There are always multiple options in life – what we end up choosing defines the path our lives take us. Like most 20 year olds, I had various career choices ahead of me – pursuing CA, CFA or MBA; which makes it obvious that I was more inclined to the field of finance, though still unsure of which path to take in that direction. I completed my PG in Finance from National Institute of Industrial Engineering – one of the top B-schools in India and started my career in CRISIL – India’s leading rating agency. I was placed in the equity research department of CRISIL and from therein, my analytical skills grew leaps and bounds. I spent the next eight years of my life honing my skills and growing as an analyst, authoring numerous research reports independently across various sectors. I enjoyed doing what I was doing given the dynamic nature of this field which assures that work is never monotonous. Having said this, I also had thoughts of doing something which could let me spend more time with my son. I resumed work when he was just 4 and half months old, and the mother in me often shook up the career oriented girl in me.
The ongoing pandemic which halted the world in March 2020 presented itself as an opportune time for me to take a break, think and reflect on the path ahead. To best utilize the 24X7 indoor time with my son, I started making innovative, brain boosting activities for him with an aim to challenge him to think beyond what he is already taught in school. Over the three years of purchasing books for him, I realized that almost all the activity books covered the same concepts; the only thing different were the designs. He absolutely loved doing my activities which encouraged me to keep at it.
In August 2020, I published my first book, ‘Activity Book for Brain Development – Based on Associative and Conceptual Learning Techniques – for ages 4 to 7 years.’ I conceptualized 75 innovative activities revolving around the school curriculum for this age group. This book was well received; the positive reviews from parents on Amazon, including some who personally reached out to me to share their feedback made me realize that there is a lot more to explore in this direction. I started sharing brain teasers/fun riddles and puzzles to promote my book – which I compiled into a ebook of 40 brain boosting activities – which is absolutely free for you to download here.
Gradually, I decided to introduce these brain teasers as a subscription service. I received a lot of requests from parents for online workshops, which led me to launch my Logical Reasoning workshops and one to one personalized sessions for training on Reasoning. This is how one thing led to another, and I grew as an early child educator.
One of my kids during a workshop asked me, ‘How do you think of these activities?’ Now that you know a little bit of my journey, I am sure you will realize that the analytical skills I developed during my days as an equity research analyst play a very important role in creating these out of the box activities. This coupled with some god gifted creativity and imagination skills – and the end result is some intelligent theme based workshops and material for your kids to rack your brains on!
Though it is an unconventional path, it ticks all boxes as far as I am concerned – spending some quality time with kids, engaging them in activities which compels them to think and at the same time challenging myself to create something innovative which maximizes fun and learning to fullest.
So yes, it has indeed been a very wonderful and satisfying journey so far; a journey which has just started. To conclude, I would like to quote the famous lines by Robert Frost, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.”
