I never thought I would start a blog but Abe, a very good friend of mine, also moving to Bombay for a few months decided to make it a competition and for those of you who know me well, you know that was enough to get me started!!
I do hope this blog allows me to stay connected to family and friends and that I can keep each of you connected to the journey ahead of me and hear your thoughts on many of the questions that I know will arise.
From as early as I can remember, my mom has been saying "an education is the only thing no one can take away from you" and thus invested heavily in the education of her three children. I have always been grateful for this gift and experience as sense of freedom and security as as result. Today, I feel privileged to create such options for families in India who have the same dreams for their children as my mother. In that spirit, I have named this blog Ajaadi, Hindi for Freedom, and shared a quote from Maria Montessori, a woman's whose commitment to an innovative approach to education has not only touched me personally as a student of her schools but contributed to a social movement to redefine education to get beyond facts and tests to include the development of a whole child.
As many of you already know, I am partnering with one of Acumen Fund's (where I have been working for the last 2.5 years) current investees, Shaffi Mather who started 1298, India's first private ambulance company. We believe that private enterprise has a significant role to play in the reform of India's education system and are building schools as well as an e-learning platform to reach rural communities who otherwise would not have options to high quality affordable education. Shaffi has a bold goal of reaching every state in India (there are 28 of them!) by 2015 and I am looking forward to joining him and a team in India to make this dream possible.
Please continue to visit this blog as I track our success, failures and the lessons we are learning along the way. There is a tremendous amount we have to learn from all of you and I hope this provides an opportunity for us to stay connected!
Happy holidays and best wishes for a peaceful new year,
Deepti
