Retreat ● Recharge ● Reconnect

18 – 20 September 2026

The Leela Kovalam, A Raviz Hotel, Keralam

Against the Tide

Friday

18th September

2:00 PM

Traditional Welcome

A Kerala welcome to begin two days shaped by the sea, the landscape and the many worlds that have met on this coast

2:00 – 3:00 PM

Floating Lunch at Coffee Shop
The Arabian Sea, a silent protagonist of every story we tell this weekend, provides space for an unhurried culinary introduction to the coast.

3:15 – 4:15 PM

High Tea at Pandal

4:30 – 6:00 PM
Conversation
The Grey Between Right and Wrong

Ethics, Dilemma and Choices we Make

Ashok Khemka

Former IAS Officer & Public Intellectual

From turning down an opportunity to leave India for the US to choosing a life in public service, Ashok Khemka has followed an instinct for evidence, justice and institutional integrity — even when it came at the cost of 66 transfers and stalled postings. Drawing on dilemmas from public life, professional experience and the wisdom embedded in folk stories, he will examine the space between what is legal, what is right and what is ethical. A conversation about judgement, principles and the difficult choices that arise when there is no right answer.
6:00 – 6:30 PM
Special Addresses
A brief interlude of special addresses, offering fresh perspectives and a moment to slow down before the evening programme continues.
6:30 – 7:30 PM
Experience
Seeing is not Believing

One of India’s best-known mentalists and psychological illusionists

Karan Singh Magic
Mentalist
One of India’s best-known mentalists and psychological illusionists, Karan Singh Magic has performed for some of the country’s most recognisable names—from revealing Shah Rukh Khan’s ATM PIN and reading the word on Shashi Tharoor’s mind to identifying the childhood friend Virat Kohli was thinking of. Through live experience and interaction, Karan will take the members inside the mechanics of perception: how attention is manipulated, how assumptions become convictions, and how easily we can mistake what we think we see for what is actually happening.
7:30 – 8:15 PM

Immersion

Cultural immersion
As evening settles over the coast, the retreat moves from conversation to culture. A Kerala evening of performance, music, and local traditions—a chance to experience the state as a living culture.
8:15 PM Onwards
Dinner & Cocktails

A relaxed close to the day’s agenda, bringing together good food, conversation and company.

Saturday
19th September

7:00 AM

Temple

A visit to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple

Before the day begins, a visit to one of India’s most storied living temples. A place where faith, history, architecture and time converge, and where the rhythms of Kerala are felt long before the rest of the city wakes.

9:00 – 10:00 AM

Breakfast at Coffee Shop
A slow morning after an early start, with time to reflect and reconnect.

11:00 -12:30 PM

Endurance
Settings Sail, Finding Your Way

Endurance, Uncertainty & the Discipline to Keep Going

Commander Abhilash Tomy

Former naval officer and circumnavigator

Cdr Abhilash Tomy, the first Indian to complete a solo, non-stop circumnavigation of the world under sail, knows what it means to keep moving when there is no margin for error. During the 2018 Golden Globe Race, a storm dismasted his boat, fractured his spine and left him stranded in the Southern Ocean, triggering a complex international rescue. Four years later, he returned to the same race with a titanium rod in his spine and finished second — the first Asian to reach the podium. His story is ultimately less about survival than what came after it: the decision to return, recalibrate and begin again. A conversation about endurance, decision-making in isolation and the judgement required to know when to persist, adapt or change course.

12:30 to 2:00 PM

Geopolitics
Reading the Current
India, the World & the New Geopolitics
Prof. Brahma Chellaney
Author and Geostrategist

A strategist, author and former adviser to India’s National Security Council, Prof. Brahma Chellaney brings the long view to a world increasingly defined by the redistribution of power. The author of nine books, including Asian Juggernaut and the award-winning Water: Asia’s New Battleground, he has spent decades examining the forces reshaping Asia and India’s choices within it. At a moment when yesterday’s certainties are becoming tomorrow’s liabilities, the conversation will look beyond the headlines to the deeper currents shaping India’s place in the world.

2:00 to 3:00 PM

Sadya Lunch
Twenty-six dishes on a banana leaf, in an order that Ayurveda designed and centuries of practice has held constant.

3:00 – 4:00 PM

Sport

Going First, Mapping the Ground

Instinct, Risk & the Making of High-Performance Teams

Krishnamachari Srikkanth
Former cricketer

Krishnamachari Srikkanth has lived through some of Indian cricket’s most consequential moments from opening for India under immense pressure to captaining the side and later helping shape the country’s cricketing establishment. As a member of India’s 1983 World Cup-winning team, he experienced what happens when a team enters a contest it is not expected to win and leaves having changed the possibilities for everyone who follows. Through stories from the dressing room, the field and the years beyond it, Srikkanth will explore instinct, risk, team chemistry and the difference between individual talent and collective belief.

4:00 – 4:30 PM

High Tea at Anathapuri

4:30 – 5:30 PM

Sport

On The Ground with Srikkanth

With a bowling machine, a bat in hand and members stepping up to the crease, Kris Srikkanth turns the game into a live leadership experiment. He will watch how members approach the ball their instinct to attack or defend, their response to pressure, their appetite for risk, their patience and their ability to adapt and decode what their batting reveals about their leadership styles.
It is cricket as a mirror: how you play the ball in front of you may say more about how you lead than the leadership style you think you have.

5:30 – 7:00 PM

Palace Tour / Personal Time
A chance to explore Kerala beyond the retreat — its architecture, histories and layered traditions — or simply take an hour to yourself.

7:00 PM onwards

Marketplace & Beach party
An informal final evening by the sea—local flavours, music, a marketplace of Kerala’s craft traditions. Just the coast, good food, good company and time together.
Sunday
20th September
12:00 PM

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