Page 161 - JOURNAL OF THE KRISHNAMURTI SCHOOLS

n 2016, I was at The School to give a talk at the annual teachers’
conference of the Krishnamurti schools. My talk was scheduled
after the morning tea break. When I arrived, it was tea time.
II caught up with many people whom I had not seen in some
time. The feelings were warm and affectionate. The conversation
lively, cheerful and energetic. On that morning, I felt very much at
home and in some ways the eighteen years that had elapsed since I
left the school had not happened at all!
A chance remark made me realize with a small jolt that I was
something of an oddity in that group. “You have been a bit of a
rolling stone, haven’t you?” I was in the midst of people who have
spent a lifetime in the world of K institutions. And in my work
life since leaving The School, I had indeed rolled through a few
different organizations and subjects. I remember responding with
something along the lines of, “I sure have gathered plenty of mass”,
which indeed I have in the journey into middle age!
This is how the India Development Review, an online journal
that I have contributed a few articles to, chooses to describe me:

G. Ananthapadmanabhan (Ananth) works with purpose driven
leaders and social sector organizations that aspire to make a differ-
ence to the significant issues of our times. He’s the former CEO of
Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives (APPI). Prior to that, Ananth
was the CEO of Amnesty International in India and the Interna-
tional Programme Director at Greenpeace. He started his work life
as a teacher in The School, Krishnamurti Foundation India. Ananth
graduated in 1988 from IIT Madras with a BTech in electrical engi-
neering.

I must say, it is a description that I like. It is bland and makes no
attempt to connect it all into a sort of narrative. However, my own
sense of myself is that of someone who has persisted and stuck
to things. I realize that my own experience of persistence and

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