Taking Time Off : Back to being a student
People in the design fraternity would know Stefan Sagmeister. A few years ago, I came across his books, his work philosophy and a rather thought provoking TED talk on the power of Time off. So at the back of my mind, I have always wanted to take that time off. Sagmeister used the time (a year off) to travel around the world and develop new perspectives that later inform his design practice. I have been hooked onto the idea ever since.
Over the past 13 years after graduating from IIT Guwahati, I have been on a path of self discovery and exploration. With each explorations (Design, Photography, Social Entrepreneurship) I have gone onto explore things in depth and then moved onto the other.
A few months ago, while at a offsite workshop in rural Rajasthan as a part of the TFIx incubation program , I had an epiphany about myself and what I loved to do. My nature is such that I love to take up the challenge that comes with setting up things, build a leadership team and then leave for that leadership team to deliver, while being for them when they need me.
Needless to say these come with its own set of challenges. I have had my stint with corporates, set up design team, moved up to the leadership team at a global organisation (L’école de design Nantes Atlantique), run a consulting business in Design (Happy Horizons Consulting) , set up a Non-profit organisation (Happy Horizons Trust) with a team of around 50 people
I have also been working as an educator, teaching courses in Design, Entrepreneurship and Product Management.
The one thing I have believed strongly every passing day is the desire to continously learn. During this journey, I have continuously learnt every single day.
However, in the age of information overload, and reduced attention span, I felt something missing. I was taking more time to finish books, more time to put together my thoughts and writings. I feel there is a need for me to get back to spending more time in reading and writing. I was struggling with getting back my mojo of writing long well researched lengthy articles.
So one fine morning I decided to get back to school. I applied and got through the MA Education (Elementary) Program in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
So why TISS?
TISS was established in 1936, and comes with a lot of legacy. Ever since I walked into the TISS campus back in December 2013, to start the Jagriti Yatra Experience, I have been fascinated by it.
I have always felt that great institutions are built by visionaries and to me the TATA family has always been that visionary when it comes to nation building. With TISS easily being the best of the institutions, it offered a much needed Social Sciences perspectives to my journey as an Entrepreneur. As we work more in development work towards nation building, getting this perspective becomes important.
Why MA Education (Elementary)?
I have been a big proponent that for India to progress further, we need to relook into our Education System, and in particularly the way its happening in the schools. There are different components to it, from the government to the private players to the every aspiring parents to the children who are born with so much technology around them.
Over the next five years, as I see myself working more in education (building tech products to youth engagement to building schools), and I do foresee a larger need for getting deeper into the domain of education. I did not want to be working in Education without having a more deeper understanding of education. The course is run on a dual mode with 4 weeks a semester immersion on campus and the remaining classes delivered over an online platform.
The courses for this first semester are something that I am really looking forward to. I am really excited about the three courses in the first semester itself are.
a. The Philosophy of Education — The course looks at getting deeper into the questions that have been with mankind since a long time and continue to inform our discourses.
b. History of Education — The course looks at the history of education mainly from the post colonial era to modern day. Why did we get so fascinated about English? Why is there a rise of private schools? Where did the state fail in educating its children? So many questions to ponder over!
c. Child Development, Cognition and Learning — the course looks at Psychological aspects of education and how learning happens amongst the children. Nothing is more empowering than an educator knowing exactly what is happening in a learner’s mind. Why do we bring in so many biases we bring in when interact with people? These are learnings I could apply to organisation building as well.
I am really hoping that I can use the learnings from the program into our work at Happy Horizons Trust During my TISS interview as well, I mentioned that the one thing I truly see benefiting from joining this course, is the guidance and mentoring of professors from TISS for Happy Horizons Trust.
I personally am a big believer that good mentors make a huge difference in your life. I have benefited from a few great ones throughout my life. Apart from this, I feel that this association will set the right tone for the next decade of Happy Horizons Trust. As the organisation moves to its first step of scale with operating in the full district, there are bound to be challenges. The challenges will need guidance.
What are the things I will be doing?
I hope to do a lot of writing in the coming years.
One of my publication set at Medium here has been the Design & Education in India (notes on improving education in India). I hope to be very active at writing at it and sharing my learnings from the courses at TISS.
I look forward to participating in more conferences and speaking about my journey with Education, Entrepreneurship and Organisational Leadership.
Its just been three days into the program and there are already so many learnings and insights. I can’t wait to get started to get back to things!
