“If were to look over the whole world to find out the country most richly endowed with all the wealth, power & beauty that nature can bestow – in some parts a very paradise on earth – I should point to India. There are many bright dreams to be dreamt about India, and many bright deeds to be done in India, if only you will do them.”
I had first read this quote (as a teenager who was very determined to solve the world’s problems!) just over a 100 years after it was a written. I come back to it frequently as it is as relevant today, as it was in 1882, when it was first written by Max Mueller.
Yes, many people have done a fair number of bright deeds. Many people, including all of us, have benefited from our independence, democracy, integration into the world economy and rising levels of socio-economic development
However, much remains to be done, not just in the interests of India as a nation, but humanity at large (given that 1 out of every 6 people in the world is Indian!). A large part of what we need to do is related to accomplishing universal literacy, creating equal opportunities, more jobs and wealth, while achieving sustainable economic development.
Don’t all of us want roti, kapda aur makan, at the very minimum? Don’t all of us want to live healthy, happy lives where we discover and achieve our life’s dreams? IS THIS NEGOTIABLE?? Is this a choice, where we would say no?! This is non negotiable. We all want to achieve it. The million dollar question is how, and what can we do both individually and collectively to contribute towards it?
But first, let me answer a question many people have asked. Why did I come back to India? Why did I focus on education? And why Inventure?
Rewind –
Christmas 2002, I sat at the cross roads in Chicago after 15 months of self discovery, after leaving an organisation I had worked for nine years, trying to answer the question, “What should I do when I grow up”?! During this period I had invested my time in:
• Learning how to ski, golf and play tennis in North America, visiting family in India, attending the soccer world cup in South Korea, being an “adventure tourist” for a few months across Equador, Peru, Brazil and Argentina.
• Exploring the feasibility of establishing a start-up aimed at facilitating IT & Life Sciences cross border collaboration between companies in India, and universities in the USA. Out of this came the seed for my foray into education
I had spent about 10 years prior to that in “self exile” in various locations including London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sydney, Hong Kong and New York.
To say that this period of 15 months was the most educational and liberating phase of my life would be an understatement. I had travelled for months in foreign lands where I didn’t know a soul, nor spoke the language, with no more than a backpack and the Lonely Planet guide for company! I could have dropped off the face of the earth and no one would have been any the wiser!
For the first time in my life, I understood what the truism means – that it’s not the destination but the journey that matters. Or for that matter, it’s not what you do for a living, or how big your bank balance is, but your dreams, values and actions which define who you are as a human being.
I was packing my bags to go except I hadn’t quite decided to where - go back home to India into my parents’ waiting arms or to another destination, or to hitch up, err, with another set of arms! It wasn’t just any old decision about where to go for a Christmas holiday. As I was packing my bag pack out fell The Alchemist, a book I had read h months ago.
For those of you who haven’t read it, the book is about Santiago, a boy who has a dream and the audacity to follow it. Just as he was leaving, his father said to him, “Travel the world until you see that our castle is the greatest and our women the most beautiful". In his journey, Santiago sees the greatness of the world, and meets all kinds of fascinating people. However, by the end of the novel, he discovers that "treasure lies where your heart belongs", and that the treasure was the journey itself, the discoveries he made, and the wisdom he acquired.
I knew my answer then…. it was time for this prodigal daughter of India to go home! I had left the country in mid ‘91 immediately after I completed by Bachelors degree, with the objective of returning home after five years, equipped with enhanced skills, knowledge, contacts and possibly a collaboration to establish a business or an organization, which would do more for society than just have a healthy balance-sheet.
I had a “good life”, by most people’s benchmarks. My education (formal and otherwise) had given me exposure to working in over 20 countries, with diverse people, needs, languages, cultures and markets. I was relatively successful in terms of climbing the “career ladder”; but at the end of the day, I wanted to be in an environment which provided me with an opportunity to have a vision of something that could be, and then to make it happen.
Meanwhile, the adverts on “India shining” kept staring me in the face, via various forms of Media. I knew that India was at the cusp of change and needed to choose the sort of India it wanted to be and I wanted to participate in that process – building the India I want - a secular, developed, liberal democracy; confident of its global standing, as opposed to an inward looking country with half-hearted economic reforms, that benefit primarily those already advantaged, which was clearly a socially unsustainable and yes, unjust situation in the long run.
I realized that I believed that the best way to help the change, and be a part of it, was by working on shaping the attitudes of the very young and helping to give them the expertise to make independent choices about what they wanted to do with their lives and excel in their chosen fields anywhere in the world.
I thus boarded the flight to India, armed with plans to establish a business school which would function as a platform to facilitate cross border collaboration between organisations in the USA, India and perhaps China. The aim was to facilitate the creation & exchange of knowledge, ideas, understanding, jobs and wealth. Unfortunately “license raj” reared its ugly head, and my plans and I were doused with cold water by an unsympathetic babu; by being given a tedious history lesson on the East India Company’s exploits in India and informed (by him and by various other regulators), that I would be facilitating the “re-colonisation of India” and enhancing the divide between the haves and the have nots.( This at a time when Indian students spent as much money overseas pursing higher education, than our famed IT companies earned via their exports!). Bottom line: if I were to venture into this space legally, I could not afford to pay the costs involved in the nurturing of excellence, given the regulatory straitjacket that existed (and unfortunately still does).
While we were trying to find a financially and legally viable solution, I started evaluating the feasibility of establishing a K-12 school. The logic being, why wait till someone is in their 20s or 30s before helping to make them tigers (and tigresses!) in the international economy?
This process was accelerated with discussions with my parents, and meetings with people like Irfan Razack (MD of Prestige Constructions and a family friend), Sam Pitorda (Head of the National Knowledge Commission who counselled me to venture into K-12 education rather than establishing a business school) Umashankar Vishvanath (at the time was the Operations head for the IL&FS ETS, Prof Sadagopan (founding director of IIITB), Prof Balki (Associate Director or IISC), Vivek Kulkarni (at the time IT & BT Secretary of the Government of Karnataka), Ravichandar (MD, Feedback Consulting & member of the BATF), Dr Mahendra Srivastava (who was to be my partner for the business school), T Sriram, Professor MD Nalapat (of Manipal University ), Pandit Dwarkanath (whose wisdom and optimism gave me courage) Rezwan Razack, Noaman Razack and others. Many of these eminent people are still involved with Inventure Academy, either as trustees, on the Board of Advisors, or as well wishers.
This process was led primarily by Umashankar and myself. We had certain insights, which seemed self-evident. We wished to create a fusion between the best of what the conventional schools offered and what was possible in the new age of aspirational schools.
Neither of us were “educationists”, which actually worked to our advantage – as from the start we departed from the beaten track, and were able to review the current vs desired scenario objectively and from the perspective of the whole world, rather than India of the past decades. We drew on our professional and personal experiences. We were not afraid to accept that we didn't know it all; and therefore asked questions and turned to people who had the relevant expertise and knowledge of international standards in education.
Our market research helped to validate what our school should stand for and what it would mean to the stake-holders and what they thought was important .
Our timeline of key milestones in both the founding of Inventure and some “firsts” for our school reflects this amply.
When I look back now, I am struck with awe at the size and the nature of the dream of the first Inventurers, and the sense of shared purpose and drive for excellence, which brought together this wide range of people and organizations – of the pioneer Inventurers - to conceptualize and successfully implement Inventure’s core purpose (the reason why Inventure Academy was created), our core values & quality objectives (values & principles we will live by to achieve our core purpose), and our vision (how we will measure our success).
The underlying attitude was a strong sense of belief and ownership of what was once an abstract idea, a mere scribble on a white board…. This attitude prevails even today in the hearts and minds of what is now a thriving community of learners.
The road blocks were many, including a literal one – our neighbors would not let us access the land designated for the school (starting with the ground breaking!) We in fact had to move the road to the school on three occasions, before we secured the current location!
This was in mid Feb 2005, with us aiming to open the school in June 2005. This we did on a farm, with the first 29 Young Inventurers and 21 teaching & non teaching faculty! Today, we are a thriving 330 Young Inventurers and 50 faculty and heading steadily northwards in every quarter.
If I were to sum up the beliefs which brought us together….
Our Beliefs
every body is unique; individuality is to be celebrated not discouraged
everyone has infinite potential to succeed and achieve their life’s ambitions
everyone is capable of obtaining and applying knowledge & skills
everyone can & should be a life long learner
failure is a stepping stone to success
We aim for academic excellence, by challenging students to use their minds well, so as to create all round development, physical, intellectual and moral. We don’t believe that one has to come at the cost of the other
Some have said that this is unreasonable. To such sceptics our response is, “ A reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man”; George Bernard Shaw
Way to go, George! We at Inventure Academy agree.
Yes, we have lofty goals and expectations. But we also have the most priceless of resources to help us achieve this: our Young Inventurers and their loving and supportive families. We back this treasure up with a strong commitment, since our students constitute our collective future – yours and ours!
Now for the paragraph that I was requested for!
My message to all Inventurers (including students, parents, faculty, board members and the wider community) on how to achieve the bright deeds we require:
1) Dream big. Don't stop with the way things are. Dream of things as they ought to be
2) Develop healthy habits of the mind (including persistence, passion & optimism) in order to convert your dreams to bright deeds.
3) Push yourself into newer and higher comfort zones
4) Be true to what you believe in, and go beyond what you thought you could achieve.
Jessie Jackson once said
I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbour bar. I want to go out where the big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are. And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore."
Like to end this err one paragraph message, by placing on record my deep gratitude for those who have provided me with the support to sail with the big ships!
My parents (Nafees & Hassan) and sister (Nishi) whose unconditional love has given me the strength to consistently choose the road less travelled . And this for someone who cried all the way to school and was scared of her own shadow even until age 12 is quite an achievement!
Irfan who has placed more faith in me than even a child can hope for from their parents. His brothers, Rezwan and Noaman for their solid support.
This despite the failed business school venture, in a society which shuns failure! This provided us with tremendous learning and motivation.
Members of the founding team who dared to join a new school with a daring vision.
A special mention for those of the founding team who are still at Inventure (in order of when I first met them)
Shaheen - the only member of the team who was present at the group strategy session in Oct 2004. It’s no coincidence that the core purpose of Inventure was developed primarily based on contributions from two of the six groups, one which included Irfan & Shaheen and the other, myself
Preet - Ms. Inventure, the first to join the team. Treats every student like they are her own
Kishore - solid as a rock
Varsha - the unsung hero!
Radhika - commutes 4 hours a day to our campus. That in itself speaks volumes for her commitment. Teacher par excellence
Linda - 1st time teacher, whose ability to manage her class, even when not present in class is tremendous!
Anasuya - ever calm, one of our most experienced faculty
Nagashree - a gentle soul whose depiction of Goldilocks as a bear at the orientation training still makes me roll with laughter!
Sinduja - fresh out of college, brimming with idealism. Working with her and being a part of her growth is a reward in itself
Andrew - whose tireless efforts on the sports field will propel us to many a victory
Jaishri - our flying angel from Chennai without who the learning lab would not be
The Lalwanis still recall standing at the school site with them on a Sunday afternoon in Feb 05 with a bit of the foundation sticking through the ground. Their belief in Irfan Razack /Prestige Construction and the idea of Inventure made them admit their son Tanuj, our first student into grade 3 (now in grade 6)
My mentors and advisors who have inspired me through their own dreams & actions, while giving me support to develop and achieve my own. Add to the list on page 1, is
Mrs B -whose wisdom, “intellectual dissent”, and affection, I have benefitted tremendously from.
Last but not least, THE INVENTURE COMMUNITY of you our parents, students and faculty, whose commitment has helped us stand tall as one of the leading schools in Bangalore within fours years since inception.
Thank you…..
Nooraine Fazal
Co-Founder, CEO & Managing Trustee
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