Krishna

Abstract

Krishna, 24 years, was a final year student of a business management program. He was tall and towered over me and had a gentle voice. In the brief contact meeting, he introduced himself formally as H. Krishna, a Tamilian residing in Hyderabad for over a decade now. I came to know that he was the general secretary of the student’s union and thus a ‘very busy’ person. He agreed to talk, somewhat reluctantly, but since some campus activities were coming up in the days ahead, we decided to begin the research interactions after that. The next time, I began by giving him a brief overview of the research concerns in a halting, somewhat faltering, manner, unsure of his participation. At the end of it, he smiled and said, ‘Let’s start’. The first interview turned out to be an unravelling of his self. It became an interaction in which Krishna felt safe enough to make few ‘personal disclosures’. Below are salient fragments of the first interview:

Names and other identificatory information of all participants have been changed to ensure confidentiality.