KHANAK LASHKARI (FOUNDER OF UMPTEEN TREASURE)

So welcome to the interview Khanak. Thank you so much for agreeing to join us today for taking on time. So to begin with, we would like to give a little introduction to our audience about who you are.

Sure, first thank you so much for having me here I'm really excited. So my name is khanak lashkari, I'm from Jaipur. I'm currently in the 12th grade. And I am trying to figure out what I like to do after my high school. Well, I have started pursuing social entrepreneurship, which stems back from when my mom used to take me out for community service practices. Like on occasions, we used to go out to charities and during COVID, I had the pleasure to interact with a lot of amazing people, amazing entrepreneurs, from different universities and which inspired me to work towards same cause. And I found it started with umpteen treasurer, which is a nonprofit youth run organizations, we are working towards contributing to the cause of SDG 4 that is quality education. But what we've done is we've added tint of our own personal experiences that we've tried to corporate SDG four with skill development, because as students is ready, or that we learn the aspect of skill development in our schools, so we've tried to cooperate that and they've been trying, it's been almost a year actually done in umpeen treasurer. And yeah, we've had pretty good progress. We've conducted many workshops, both international and national. On the other hand since I, I love traveling, but since COVID, happened, it was not at all possible to do so. So I thought, okay, what can we do to meet people just to know others culture and tradition? So me and my vice president, which also happens to me my first cousin, we thought of starting a project diversified that is basically community of students from around the globe. We have members from seven plus nations now. To have projects diversify and have virtual exchange programs, which happened this summer. And we had participants 90 plus participant and it went amazing.

That’s amazing

Thank you. That's about entrepreneurial side. And apart from that my hobbies are I love, love, love traveling, dancing. I've been dancing since I was pretty young. So dancing is one thing. I love playing sports. I've been a national taekwondo player. And I play for my school basketball team currently promoted as captain

That's so cool.

So like before moving on to some serious questions, I would like to ask some fun trivia questions, just too sort of break the ice. Do you mind?

Absolutely not

Okay. So in your LinkedIn, I saw you're a good problem solver as an interpersonal skills.

I believe yes. Well, problem solving, I just go with my Guts.

So okay, I'll give you two situations and you have to give like the solution, there are no wrong answers. Just give your best. Okay. First situation is how do you deal with a situation where you cannot find the solution for?

I believe, honestly, if you don't find a solution, it's just me and my friends talk all the time that whenever we are in an immensely difficult situation, and we cannot think about anything, sleeping is the best option. And I just feel like when I sleep I did tried it myself. And it just resonates my thoughts and myself and it is freshens you up so much that the moment you wake up, you will have ideas. I don't know if it's just me. I just have been doing this for a really long period of time. Whenever I'm feeling very stressed. I just go to sleep. That's it. I just don't think about it. I just sleep and yeah, I think sleeping really helps me find the solutions which I want.

I hope I had that kind of thought process. Okay, so the next situation is, have you ever had a deadline you weren't able to meet? So like, what happened? And how did you handle it?

Yes, I have been able to, there have been many times. So basically, I'm currently doing this fellowship, you can say program at the Global Citizen Year Academy. It’s an academy, which is trying to build young leaders. And it's amazing. And we have a ton of assignments. It's just a lot. So since I also have my boards starting within the 10 days, I had to submit an assignment on the 20th, which I did not. I think what I did was like I tried to reach out to the instructor next explained him that" hey, so this is, a lot of things have been happening, and I haven't been able to submit my assignment time would you mind if you give me an extension?" And I think when you explain someone why if you have a valid reason, the other person will understand and she did and I some did my assignment at before this call. So it worked out well. But I think if you have an assignment, and if you genuinely had a problem to submit the assignment, if you just reach out to the person who you want to submit to it, they will understand and it will work out.

Definitely. Okay. The third question is like the situate the problem solving is done, but third is kind of like a light question, how would you describe yourself in three words?

Okay. Explorer ambitious and keen.

That's amazing. Okay, so onto the serious question. Okay. So the first question is, you are the founder of Project diversify and umpteen treasure, right? So, could you tell us a bit more about your organizations and what was the main objective?

Okay, so I'm doing umpteen treasures stemmed out of my interest in social advocacy. And I was volunteering in a couple of organizations and I felt the need of entering the space of social social entrepreneurship myself. And I found that quality education was something which really intrigued me and I genuinely wanted to like advocate for something related to skill development. Some green dashes stemmed out of that I reached out over a person who had a similar interest, and she eventually ended up becoming my co-founder, and I'm being treasurer, we have been conducting various education and skill development related workshops and sessions for students. And we those, those have included carried activism workshops, and then College held workshops, and you can designing workshops, and etc. For Project diversify. As I mentioned before, it stemmed out of my interest for exploring and knowing people. It's generally talking to people from the cultures knowing what they are doing and how they're different and similar to us. And we conducted a poster exchange program and diversify, as I mentioned before. And now diversify is also becoming a platform where students come together to advocate for activism, socialism, and leadership.

That's brilliant. So like as you said, either so from your bio, you are a dancer. And dancing as a whole incorporates dances from different cultures. So like, did any part of it led you to start your own organization of project diversify?

I think dancing has been a very crucial part of my up growing. Like, as far as I can remember, I have been dancing throughout my school journey, I would always be out of classes, and my teacher would call my parents and say " hey khanak is again not in my class. She's again gone back to this dance class and everything." And my parents were pretty okay with that, because I would manage whatever I would leave behind in the academic section. But I think dance really inspired me to be more confident and be more presentable because being out there when you're in front of 1000 people and just seeing you, you just know that you have to give your best shot right now in COVID that was not possible because there were no on field functions happening right. So what I did was initially before even starting umpteen treasure and project diversify, there is this organization called Open House and they basically allow you to create your own dance types, so I gathered around a few of my friends and I found it and let another dance type called Confidence. So this was something we started and I think, after we ran it for a period of four to five months and after that got finished I was assured that, okay, I can practice leadership, even if it's in a virtual format. So I think after confidence, I became even more persistent on becoming more involved with leadership and taking up a position where I can bring people together and form a community to advocate something. Good, right. So I think this is how I have been feeling. And it just worked fine for me.

That's amazing how it worked out for you. Definitely Dancing builds confidence, it needs a lot of nerves to go out on the stage and dance in front of the whole stadium. Okay, next question is, you received the principal choice award right? So like, having receive it? Is it difficult to stand up to the expectations of people?

Okay so I got the award back when I was in the 10th grade, and I've never been really afraid of doing what people want me to do and rather doing what I want myself . So making sure that I stand up to people's expectation has been the least of my concerns, at least what I believe in, and if I'm able to checkmark, the two rules that I've set for myself, I'm standing up for my expectations. And that is enough, right? If I have a certain goal about myself, and if I have able to reach that, that is enough for me. And I think receiving awards is just incentivizing your efforts. It's not about matching up with those expectations. It's just an appreciation of your work. So I just take it that way, I don’t consider it in a way that I now have to even face up myself to prove the other person that I actually deserve it. No, you deserve it. That's why you got it. Just be happy and move on. That's how I think.

Wonderful. Okay, so the next question is, being a teenager, there is always these extreme pressures from schools, for exams, and an interpersonal struggle of finding the right college and preparing for the competitive exams? In all this, how do you find time to manage your organizations?

Okay, so I would not lie academics will and always have been my first priority, because in the end, education is something that is very important. And umpteen treasure should definitely advocate that make education your priority, right. So I think I definitely made sure that whenever I'm in school, I am properly making sure that my time is being invested in the right way, I'm paying focus, and I'm paying attention. And when I'm doing other activities, even if it's just for hour or even if just for half an hour, I'm making sure that I get the most out of the time that I invested. So I think making sure that the time you're investing in anything you like, even if it's academics for me, even if it's like running umpteen treasure and project diversify for me, I make sure that I maximize the time I invested. So I just tried to make sure that if I'm in school I’m being focused asking questions, and answering them at the same time, if I miss any classes, I go back and study on my own, I have been a self-learner. So I just believe in that also, at the same time, I also don't believe in the bookish language, like I am not the nerd person who you will find studying all the time. I've never been that I believe I'm more of a practical person. Because the more I learned from practical experiences, I have never been able to learn that from books I think definitely you should ask your teachers I do bug my teachers all the time and they're always annoyed with me that you're never in class and then you ask this to me later. So yeah, but if you're doing like something really appreciable the effort being to do yourself again, teachers will be willing to help you out. I'm so happy they are so amazing. They always are willing to help. And honestly I believe all the teachers are so I just think you need to be out there and ask whatever help you want.

Definitely teachers are a part of your life. Okay, it's like following the previous question, how do you manage to take time out for yourself?

Saturdays and Sundays are for me, I do not do anything I don't study on Saturdays, Sundays, I don't do any organizational work on Saturdays and Sundays. I just believe that if you have a week, at least two days I can dedicate to myself and do things that I love, I would go on hiking with my friends around the Aravalli’s in Jaipur , a lot of people don't know this but Jaipur is also a place where you can hike up . So I would do that and making sure that I binge watch my favorite web series all the time, I make sure that I get enough time to invest my time in my favorite web shows /movies. So I do that making sure that I have enough time to talk to my friends talk to my family members. After like, whenever I feel overwhelmed, I would just call up or I would just scroll through Instagram for memes, I would just do that.

That's cool you really need a time always because if you don't have my time, you stress out a lot. So it's very important. And I like you have two days for yourself. The next question is, how do you generate new ideas?

So ideas can be both very, very bad and very good, right? I don't really think when something pops into my head, I will just pen it down on my notes or on a Google document, I had this google document of like the app that can be built ,the ideas that can be peruse , What I can do in next year. So No matter how bad it is, or no matter how good it can be, I would just pen it down and I think you can just tick mark if you really want to pursue it. And if you can just chop it off. If you don't want to right? You can discuss about it. Sometimes I get my ideas by discussing it with some friends, one of my friends who is also interested in social entrepreneurship, we build projects in school and stuff. And we always talk about how we can make more things, we can make more sustainable products, which can replace the current non sustainable products in the market. And what we both of us has done, we have made this list of products that we need to make. Someday in the future when we're in college and we just brainstorm. We just talk to each other. And we just ask each other we both give each other feedback. And we criticize each other for what both of us would think is good or what both of us think can walk out and cannot work out. So I think opening and sharing. Sometimes we don't share our ideas to others, becoming insecure that they might not think it is as good as it can be. Or they might stole it, But I think if your idea is authentic, no one can steal it from you. Because if your idea is truly yours, only you will be able to work out the way you wanted and no one else. And yeah, I think just have a cup of coffee and just think what you would like to work on. And the ideas will pop into your head and just write them down because you will forget them the next day. I do.

The next question is what is the key driving force which led you to start your own organization?

I wanted to make sure that since we had a lot of time, during COVID, I wanted to make sure that I'm not wasting a lot of time, right. As when the schools were open or when COVID was not there. Everything was offline. I used to be very much engaged in other activities. As I mentioned that I would play basketball I would do taekwondo practices, I would do dance practices. But those were not happening. Like I was absolutely bored. And I spent a month and a half just binge watching, insanely binge watching. I literally finished so many websites And after a point I hit a point where I realized, Okay, I think I need to like stabilize myself a little I have had a long, long break and now I can get back to doing things which I genuinely care about, just scrolling through Instagram and seeing posts about what are the current social issues prevailing in society was not enough for me. I generally try to go ahead and take the step to maybe make tiny bit of difference if that counts right. So I think where I benefited was that I found people who were also looking for the same thing to do. And I was able to collaborate with them to build both project diversify and umpteen treasure and I think making sure that my time is being invested in the right direction, along with the support of my friends and family members was something which fruited the organizations.

That's so cool how you utilize your time in COVID. Okay, so on to the next question who is the biggest inspiration in your life?

My mom, she has actually been social entrepreneur even before I have been. And she is running a social local NGO along with the motto of women empowerment. And I think she has never stopped me from doing anything that I wanted like never. And because I think she has a built a level of trust within me and she always persuades me to do what I feel is right. And I think yeah, that's why she's my biggest inspiration.

That's so sweet. Okay, the next question is can you tell us a little bit about your organization. Umpteen treasure and it's initiative and how was your experience in conducting and interacting with the participants in in the workshop?

Okay, so I think initiatives are based on internet awareness and social advocacy. Well, so interacting and making sure and bringing people together and even inviting the speakers can get very hectic, and you just become nervous that okay, everything must go as you stand right? When you are the organizer, when you have all the responsibilities, I think you just become more careful about everything from sending in the emails from receiving and enquiries that you might have and for making sure that you have a platform where everyone can come together and you need to manage time. If you have said that this is going to take an hour you need to make sure that it runs for an hour and that never happens right? Things always get exceeded. So either you have to cut short on the participant interactions or either you have to DM the speaker that hey, we are running short on time to wrap up and there is just a lot happening all together. So I would say making sure that everything works well. You need to be stained from your mind you need to have a clear head you need to drink water be hydrated so that everything works well and I think if you're genuinely invested in doing everything will. if you have a good team who is making sure and helping you out with like management work, it will again work out will and interacting with the participants. Basically the participants were other fellow students right so I think we could empathize to each other what they were asking we could offer it and what we were actually providing them they wanted it. So right it went two ways and I am so happy that all the workshops and sessions that, we've had till now has gone very smoothly and has not faced yet any issues.

I was really curious. I was actually doing research on umpteen treasure and like scroll through your organization and I found something called Teens psychopaths. Can you tell little bit about it?

So my co-founder her name is Mehak .she was even more invested about social advocacy and how media affects us like involvement of media, for example, web shows and other movies directly, making us do things that we want or just inspiring us to do stuff. So for example During the Pride Month through teen’s psychopaths, we made sure that we celebrate the entire Pride Month by making memes and making posts revolving around that. Using references from movies and web shows that strongly advocate the idea of how strong LGBTQ community is and how strong the pride month can be if we come together and start talking about it. So I think we use teens psychopaths initiative where we are strongly focusing and our main focus is social issues, addressing the stereotypes that are prevailing society and making sure that through using social media and media, we just like tried to collaborate on the topics that we really genuinely feel are in the society and they must be addressed asap.

Definitely and I really love the concept of umpteen treasure, especially the internet awareness. It's so crucial for this generation with everything being computerized. It’s really a nice program. I really loved it. Okay, so this is a last question, unfortunately. So like, we are wrapping up the interview with this last question. So could you tell us some tips or advice to anyone who wants to start their own initiative, or has an idea of a startup?

So I think the first thing I would say is believe in yourself. I know, it's very, very cliché, everyone would advocate believe in yourself. And honestly, it is true. As cliché as it sounds, it is true. You have to just believe in yourself. And I think, I initially was afraid of starting anything, because I was initially very, very afraid of judgments. And I was very, very afraid of what others might think. But as I said before, now I don't try to live up to what others expect me to do rather than what I do. And I think that has been one of the best advice that anyone has given to me. I think if you want to start something, and if you really are passionate about that, you would be able to figure out a way to do that. And once you do that, you have to be consistent because consistency is something I struggled with, my teammates have struggled with, especially when we are school going kids right? We have assignments, we have exams coming up each day, and especially this COVID time when you're locked up at home, things can get very hectic .So just be consistent. Believe in yourself and make sure that your idea reflects what you are and you genuinely want to work towards it. And you will be able to do that. Make sure you research well. Research is again very important.

Yeah, definitely. I really loved the tips. Thank you for myself as well. Okay, so with that, the interview is done. Thank you so much for your time. It was so sweet talking with you. I hope your dreams and your organizations become really successful and popular.

Thank you very much for inspiring me with your inspiwire and I hope to come back again.