Sreekandh Balakrishnan sreebalakrishnan.in
Stylised portrait of Sree Balakrishnan in a Himachali topi and embroidered Nehru jacket
Technologist · Student of Vedanta

Sreekandh
Balakrishnan

Global Technology Director at Travelopia, and India Director for Enchanting Travels, the group's home brand. My work, in one line: be a catalyst for business transformation. I've tried it many times — sometimes it lands, sometimes it half-lands, sometimes it doesn't. I keep going.

I treat life and work as one long experiment — a dreamer correcting the dream as he implements it. Off the clock: Sanskrit, Jyotish, and the older question of what it means to build with intent. Some days the two halves talk to each other. Some days they argue. I write about both.

Three roles, one practice

01

Technology & Transformation

Leading product and engineering across India, the UK, and the US. Building AI-first teams that don't trade craft for speed.

02

Trustee & Advisor

Trustee at Equal Experts. Advisor at GoSports.in, a foundation in service of athletes. Quiet roles, long horizons.

03

Writing at the seam

Essays where dharma meets delivery — on Substack and LinkedIn. Compressed, paradox-tolerant, occasionally Sanskrit.

Made by many hands

A partial list — the full one would be a book. So I started writing it down: every hand that shaped me, from a Kerala village in 1980 to now. Brothers and teachers, Nair Uncle and Sri Sri, a startup that folded, the Laxminarayan brothers, Sripriya, the children, and Venky — when Venky speaks, I listen.

I did not make myself. Pranams to all — known and unknown, this lifetime and the ones before. Just grateful I get to experience this life. Gratitude always.

Read the full lineage — 1980 to now →

Two kids, a partner, a place

Two children — Krish (2015) and Neeraja (2019) — who have shaped me more than any book or framework has. My partner Sripriya runs Aevam, a yoga studio.

We made the slow move to Auroville — the experimental bioregion near coastal Tamil Nadu. Slower life, deeper roots. (The full story is in the essays.)

What's on my mind

The shift from buying AI tools to rebuilding how we work. Digital coworkers as a serious organisational claim, not a slogan.

Co-authoring on the human side of AI adoption — the part of the change curve no roadmap captures.

A small podcast — unhurried conversations with people I find interesting. Kanika Kohli, Anil Grovor, more coming.

Building Kaalapurusha — a modern Jyotish toolchain in Python on the Swiss Ephemeris. Sidereal positions, dasha timelines, classical yogas.

Building quietly for others — pages, tools, small digital things for people in my world. A new thread I'm enjoying.

And the daily practice itself: yoga, mantra, the steady work of paying attention.

Swabhāva · Swadharma · Swatanthratha One's own nature · One's own duty · One's own freedom

In the open

Inklings · 4 Sep 2026

Twelve who know the way

For Janmashtami, Prakash Anna penned a piece on the twelve Mahājanas of the Bhāgavatam — the ones Yamarāja himself says know the way. Sree looks for each of the twelve in an ordinary week: the connector, the one who holds the poison in his throat, the child who teaches the parent, the auditor who keeps the ledger.

/inklings →
Practice · Aug 2026

Which camera? — a five-question guide

Five plain questions, one clear answer. A small guide for anyone in an Indian housing group trying to pick an all-weather outdoor camera — where the power point is, whether WiFi reaches, and what it will actually cost over three years.

/which-camera →
Closer in · Aug 2026

Who this site is

If this website were a person, who would he be? A character sheet for sreebalakrishnan.in — the curious chronicler: six tensions, a portrait, and the one line underneath it all.

/who →
Inklings · 24 Aug 2026

Krishna decided to come to the office

A brass Krishna gifted by a business partner's mother, a table found in a shop that was closing, a pooja that turned into a prāṇa-pratiṣṭhā — and Rani, who says hi to Krishna before anything else each morning.

/inklings →
Inklings · 24 Aug 2026

Amma wakes the house first

Ten days of Onam open with a pookalam. My mother is past seventy-five, unwell — and still the first one up, getting the house, the pooja room and the kitchen ready. On Mahabali, a three-state family, and loving a complicated mother.

/inklings →
Inklings · 24 Aug 2026

Maybe they're not following the rules

A Delhivery truck on the highway with two different number plates — one on the truck, one on the trailer. Our first instinct was that someone was cheating. Thirty seconds of curiosity said otherwise.

/inklings →
The full shelf — everything on this site →

Two minds, equal weight

The scientific mind tests what can be measured.

The Vedic heart sits with what cannot.

I hold them as equal instruments — and refuse to choose between them.

On showing up

For a long time, I hated social media.

Then came Orkut — do you even remember it? It barely exists now.

I've created and deleted my Instagram account ten times. Installed and uninstalled the app a hundred. Eventually I gave up and now use Instagram on the web — or borrow my partner's phone when I want to scroll a reel.

LinkedIn was the one I needed for work, so I lived there. Around 2010 I had a thousand-plus contacts and no real connection with most of them, so I deleted the account and started over. The rule since: only add people I've actually met in person and can recall by name. Dozens of unactioned requests sit in my inbox, waiting for the day we cross paths in real life and I remember the name. It's the only way I've found to keep LinkedIn honest.

And then — slowly, over the last year — my build mojo came back. The new-age agents made it possible to ship things I'd been carrying around in my head for a decade. The dreamer finally caught up with the doer. I'm alive again.

Studying astrology this last year showed me something I'd been side-stepping for years: I gain energy when I'm visible. Not the performative kind — the steady kind, where what shows up outside is in alignment with what's already moving inside. So this whole site, this whole trail, is in some part an experiment in showing up. Hope it continues.

Wish me luck.

Where the conversation continues

A heads-up — I'm slow to reply. But I read everything that comes in.

Also building

Where Let's build began — APT Tiles, given a proper home on the web. All done, and loved.

a Let's build site
Screenshot of the APT Tiles homepage

From manganese ore to finished alloy — a group of businesses, one clear front door. All done, and loved.

a Let's build site
Screenshot of the Ramnik Group homepage

A coaching practice, given a calm home on the web. All done, and loved.

a Let's build site
Screenshot of the rotem.coach homepage

The newest Let's build conversation, currently taking shape — the page itself says so.

Screenshot of swatirajput.in — a page that says it is still being written

Drowning in WhatsApp floods to find events that mattered. Solved it for myself — now sharing it with the bioregion.

with Vikram Devatha · Griselda
Screenshot of the Living in Auroville homepage

A dream my partner had but never had time to build. Finally, love made time. Start with her colours page.

Screenshot of the sripriya.me homepage

We always wanted to write a book. This is where that starts. With Chris — from our Travelopia years.

Screenshot of the Chris and Sree blog homepage

A place for senior leaders to pause, reflect, and lead differently. With Sunil Rawlani — my ISB coach.

Screenshot of the Conscious Leadership Circle homepage
spoken by Sree, shaped into pages with ❤️