Creative Teens' Club

IIT grads refine School education

When Kunal Sharma was in his final year at IIT Powai, he began teaching at an IIT coaching class for some pocket money. As he grew closer to the students, he realized that not many of them were cut out to be engineers.

“Some were good at arts, others at photography and yet all of them were part of the rat race to become engineers. I knew that only 3% would get into IIT. The rest would simply slog, instead of enjoying college life, “ said Kunal. While at the coaching class, Kunal also discovered his passion for teaching.

Starry-eyed and fresh out of engineering college, Kunal along with fellow IITians Rohit Jain and Saurabh Saxena all 20-somethings who graduated in 2004, decided to start their own company, Aakar, to provide school children with a different sort of education. They decided to involve kids in a whole range of diverse activities through which they could learn what they were interested in.

Though a degree in IIT, for most, is the ticket to a seven-figure salary in a multinational, these youngsters walked out of well-paying jobs and are now earning 10 times less than what they could have in the corporate world.

The idea came up during a brain-storming session, when the youngsters decided they were not cut out for corporate jobs. “We knew we wanted to do something different,” said Saurabh. During the discussion, all sorts of ideas came up. First they thought of using their knowledge in technology to set up a jalebi-vending machine. Next, they considered setting up live theatre performances in malls. Eventually they thought of working in the filed of education.

After graduating from IIT, Saurabh left the country after he got a job at Haliburten in Malaysia, while Rohit joined IBM in Gurgaon. Kunal stayed back in Mumbai, and continued working for the IIT coaching class. By January 2005, they began pooling in all their savings to start Aakar. Rohit moved back to Mumbai. Rohit and Kunal rented a 1BHK house in Kanjur Marg.

They lived in the bedroom and turned the hall into an office for Aakar. Saurabh stayed back in Malaysia for almost a year and funded Aakar from abroad. Finally, about a year ago, he too moved back to the city. The company started with an initial investment of Rs 35,000.

Aakar began approaching schools across the city. In the past two years, they have tied up with 30 schools in Mumbai and a few in Panchgani, and provide sessions once a week They provide a wide array of subject, from theatre to mass media to science and technology, giving students handson training in each field.

Aakar, too, has grown in size. The three founders went on campus recruitment drives and have hired young people from diverse fields.

One such recruit, Anirudh Swarnkar, a junior at IIT, helped Kunal form a theatre production company – Night Outs And Coffee while still in IIT. The group performed plays and shot some films. One such film, Just a Ten Rupee Note, is often screened in schools and discussed during sessions. The film is about how a Rs. 10 note is personified and teaches a little boy how to save money and how to make his pocket money grow. Another IIT graduate, Asif Iqbal, gave up a job with Schlumberger in Brazil to join Aakar.

The average age of all these working in Aakar is 25. “We’re often mistaken for students. It’s amusing when we approach a school principal who’s more than double our age and tell them we’re directors of the company,” laughed Kunal.

“What matters most for the trio is the enormous pride at having created something of their own. It’s also satisfying to make a difference in the way students perceive education,” they said.(This article appeared in the Times of India, 6th March 2007)