Founder & Director
From one classroom to a foundation.
Sriprada Muralikrishnan began her journey in education in 2022 as a Teach For India Fellow, teaching English and Social Studies at a government school in Adyar, Chennai. While working with her students, she began experimenting with theatre, storytelling, writing and open mics as ways to make learning more engaging and give students different ways to express what they knew.
In 2023, this became Project Dhairiyam, which brought together 74 students through theatre, open mics, story writing and art-integrated learning. One student's question about whether being less academically inclined meant being less intelligent stayed with Sriprada and shaped the direction of her work.
That experience eventually grew into Karpanai Foundation in 2025. Today, Karpanai works with children from government schools and underserved communities through creative learning programmes, including theatre, storytelling, public speaking and book writing. The work has grown from one classroom into a larger effort to make creativity a meaningful part of how children learn and engage with the world around them.
Sriprada's next step is to build Civic Imagination Studios - spaces within schools and communities where children can explore social issues through theatre, stories, books and art, and develop the confidence to think about the communities they live in and the kind of world they want to shape. For her, the idea is about giving students the tools to question their surroundings, imagine alternatives, and participate in shaping them.
