Volunteering, Without Romanticism

What six years of showing up taught me

I was accidentally introduced to the world of volunteering in my second year of my working career.

A few people I met back then were interested in conducting evening classes for children from underprivileged backgrounds in Bangalore. The idea itself felt exciting. It wasn’t about outcomes or scale. It was simply the possibility of contributing time and attention to something larger than myself.

That particular stint didn’t turn into anything long-term or deeply meaningful for either side. But it planted a seed. It was my first exposure to a space where you could offer your time and expertise without being measured against market norms. Without performance reviews, or monetary outcomes. There was less judgment. Less comparison. And that mattered.

Football, Gratitude, and Showing Up

Five years later in 2017, while running my startup, I found a volunteering opportunity that felt far more personal.

I’ve played football most of my life. Football shaped me—discipline, teamwork, resilience, and a sense of fairness. So when an opportunity came up to coach football for children from an underprivileged school, using the sport to teach life skills, I instantly connected.

This was a thesis I believed in because I had lived it.

I signed up for an academic year. I still remember those mornings clearly—leaving home early, traveling 40–50 minutes to the school, running training sessions until 8 or 8:30 AM, and then heading straight to work. I’d change, freshen up, and begin the workday.

During one of the coaching sessions at GKEMPS School in Bangalore - 2017

Looking back, it required a surprising amount of motivation and energy. I’m grateful that, at that phase of life, I could carry both worlds. That year remains one of the most grounding experiences I’ve had. I’ve written about it in detail here.

Over time, these experiences gave me exposure to what volunteering could mean. But the real shift came when I met Avinash Raghava.

Seeing Volunteering From the Inside

I met Avinash while looking for a place to work from. As a bootstrapped founder, I was constantly trying to save costs, and Accel Partners’ Launchpad in Koramangala accommodated a few startups outside their portfolio.

Avinash, who led Community efforts at Accel that time, offered me a simple exchange: access to the space, if I also helped build a stronger sense of community around it.

I wasn’t sure if I was good at community-building. But I was grateful—for the trust, for the opportunity, and for the fact that the space was within walking distance from my home.

That’s where things quietly began to change.

We organized sessions, invited speakers, ran table tennis tournaments, and tried to create a sense of belonging. I also got to observe other volunteers closely - people who had committed to keeping the ecosystem alive - who got a similar quid pro quo deal as me.

Some showed up consistently. Others slowly slipped away.

That was my first real lesson in how hard volunteering actually is.

If everyone wanted to build something meaningful, why did momentum fade so easily? Why did commitments quietly dissolve? These questions stayed with me.

SaaSBoomi, and a Door That Opened

Around this time, Avinash invited me to attend SaaSBoomi’s flagship Annual conference in early 2020—just before COVID struck.

I didn’t know it then, but that invitation changed everything.

What I experienced there felt different from other ecosystems I had seen. There was a collective intent to build a Product Nation, a vision of India becoming a software powerhouse, contributing significantly to her economy. And all of it with pay-it-forward philosophy at the heart of it.

By then, Avinash and I had already worked together long enough for trust to form. He had seen how I showed up. And through him, I had begun to understand what it meant to steward a community rather than simply manage one.

After that event, my desire to be involved with SaaSBoomi wasn’t abstract anymore. I didn’t need a defined role. I simply wanted to be useful.

When COVID hit soon after, that intent found its outlet.

I began volunteering actively—working on virtual playbooks, helping build online communities across WhatsApp and later Slack, and supporting and kickstarting more initiatives behind the scenes. In a time of uncertainty, this work gave me structure and meaning. It also marked the beginning of a long-term volunteering journey that would evolve in ways I couldn’t yet anticipate.

Resentment Is the Signal

It’s been close to six years since I started volunteering actively with SaaSBoomi. That longevity gave me something rare: the chance to observe volunteering not as moments, but as cycles.

Over time, I began noticing a clear difference between the work that created resistance in me and the work that put me into flow. Volunteering became a discovery platform—helping me understand where I genuinely add value, what kind of contribution the organization respects, and just as importantly, what kind of work I should consciously stay away from.

This is where resentment becomes important.

When there’s no market compensation, it’s easy to feel used—especially if you aren’t aligned with why you’re doing the work. I’ve experienced this myself. There were initiatives I said yes to without fully thinking them through.

That misalignment shows up quietly. As procrastination. As irritation. As withdrawal.

But if you stay long enough, you learn to listen to these signals early.

You start asking:

• Do I genuinely want to own this?

• Does this play to my strengths?

• Am I doing this out of conviction, or obligation?

With time, you get better at consciously self-selecting—stepping into work you believe in, and stepping away from what you don’t, without guilt.

And when you do take ownership wholeheartedly, something shifts.

There may still be difficulty. There may still be frustration. But the internal narrative changes. You’re no longer telling yourself that this was imposed on you. You chose it.

That choice makes all the difference.

When Volunteering Turns Into Flow

A few years ago, I volunteered for about six to nine months with an education-focused organization in India that I stumbled upon through a Netflix documentary. What drew me in was the ambition of the cause: offering children from economically and socially disadvantaged backgrounds access to a globally competitive education.

The work wasn’t easy.

The social media team I collaborated with was largely based in Seattle, which meant odd hours and stretched days. I still showed up. I still put in the effort. Even when reciprocation wasn’t what I had expected — likely due to internal constraints and changing priorities in the organisation — I persisted.

I stitched together story ideas and experiments, many of which couldn’t be taken public.

What surprised me was this: it didn’t lead to resentment. Not because outcomes materialized—but because I had consciously chosen to be there.

That experience showed me another dimension of volunteering—not just as service, but as a space for learning, exploration, and growth. The work itself became rewarding, independent of recognition.

In the past couple of years, that sense of flow has deepened further.

Since then, I’ve been fortunate to volunteer with Kerala Blind School Society and TinkerHub, help shape the Young Minds Fellowship with some amazing folks, and channel energy into equitable AI through AI-kkara.

Alongside these, there were also smaller commitments—coaching football for high school students in Model Residential School (Aluva), teaching swimming during a summer alongside other volunteers.

I’ve also remained deeply grateful to SaaSBoomi for allowing me to contribute on my own terms, especially through the initiative Jagah, which focuses on helping founders become more conscious, grounded leaders.

Detachment, Letting Go, and Replacing Yourself

At some point in a long volunteering journey, something subtle changes.

You begin to develop a sense of detachment.

Not detachment from the work—but detachment from being the work.

You stop tying your identity to the initiative. You stop preserving your position. Instead, you begin looking for people who can do what you started—better than you ever could.

And when you find them, you onboard them thoughtfully. You transfer context. You step back deliberately.

I’ve been fortunate to experience this across multiple initiatives I helped kick-start within SaaSBoomi. Handing things over cleanly, without clinging, turned out to be one of the most important learning experiences of my life.

These moments of change management taught me restraint, trust, and humility. In a quiet way, they also contributed to my personal and spiritual growth.

To care deeply—and still let go—is not easy. But it’s essential.

Where I’ve Landed

It’s important to say this plainly: none of this began from a purely altruistic place.

It started from self-preservation. And that’s okay.

What matters is not where you start, but how you show up. If you commit fully—with sincerity, ownership, and care—the work reshapes you. Expectations fall away. You stop keeping score.

I no longer see volunteering as charity or sacrifice. Because it is not.

I see it as another avenue of self expression, that one self-selects into. By choosing consciously to contribute without clinging while mindful of any resistance you feel in the process.

If you stay long enough, it doesn’t just change the world around you.
It changes how you relate to effort, ownership, and meaning itself.

I’ve been incredibly lucky to become clay in the hands of mentors like Avinash, who know when to guide, when to step aside, and when to let you discover your own path. I wish and pray more people get to experience volunteering under such guidance.