Centre for Conversations

Backstory

Skanda taught both my daughters at the Valley. He is simple, honest and has a great understanding of his abilities and may chance upon this backstory one day, so I am willing to dare him with my own honesty.

In my limited view, Skanda is an average teacher. But he is phenomenal mentor.

One time, Keya, my younger daughter, was upset with him for rushing through the class 9 Biology portion and omitting some stuff and gave him an earful. At our parent-teachers meet, Skanda narrated the incident and was all praise for Keya’s sincerity as a student. As an aside I need to mention that Keya had absolutely no interest in the said portion, it was I who may have screamed at the incomplete portion before the exams and Keya would have projected the anger onto Skanda, who took it on the mandible. (I could have said chin here, but since we are talking Biology…)

Another time, he was the accompanying teacher for the class 11 Himalayan trip. Instead of showing off his mountaineering skills and leading the way, he chose to trail. And inspired the summit fever, to sweat at their own pace. And make it to the top. And filmed them on the way. And then made a movie. And then didn’t know where he saved it on his computer. And then found it 2 years later after my continuous pestering.

Skanda is as much of a student as his students are. He is in discovery mode most of the time and once in a while throws in some casual profound wisdom that reminds the rest of his adulting. He doesn’t sweat the small stuff, like completing class 9 Biology syllabus. He inspires self-learning in the  mountains.

I think I bulldozed my way into doing a website for him. He was happily hosting a rather crappy layout in dark mode on WordPress until one day he commissioned my older daughter Isha to do some artwork for the content. Now, the designer mother would plummet to a violent death if the daughter’s work was displayed in dark mode. The daughter had her foot in the door, the mother wriggled her ass in.

Centre for Conversations drew inspiration from the limitations of institutionalised education and was visualised as a learning space to initiate discussions that were on the fence, uncomfortable and before their time. And there is no better person than Skanda to lead this initiative.

The design process was smooth. Skanda requested only one change in the final design. A change of his picture.

Besides being an average Biology-Environmental Science teacher and a phenomenal mentor, Skanda is also a musician and illustrator who lives and talks in slo-mo.