He Left His Global Career to Teach 6 Children. Today, 10000+ Learn Because of Him |
“Education felt like a privilege, not a certainty.”
Ashish Kumar says this because, for many years, school was never guaranteed for him.He grew up in a single rented room with his family of six. His father worked as a carpenter, and every expense at home had to be thought through carefully. Some months were harder than others.
“There were times when I felt I might have to stop studying,” he says. “We were just trying to manage daily life.”
Ashish wanted to study. But wanting to study is not always enough. A child also needs school fees, books, time, support at home, and the belief that tomorrow will be a little easier than today.
Without that, falling behind becomes easy. Catching up becomes harder.
Years later, Ashish would become living proof of what Kushal Raj Chakravorty, founder of the Lotus Petal Foundation, had come to believe: many children do not drop out because they lack dreams. They drop out because no one helps them hold on to those dreams long enough.
A life of structure, until reality interrupted it
Kushal built his life on a very different foundation. He grew up in Ranchi in a family that valued education and consistency. “I had everything a child needs to grow, including schooling, support, and three meals a day,” he tells The Better India.
After studying at St Xavier’s, he pursued electrical and electronics engineering at BIT Mesra, graduating in 1996. He began working with HCL the same year, and after a brief stint, went on to complete his MBA from IIM Lucknow. By 1999, he had stepped firmly into the corporate world.
His career continued to grow. He worked with BPL and Amway before joining IKEA in 2005, where he spent more than a decade in global roles. His work took him across cities and countries, and he learnt how to build systems, manage teams, and think at scale.
“Leadership, for me, always meant setting a vision and building systems that outlast individuals,” he says.
At that point, nothing suggested he would leave it all behind.
A cold morning that refused to fade
In November 2011, on a cold morning in Gurugram, he stood at a bus stop with his daughters. He had just returned from travel and, as always, chose to drop them off at school himself.
They stood bundled in warm winter clothes. “I was still wondering if they were warm enough,” he recalls. That thought stayed only for a moment.
Then, two children walked past him.
“They had no sweaters. One of them did not even have footwear,” he says. The image unsettled him immediately.
“I kept thinking their parents must want the same things for them that I want for my children. The only difference is that I had opportunities they did not.” He did not brush the thought aside.
Kushal traced the children to a small school running out of a temple near his home in South City 1. When he walked in, he saw — not two or 20 — but 250........