13 years ago, I met Kiruba Shankar at a conference in Pune.

Back then, the conversations were all about blogs, Twitter, and the early days of social media. We were fascinated by how communities could be built online. Scale was the game. Reach was the metric.

Fast forward to today.

I met him again, this time not at a conference, but in Chennai. And not in a room full of screens, but in a space rooted in soil, nature, and people.

He is now building something very different. Not online communities, but real, human experiences. Farm stays. Retreats. Spaces where people disconnect to reconnect. Take a look at what he has built: Vaksana Farms.

It made me pause. I had seen how he started with Vaksana and what it has become now. In some ways, this is a dream of every person living in the city.

Kiruba is a multi-faceted, multi-talented person. I do not think I have met anyone like him in my lifetime.

We moved from:

  • Building audiences -> Building communities
  • Broadcasting -> Hosting
  • Content -> Context
  • Goals -> Life Happens

And now, perhaps, to something even deeper.

From attention -> to intention.

What struck me most was not what changed. It was what did not.

Kiruba still has the same instinct, to bring people together. Only the medium has changed. He is still very rooted, down-to-earth, and very sharp, just as he always was.

And maybe that is the real lesson.

Platforms will evolve. Technology will leap forward. Today it is AI. Tomorrow it will be something else.

But the core human need remains unchanged.

Connection. Meaning. Belonging.

In a world increasingly driven by AI, speed, scale, intelligence, there is a quiet but powerful return happening.

A return to what I would call Aai.

Grounding. Nurturing. Real human connection.

Interestingly, my son had attended one of his book retreats and published his book right after.

That, for me, brought the whole story full circle.

13 years ago, we were discussing how to build digital communities.

Today, the next generation is experiencing something far more fundamental.

Not through screens. But through life.

Some people scale. Some people go deeper.

The rare ones like Kiruba Shankar do both.

And those are the ones worth learning from. Thank you Kiruba. It was such a surreal experience to meet you after so many years.

#FromHashtagsToHarvests #CommunityBuilding #HumanConnection #Leadership #PersonalGrowth