell people that we will build a platform where people can come and donate to a cause of their choice, people found it difficult to believe that something like this could work. Remember, this was before Flipkart and Amazon and any of the e-commerce platforms even existed in India. Yeah, so before an even an e-commerce marketplace exists or a business marketplace exists, to think that a philanthropy marketplace can work. People thought that idea was way too ahead of its time and it was difficult to get people on board. But luckily, we had a whole bunch of people supporting us. We also, you know, like ICSA did a very important thing for us in our early days. They reached out to some of the NGOs that they were supporting and told them that we are supporting this platform. Please go and get registered there. Second is, I think all said and done the having an IM degree gives you, you know, people tend to often impute credibility and respect to you even without evidence. In that sense, that degree helped. I got access to a lot more people, a lot more people who were more willing to help, be more supportive and so on. So I think it was just difficult for a year, maybe at most. Then we got lucky and things went well. The other thing that happened was in January 26, 2001, the Gujarat earthquake happened, right? Not a very happy situation. I we were raised in Amdubad at that point, right? But uh we in those days we raised almost a crore online within a few days. Our server crashed, all of those things happened. And I think for the first time people saw that people very they won't like that made a bit.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

What's one lesson from your journey that they should hold on to?

SPEAKER_01 28:47

I would say put the two cause first, your organization second, and yourself last.

SPEAKER_00 28:53

Beautiful.

Cause First, Organization Second, Self Last

SPEAKER_01 28:54

It's very counterintuitive sometimes, you know. So, for example, very early, 2002, I remember in one of our board meetings in India, I was talking to our board. I took a decision that I will never accept any awards in my life. Any awards, any recognitions, nothing. Right? So I've been offered a lot of them, but I've declined all of them. I think you were fortunate enough to build an organizational brand very early in life. And so I said that it is I would rather let the organization's brand get built so that it's able to achieve more through that. My personal branding is unimportant. Like I said, I am the most insignificant part of my life. So in any case, that doesn't matter. And then over a period of time, I realized that if you genuinely want to have impact, then you have to even put your organization one level below the impact. Because what tends to happen often, you know, a lot of criticism around why nonprofits don't collaborate, etc. I find more often than not, it's either individual egos or what will my organization get out of this that comes into. Away because even non-profit leaders are not able to put the cause above their own order. Sometimes it's of course because of deep ideological differences and all of which, but I think very often, non-trivially often, it's because people are worried about my organization, myself, my brand, and those kind of things. Who may be seen as the leader of this collaborative, for example? As if that matters. Who cares? Right? Shouldn't we be focused on what can this potentially achieve? And so I believe that use visibility, recognition, appreciation as currency that you can leverage to accomplish more. So if I can offer somebody more visibility in exchange for creating greater social impact, I take lesser or zero visibility in exchange. I am very, very happy to do that. Because at the end of the day, the only objective function I am maximizing power is what is the impact. Trust me, I found that it's very weird that like the fact that I have avoided all awards, all recognitions, all of those things, and yet not something that I want also, but I am well known. Anybody who needs to know me knows me. There are actually 30 of India, 100, 150 billionaires who will know me by now. Can't say that for many social leaders of this country, more social sector leaders will know me by now. It's not I don't care about it, but I'm saying that if you seek something, sometimes it becomes even more elusive. And if you focus on doing the right thing, then all this paraphernalia gets taken care of by itself.

Closing Reflections and Next-Part Tease

SPEAKER_00 31:32

No, that's so very true. I I think if you're focused on impact, if you are focused on what you want to do without worrying about the wealths and visits around it, it will happen eventually. If the work is so good, uh there is a quote, be so good that they can't ignore you. And Venkat, I'm sure in this particular chosen path that you have had, you'd have probably heard more no's than in yes to start off with. Probably today might not be the situation, but when you started off, it was more no's than in yes. And for somebody who was starting, this might be kind of a discouragement. So saying that, look, I have a vision, I have a goal, but I don't see people supporting me. How did you deal with that kind of a situation? What do you recommend people to do with when they are up on a cause? It's just not a social sector kind of thing, but it can happen to anything, right? How do you deal with those kind of rejections? What a remarkable journey so far. The story of a man who chose purpose over prominence and built India's giving moment, one thoughtful act at a time. From the quiet power of intervention to perseverance, it takes to build trust in a space where belief is the only currency. Wenkat's story remains us that change often begins in silence and spreads through conviction. But this story is only half. Get back for the next part of this conversation where we talk more about the making of Danutsu, the spirit of not giving up, and much, much more. Thanks for listening, my dear reasons.