Relationships are the key to social change. I believe that a community is only as strong as the number of individual associations it fosters. Throughout my life I have tried to strengthen the communities I'm a part of by creating environments for connections to form. During college, I started an initiative to have Chai with Strangers. I extended invitations to neighbours and fellow students and even developed a website for strangers to register and join us for chai. Some of my most enjoyable memories of college have been from these interactions and to this day I'm still friends with the 'strangers' who first came over for chai. My non-profit Vismaya Kalike is founded on the idea of building collective learning spaces. In the initial days of our first center, a child who had just returned from a juvenile detention center after stabbing someone wanted to join in. Community members and children alike were not keen for him to participate but I wanted to stay true to our principle of inclusion. Initially, this child would only come into the center to use the computer, playing pre-installed games. As I spoke to him and nudged him, he joined in the group activities including Kho Kho and Kabaddi. In a few months we had all formed a meaningful connection with him and he emerged as one of our strongest supporters. He used his experience to advice other children and was an inspiration to us all to focus on not just the problems but the possibilities. Just as strong relationships can really transform a person and a community the lack of them can also bring progress to a grinding halt. When we were setting up our second learning center I had to negotiate with a local gang who would use the children to peddle their drugs. During the pandemic I coordinated relief efforts in the area and actively involved the gang leaders in the process. In return they would allow us access to the "Community Center" in the area for our learning space. Initially, the arrangement was successful with noticeable progress among the children. Slowly though, the leaders realised that they were losing control of the children that were free labour to them and the youth who were consumers. They began to cause challenges to our initiative, often making a mess of the space, stealing some of the resource material and even threatening facilitators to leave the role. I tried to rally the community members and put some systems where the community and particularly parents of the children could take ownership of the space. Unfortunately it was not to be. The community in this area was incredibly fragmented and despite common interests and goals they found comfort in their individual linguistic and religious communities and were not able to unite for the common good. We were forced to close down the center unable to withstand the pressures from the local gang. Failures are tough to take, especially ones where the situation you leave behind is particularly bleak. As I reflected I realised though that failure was also an indication of taking on more challenging problems. These ideas transcend class and cultural boundaries. At my startup CraterClub we had creators host livestreams on design, stock trading and engineering. We had a 1000+ creators on the platform, many of whom had built strong communities. When we shut down the platform and the creators stopped streaming most communities also slowly faded away barring a select few. The common thread among the ones that continue to thrive is that the connections were made not only between viewer and creator but also between viewer and viewer. I had always prided myself as a focal point for communities but central nodes weren't enough for a community to succeed. We need to create environments where connections can form among all nodes. Building better communities is not just the goal I strive for but also a means to my goal as well. I have learnt so much from the communities I have been a part of and nurtured - thinking in terms of possibilities not problems, being unafraid of failure and the importance of federated and decentralised systems. I look forward to using my perspectives to enrich the community at Stanford while simultaneously learning from a diverse and vibrant community.