Akshara Foundation of Arts and Learning

Kunal Chakravarty Director - Communications & Fundraising AFAL I spent 20 years as an advertising and marketing professional before deciding to take on the responsibilities of running a not-for-profit school. When I told people what I was planning to do, they all either said I was mad or (which amounted to the same thing) brave. But jacking in a career like this to become run a school so late in life wasn’t brave – it was desperate. Though I didn’t admit it at the time, I was entirely burnt out – I had been in the same industry for 20-odd years – and was showing the classic symptoms. I was getting cynical about the value of what I did and of as a whole – what was all this crazy chasing of ephemera really for?  It would have been much braver (and much madder) for me to quit at 27 when my financial liabilities were limited. Back then, I was still in thrall to the status of what I did (though at the time I would have denied that). The job in itself was part of my identity – it was the

Kunal Chakravarty Director - Communications & Fundraising AFAL At Akshara, we strongly believe that the Arts are an integral part of an individual’s well-being as they foster the young to become sensitive and compassionate adults . Artistic interventions and experiences help children engage more intimately with themselves, their surroundings and the world at large. The Arts create an environment of equality where children absorb knowledge, develop skills and express themselves freely without fear or prejudice, thus empowering them. Another driving force that makes us lean heavily on the Arts is the fact that a majority of our students are either first-generation school-goers or first-generation English learners. We are also an inclusive school, which means that every class has a mix of students with varied intellectual and physical abilities.  Thus, text-based education and cookie-cutter lesson plans are not something we can rely on and we have to find artistic ways to ensure our

Priya’s mother worked as a domestic help in the house of a family who had two children, both students of Akshara High School. As a little four-year-old, Priya often tagged along with her mother when she was at work and played with the younger of the two children who was as old as her. The parents of the two children approached us enquiring if we could perhaps admit Priya to our school as they were aware that we support the education of girl children, offer subsidies and also full scholarships.  The thought that two children who played together would now come to school together as well, was absolutely joyous and we immediately took her under our wing. Both her parents had never been to school and for their child to jump straight into an English-medium ICSE school was going to be a challenge.  However, Priya was not the first child at Akshara to come from a background like this. We had an existing system which ensured the child becomes an independent learner from a young age and is not d