When we went into lockdown on this day one year ago, I remember calling some of my friends abroad and asking them how serious the situation could really be. This is something we’ve never witnessed before, and I wanted to understand the full scope of the matter. I knew that things were not going to be the same anymore.

We run entrepreneurship training classes for children through my company. We have a physical space in Alwarpet that had to be shut down.

I initially proposed the idea of digital learning to the parents of my students. I was met with some resistance as they did not understand or believe learning could take place online. I had to show them a revised syllabus to make them understand.

Ever since then, our business has been growing exponentially. Between January to March, we see lesser students, but this year it’s all different. Parents of children who have always wanted to participate in our programmes have registered because they now have the free time and because parents want to keep their children mentally stimulated during the shutdown.

Honestly, I was upset because we had signed a deal with a US school just the week before the shutdown in Bengaluru, to bring in their educators for highschool students. This obviously was put on hold. But on the flip side, our syllabus has grown almost five times since last March, including a long range of topics from start-ups to stocks for kids. We were even approached by Apple to help support our children’s applications on the Apple Store.

The shutdown had taught me patience. Life before was a race. But now I realise that we need to savour the moments, and as an educator with my students, that is all the more important now.

(as told to Rochana Mohan)