As a part of our “Expert Interview Series,” we are proud to introduce on our blog Raghavendra Sathish Peri, a visually impaired entrepreneur, digital web accessibility consultant, digital marketer, blogger, and speaker. It will take another 1000-word blog post to write more about this awesome personality.
So I am leaving a few of the links to media where this fantastic gentleman has been featured. I bet you people will get admired for sure on seeing, viewing, and hearing about his achievements despite having a vision disability.
List of a few mentions about Raghavendra Sathish Peri
- An interesting and inspiring article from NextBigWhat
- Article from The Hindu newspaper
- Interview by Laxmi Rebecca
- A video from TEDxYouth
Gurunath Nakka: Let the readers of Best Of Guru (BOG) know Something about “Entrepreneur” Raghavendra Satish Peri. How, Why and when did you start Blogging?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I started blogging sometime in 2006 but I took it seriously in 2009. I moved to Bangalore & started a new life, I got bored & lonely..that is the time I took to writing. I got the domain ragava.in & published my first post on my 23rd birthday On My Arrival At The Age Of 23.
This blog became the place where I poured my soul & where I opened myself to the world. I got a lot of good responses from the blogging community & whenever I turn up at the Indiblogger community meet-ups I always meet a lot of them who admire my writings.
Why I blog:
There are many reasons for me to blog. The process of writing keeps me calm because I spend a lot of time thinking, & that thought process slowly evolves into a story that I want to tell the world. What I write is what happens around me & inside my mind.
Gurunath Nakka: Can you explain your life in one simple sentence?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I did some neat things for myself & I would like to do things that have not been done before.
Gurunath Nakka: What exactly does a Digital Accessibility consultant mean to you?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I have a very interesting job as a “Digital Accessibility Consultant,” & I bet most of them who are reading this post will not understand what that means. In short, if I have to explain, I help businesses make their web applications & mobile applications inclusive so that people with disabilities can access digital information. For the last 5 years, I have been doing this interesting job, & I feel that I am making an impact each day, This feeling keeps me going.
Gurunath Nakka: Being Visually Impaired, what are the Challenges you have faced and how did you overcome them?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: You can spend an entire day with me, & you will never know that I cannot see the real world. I started losing my eyesight at the age of 8, & at the age of 14, doctors confirmed that it was a degenerative disorder called “Retina Pigmentosa”.
There are challenges everywhere, & my challenges start the moment I get up from bed & walk out of my room. Each step of my life was a challenge, & I always breezed through it. It was not easy. I needed to find help, I needed to coach myself, I needed to be mentally strong, & there were a lot of things I needed. My family is my biggest strength, & some are with me during my tough times. I always find help whenever I am faced with a challenge.
Gurunath Nakka: What are the abilities and possibilities you have when you look at things in life from a different angle?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I believe each one of us is unique, & we all need to play according to our strengths. I did some neat things, for myself in life, & going forward, I want to give back to the community, During each phase of life, I always found myself in a position where I would not be able to do a lot of things, but I pushed myself hard & became a winner sometimes while I failed a lot.
Gurunath Nakka: Apart from blogging, what else are you interested in?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I will do trekking, run, and listen to a lot of audiobooks, I enjoy cooking & spending time with nature. On weekends, you can find me in local meetup events/conferences or a pub partying hard. In one sentence, I am interested in everything, & there are very few things that don’t get me high.
Gurunath Nakka: I was going through your wish list; how many got fulfilled, and how are you planning for that?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: One midnight, I made this wish list, “101 things I will do before I die,” & I was able to fulfil 5 of them for now. To pursue that wish list, I need to spend a lot of energy & work myself up, which I am not doing. When something comes my way, I take it. This March, I am going to California, & I am planning for my “Sky Dive.”. This wish list keeps me motivated, & I believe there is one that will keep me busy enough for a while.
Gurunath Nakka: Can you tell us about your digital Eyes and Running Legs?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: I was in a deep depression when I thought of running, this was during 2012. I was losing my eyesight at a rapid pace, & all that pushed me into depression. I wrote about my running stories here what it took to run my first 10k Marathon at Auroville, and my attempt to run 21km at Airtel Hyderabad Marathon.
If you read those two blog posts, you will understand what I went through physically & emotionally. The word “digital eyes” was given by “Virginia Sharma,” who was Vice President at IBM. I had an opportunity to meet her, & then she wrote a post on her blog.
I want to run more because it brought a lot of change in my life, & especially I understood myself better than ever. Running is my meditation ground & where I am true to myself.
Gurunath Nakka: What is your advice for a kid who would like to start and make his/her career in blogging?
Raghavendra Satish Peri: It is easy to get started in blogging & very tough to stick to a schedule, making a career in blogging is a big thing. I would recommend pursuing it as a side thing apart from your professional life, While blogging pays well, it needs a different drive & energy to make it a full-time career.
Gurunath Nakka: What are the sources of income for a blogger? Name a few with details.
Raghavendra Satish Peri: When I got started in 2006, AdSense was the primary source & then I diversified to sponsored posts, Affiliates & other models. For example, Digital Challenger gets me some consulting, speaking and a lot of training gigs that pay me well.
Sometimes blogging is not always about money, it is a place where you build a brand for yourself, & that brand will pay you back in the long run. With digitala11y, Digital Accessibility Blog, I am trying to achieve the same now, & it is working out great. So I would say to think less of direct rewards and concentrate on what you can get from other avenues.
Raghavendra Satish Peri, we are thankful to you for giving us your valuable time. We are very glad to have your thoughts and personal experiences shared here with GuruDigiBiz. We are so happy to have your chat on this auspicious day of your birthday, and we wish you a very happy birthday and a great year ahead.
If you want to have more updated information as of today (July 2020), about Raghavendra Sathish, then please check his latest interview on our GuruDigiBiz channel:
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