The Core Team

A Team of Transfluencers

A team of volunteers and Transfluencers. (BTW, what is transfluency? Stammering is neither dysfluency, nor fluency. Beyond such binary, it is a different manner of speaking and hence we choose to call it Transfluency, ie. transcending such narrow definitions. more)

amit-bajaj

Dr. Amit Bajaj

Technical Advisor

Amit left India for the USA at age 27 – with a stutter and many dreams. He trained as an SLP and became an educator. As an Associate Professor in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Emerson College in Boston, he teaches graduate students how to work with people who stutter. In 2021 he decided to connect with his roots in India and began to volunteer in TISA as a friend, sounding board, and technical advisor. (More)

sachin

Dr. Satyendra Srivastava

Founder, Senior Advisor

A community health consultant working with the voluntary sector since 1993. Pioneered the self-help movement by spearheading the foundation of TISA. He has authored several books including the self-help bible of TISA- “Apna Haath Jagannath”. (More) (Interview) (linkedin)

JP

Jai Prakash Sunda

President, Advisor

From a techie to entrepreneur, a banker and now in Canada, JP as he is fondly known, has made tremendous contribution to the self help movement as the past National Coordinator (2010 – 2015) and initiated the idea of National Conference, now the most awaited annual event. (More, Youtube Interview 2012)

harish

Harish Usgaonker

Advisor

A Software Engineer by profession, from multi-national corporate to co-founding a startup at present, being a TISA volunteer is always dear to heart. Been with TISA since 2009, with roles like co-editor, Asst. National Coordinator and National Coordinator in the past. (More) (Interview)

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Nikhil Iyer

National Coordinator

Nikhil is a Banker in a private sector bank by profession and a music lover, blogger, YouTuber by passion. He is ably leading Mumbai SHG as the SHG coordinator and contributing enormously to TISA national events notably the virtual national conferences of 2020 & 2021. He is also spearheading various online voluntary initiatives with TISA and has taken leadership roles like Asst. National Coordinator within the core team in the past. (More) (YouTube Channel) (Blog)

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Rohil Zalke

Asst. National Coordinator

Rohil is a graduate in chemical engineering, passionate about reading novels, learning new skills. He believes that he has very strong willpower. He has been associated with TISA since 2019. He believes that TISA has provided him the platform and guidance, that helped him to challenge himself and achieve new heights on all fronts. Expressing himself through the books he reads is one of his passions, and with TISA’s wonderful services, he believes he can get better at expressing himself and thus help others in doing so.

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Suraj Rajpurohit

Faculty (TOPG)

Suraj has been a volunteer with TISA since 2019. He is a Chartered Accountant by Profession. He successfully completed the intensitive online course from TISA: TOPG after which he started volunteering for various TISA activities. Subsequently, he helped in facilitating TOPG as a faculty. He also volunteered and played a pivotal role in helping organise the virtual TISA National Conference in 2021.  (more).

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Adv. Allwin Dave

Faculty (TOPG)

Allwin loves his anxieties and shares his experiences and teachings as faculty in TOPG. Graduated in commerce, student of Risk management and a Lawyer by profession. He originally hails from Rajasthan, born and brought up in Mumbai. He loves spending time with animals and apart from being a volunteer with TISA, he has started his own charitable trust named “All love for all the Animals” (Alfaa) which works towards Animals rights and welfare.

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Shreya Kumar

Faculty (TOPG)

Shreya Kumar is a student of National Law University, Assam. A voracious reader and movie buff, a huge fan of romance, mystery and thriller- both in books and movies. She delves into writing, poetry and tries hard to make people laugh with humour and stand-up comedy. She feels that voluntary, social work benefits not just those being helped, but those who volunteer as well, because it gives them a sense of purpose, empowerment. On a personal note, she feels that the greatest joy lies in sharing, being kind.

dhruv

Dhruv Gupta

Workshop and Events Coordinator

Passionate about environment and green movement, Dhruv has revived and revamped the Mumbai SHG to a different level altogether. Has been a part of exploring drama with self help with the play “People who Buffer”. Co-facilitated numerous workshops with his exemplary facilitation skills. (More)

Our Lives Inspire

Bhupendra Singh Rathore

Social Media Admin

The young lad with a never say die attitude. Bhupendra has pushed himself out of his conform zone and went on the path of acceptance and self help. He initiated a lot of ideas and drives regular Hangout sessions to help the PWS. He is passionate about textile and fashion industry. (Interview)

abhinav

Abhinav Singh

IT and Technical Team

A Technology Enthusiast, a IT start-up founder and a favourite tech-expert and speaker at institutes like Symbiosis, Abhinav has given presentations from Big Data and analytics in institutes to stammering and self help in Barcamp. He is also a big supporter of the open source software movement. He is a co-founder of Cloudxlab, founder DejaView.ai. (more)

amit

Amit Singh Kushwaha

Hindi Resource & Translations

Working as Special Educator in the Education Department (Govt Sector), Amit has been in TISA since 2010. He has written a e-book ‘Sweekaryata’ based on his life experiments with Acceptance with stammering besides participating in numerous TISA events. (Special Blog, New skills under the lockdown)

(Late) Dr Akash Acharya

A social scientist, a teacher and a dear friend: He will always be missed by us. (Condolences from Harish, Condolences from Manish K Rami)

Thank you

Many gratuitous events and kind people have helped us in last two decades – too many to be recounted, but still we have tried our best below.

Our Deepest Gratitude

Many thanks to Dr Pradeep (Samagra Trust, Dehradun). Samagra was the place where most of us met in the early years – 2006 to 2009, when idea of self-help took roots. Dr Alok (Medicasynegie, Kolkata) has offered valuable help constantly: Medicasynergie hosted our Communication workshop in April 2010. SMTA, Vikasnagar hosted our first workshop in Jan 2010. Herbertpur Christian Hospital and Anugrah have supported many of our workshops and events.

Thanks to many media person also, who have helped and spread the word. Much thanks to many other institutions and individuals: Dr. Farida D’Silva Dias, YMCA, Goa. Dr Noura Embabi (SPEAK). Many thanks to all the SHGs, volunteers, friends. Thanks to Dipesh, Abhinav, Dhruv (SPEAK) and Vishal who volunteered to set up this website. Our gratitude to Dr Akash Acharya, Mr Viren Gandhi, Mr Virendra Shirse, Mr Jasbir Sandhu and Mr Pramod (Chandigarh) too, who have supported TISA from the very beginning.

Finally, Sachin wishes to express his deepest gratitude to Sri Chandraswami Udasin ji of Dumet– the silent saint of Yamuna valley, whose blessings got the ball rolling sometime in 2004; who emphasised that selfless service is a limb of Yoga; who convinced us through his life that a deeper communication can happen without words. He sincerely thanks Br Ananta Chetan too, for his valuable feedback, encouragement and precious company (Talk the walk).

Many more friends who have jumped in from time to time- and offered immense help: Yaadgar, Raja Poladi, Romi Arora, Ravindra Sonsurkar, many friends in Chennai, Herbertpur, Pune, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Banglore, Hyderabad and so on…

Our families and friends who have encouraged us on, even when they had no clue and were worried!

The TISA Story

TISA began as a spontaneous and indigenous self help movement run by volunteers around 2007, initially online.  Here is a brief description of complex events (Read the TISA Story).

2016 Goa National Conference