Kshama used to work as a Professor at a university. On her way to and from work she had to cross a railway crossing that was routinely closed and she waited there almost every day. A group of children used to beg there every day. Over time she interacted with them and came to know them well. She would carry food or fruits and offer it to them whenever she saw them.
Once while returning from office she did not have any food with her and when the children came she offered them some sweetened fennel seeds (saunf) that she had in her car. The children were stunned with delight when they put the saunf in their mouths and started asking her what it was — because the children had never tasted saunf in their lives.

This incident left Kshama moved and shaken. Misery and poverty have become such a natural part of our landscape that we see them but no longer truly notice them. Their poverty had always existed in the background — quiet, constant, almost invisible. But when something so mundane, so ordinary and inexpensive, something Kshama barely took notice of in her own life, sparked such stunned wonder in the children, their impoverishment suddenly became real to her. It was no longer an idea or a statistic. It was something she felt, palpably.

At that moment she understood that, for her own peace of mind, she needed to do something. So she did what she knew best to do — took a few notebooks, a blackboard and chalks and found the slum where those children lived and started teaching them.

From teaching 5–6 children under a tree shade, today after more than a decade, we run three programs, work in five districts and more than 14,000 children are part of our programs. Although education is the core of our work, we realised that what keeps the playing field unleveled for children from marginalised communities are myriad other factors that need equal if not more work. Which is why our programs also cover themes such as Social-Emotional wellbeing, health, hygiene, communication skills, gender awareness, corporate exposure, etiquettes, ethics and skilling. We think that our model is rather unique because, despite our approach appearing to us to be the most intuitive way to go about things, not many people do it this way.