The Keepers of
Pehchaan
A multidisciplinary youth initiative focused on civic community development, Project Pehchaan combines grassroots research with practical community initiatives to create measurable social impact in Varanasi.
I. The Founders
Rishant Jayaswal
Ever since Rishant has been conscious of his surroundings, he has been aware of three things. Folklore, culture and service. Thanks to his father, and the fact that he was born in a city as holy as Kashi, he was raised to have the knowledge of (the most random one) of a lot of temples and culture of the city. Be it that there exists a temple in the narrow lanes of Chowk where the only way to worship the idol (a Shiv Linga) is to see it's reflection from a mirror mounted on a wall, or the story of how the famous Kajari 'कचौड़ी गली सून कइला बलमू' got into being. The Project Pehchaan provides him a medium to channel all the knowledge he gets from elders around him and to use it for the welfare of society.
Shuban Singh
Founder. Organizer. Builder.
Shuban founded Project Pehchaan with a simple belief: meaningful change begins with understanding the communities around us. As the initiative's operations lead, he works behind the scenes to transform ideas into action. He is particularly interested in how storytelling, grassroots research, and collective action can help people see familiar places through new lenses. Through Project Pehchaan, he strives to create spaces where overlooked voices are heard, local knowledge is valued, and young people become active participants in understanding and shaping the world around them.
Tvisha Jain
Tvisha believes that meaningful change begins with empathy and action. Through Project Pehchaan, she works to bring people closer to the stories, cultures, and communities around them. Passionate about leadership, communication, and community engagement, she hopes to inspire young people to become active participants in creating positive change.
II. Anthropological & Research Labs
Aditi Anand-Mishra
Economics enthusiast. Professional overthinker fueled by coffee. Amateur detective of public policy. Aditi can turn a road project into a debate on urban planning and a temple corridor into a discussion about incentives. At The Third Eye, she spends her days turning everyday observations into uncomfortable questions and surprisingly good stories. Varanasi just happens to have thousands of those stories hiding in plain sight. If she’s done her job well, you’ll leave with a few new perspectives, a handful of unanswered questions, and a curiosity to look at the city a little differently. Which, in her view, is exactly the point.
Adviteeya Raghuvanshi
History/Mythology enthusiast, Professional Observer, Part time traveler Adviteeya believes that any camera can capture a moment, but it’s the focus behind the lens that actually defines the view. As the Photography and Archival Lead, he spends his time digging through forgotten threads of history and raw street shots to piece together a story of who we are. If he does his job well at Project Pehchaan, you'll dusty history and raw street shots turn into a memory that actually lasts
Diksha Mishra
Researcher. Story-gatherer. Firm believer that the most important narratives rarely begin in conference rooms. Diksha spends much of her time listening—to boatmen, vendors, artisans, workers, students, and countless others whose experiences often remain outside official reports and public conversations. Drawn to questions of identity, livelihood, and belonging, she approaches research as a way of understanding how people experience the city from the ground up. For her, every conversation is a doorway into a larger story, and every story is a reminder that cities are shaped as much by ordinary lives as they are by grand institutions.
Ayan Mehrotra
Ayan believes that meaningful impact never starts with action alone—it starts with asking the right questions. As Research & Mobilization Lead, he spends his time uncovering opportunities, connecting ideas with people, and turning scattered information into initiatives that actually create change. If he does his job well at Project Pehchaan, you'll never see the countless hours of research and outreach behind the scenes—you'll only see ambitious ideas finding the right people, at the right time, to make them real.
III. Visual & Creative Architects
Nachiket Agnihotri
Graphic designer. Visual communicator. Chronic rearranger of layouts until they finally feel right. Nachiket has a knack for turning ideas into visuals that people actually want to look at. Whether it's a social media post, a poster, a presentation, or a campaign identity, he's usually the person figuring out how to make information clearer, sharper, and more engaging. Varanasi provides no shortage of material to work with—colourful streets, striking contrasts, and stories around every corner. For Nachiket, every project is another opportunity to make those stories a little more visible.
Aarav Aryan
Aarav believes the world is a patchwork of people and their beliefs held together by fragile threads of fate. Culture, he believes, survives not through monuments alone, but through repetition, inheritance, and the small acts of remaining faithful to what came before. It is this continuity that fascinates him, and nowhere does he find it more vividly than in Varanasi. He sees the city not as a destination, but as an engine, perpetual in motion, it stays kinetic as long as the combined faiths of the masses stays unwavering. Project Pehchaan, he feels, provides the lens to capture the invisible gears of this machinery. This engine of a city stains his artistic vocabulary, along with his coffee-stained sketch books, comics and Letterboxd account. They didn't make the films Aarav wanted to watch, so he made them himself.
Diva Shah
Diva believes that stories have the power to bring people together. As Outreach Head at Project Pehchaan, she manages the initiative's outreach and social media presence, helping connect communities, collaborators, and young people with the conversations that matter. From building partnerships to crafting digital narratives, she works to ensure that Pehchaan's research, projects, and stories reach wider audiences while staying rooted in authenticity and community voices.Whether online or on the ground, she strives to build spaces where people feel informed, involved, and inspired to engage with the communities around them.
An immutable ledger of Varanasi’s living heritage.
We believe that standard histories routinely preserve grand monuments while neglecting individual weaver lives and disappearing morning melodies. The Project Pehchaan is a digital and physical preservation mission built to prevent Benaras' irreplaceable memories from turning into corporate templates.