(A glimpse into the forthcoming book “From the Principal’s Desk – A Journey of Lessons“)
Dr Arun Prakash
In 1987, standing alone at the bank of the Sangam—the confluence of Ganga, Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati—I had just earned my D. Phil. in Chemistry from the University of Allahabad. The moment should have been triumphant. Instead, I was gripped by a quiet storm of questions. I had been a student for 24 years—disciplined, concept-oriented, a voracious reader. But now what?
Career options for someone like me, from a lower-middle-class background, were few and narrow: teaching (but I lacked a B.Ed.), clerical roles in government offices (but I hadn’t mastered typing), bank officer roles, or the golden ticket—civil services. I did try the latter, once, and cleared the prelims, but my heart was never in it.
So I stood there, pondering: Was this all that our education system could offer—a narrow funnel toward a few traditional jobs? Why had I spent a quarter century in classrooms, if none of them prepared me for life beyond school walls?
That question never left me. In fact, it became the quiet fire that pushed me forward. Years later, I founded my own school—not to replicate the system, but to reimagine it. I wanted a space where children could be educated not just to pass exams, but to face life. Where curiosity counted more than conformity. Where asking why was as important as knowing what.
And even today, after four decades in education, I still carry that evening by the Sangam in my heart. Because the question I asked then—“What is the point of education if it doesn’t prepare us for life?”—is one I continue to answer every single day, from the Principal’s desk.