The Team - anahad āvartanshālā

Ashok bhai, aged 56, was born and brought up in Delhi and presently lives in Dehradun. Science & philosophy have been two areas of interest in his life. Facilitation of Jeevan Vidya (a new age philosophy) workshops in Hindi or English is his main activity for the last 15 years.

His journey with Jeevan Vidya is 33+ years and this has influenced him in many ways. While engaged in the educational programs of Jeevan Vidya he has also delved into agriculture. They have a small farm in Roorkee, Uttarakhand where organic agriculture is practiced through natural farming techniques.

Senthil bhai, works at the intersection of play, purpose, and human development. With a systems thinker's mind and a facilitator's heart, he designs serious games and learning journeys that challenge conventional ideas of success, education, and leadership. His work blends serious games, reflective dialogue, and experiential processes to help people and organisations listen more deeply, think differently, and act with greater alignment.

He is particularly drawn to questions of meaning, human potential, and alternative pathways to growth, and brings both philosophical depth and practical design into every space he creates. Rooted in his context yet global in outlook, Senthil continues to experiment with game-powered experiences that make learning more human, participatory, and transformative.

Soma didi, a Research Scientist at IIIT-Hyderabad and a resident at anahad, explores how skill and human values can be integrated in teaching-learning domain as well as in workspace to live and experience a purposeful life touching upon the core of the Being. Soma is passionate about language education, enterprise design and young-adult development and goal-setting.

Fatema didi is one of the first residents at Anahad Farms and has been actively involved there for the past eight years. During this time, she has worked in farming while also hosting workshops and educational activities at the farm. With a background in research, she is deeply interested in understanding how people learn and enjoys working in collaborative team environments. She connects easily with learners of all age groups and is always looking for opportunities to keep learning and growing herself.

Pashwa didi, aged 54, currently lives near Auroville. She studied and later taught at a few J. Krishnamurti Schools in India and the UK. She also worked at a progressive school in England while writing her thesis on education. Since then she has been deeply interested in exploring questions such as: What would a truly meaningful education look like? What is the role of educators and parents? How can we raise children without force, rewards, or punishments, but instead through nurturing relationships built on trust, respect, kindness, and guidance?

She has read widely across philosophies, books on education, accounts of traditional cultures and tribes, psychology, healing, and various proposals for alternative systems and ways of living. Together with her husband, she raised two boys (now aged 19 and 20) without sending them to school, instead attempting to educate them through life itself—daily activities, play, time in nature, questions, conversations, and diverse relationships.

She offers conscious parenting support to parents and is currently studying Madhyasth Darshan, a philosophy she finds offers compelling answers to the existential questions she has long explored. She has volunteered on the land, participated in upcycling projects, and co-hosted an annual craft week event for children as part of a team. Alternative health, yoga, simple living, nature, community living, and healthy relationships are among the other areas that draw her deeply.

Prachi, age 34, was born and brought up in Kota and studied Polymer Science at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. She is a learning and product design architect with over 10 years of experience across edtech, schools, and alternative learning spaces. She enjoys designing engaging, meaningful learning experiences. She founded Pitaara Unleashed, a platform for hands-on, self-directed learning.

She believes that the purpose of education is to create a supportive environment which enables each individual to grow into a self-aware, skilled and happy adult capable of living in harmony with nature and keen on working for the flourishing of self and the planet. She collaborates with organizations to create programs that nurture curiosity and self-awareness in young people aimed at the above endeavour. Based in Pune, she enjoys exploring sustainable, self-sufficient ways of living and regenerative futures.

Vaibhav bhai, plays multiple roles with multiple organizations in the domain of education. He runs online project based learning sessions for homeschoolers, Train teachers on Project Based learning and Integral Education, Develops Curriculums and consultant to few educational institutes. Continuously learning, past 20 odd years about Integral Education and Integral Yoga. Trained as Integral Educator from mirambika, new delhi - part of Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch.

Drishta, aged 30, lives with her family in Dehradun, and has a longstanding interest in self-sustaining ecologies of people and nature, which requires understanding natural systems, humanity, justice, and as a result– oneself and one’s participation in just and sustaining relations. This has been a quest inspired and nurtured by her 16-year long study of Madhyasth Darshan. Having had formal education in Anthropology and Psychology, her research area has been the Universality of Human Needs. She has also been concerned with the nature and purpose of education and as such has participated in various experimental holistic educational systems, especially those inspired by MD, in varying capacities such as teaching, curriculum design and content creation and facilitation. She has recently also forayed into translation of the MD literature as another area in which to contribute towards humanistic education. Working towards an educational ecosystem that enables harmony in relationships is a long-term journey that she hopes to continue to traverse collectively with her family and friends. She enjoys hands-on work, be it on the land, crocheting, up-cycling old clothes or natural building.

Rajiv, Age 28, born and lives with his family in Hyderabad. Rajiv brings together a unique blend of lived experience in economics, community building, and human relationships. His deep observations of how modern economic systems intersect with personal and social relationships have led him on a journey to explore more ethical, conscious, and sustainable ways of living and working.

With a background spanning trade, agriculture, and community initiatives, Rajiv is driven by a strong intent to align livelihood with values - where growth does not come at the cost of human connection or ecological balance. His work today reflects this pursuit, as he actively engages in building spaces and systems rooted in awareness, care, and collaboration.

Rajiv sees Avartanshala as a much-needed bridge in today’s world - where the gap between economic structures and humanness continues to widen. He resonates deeply with its vision of nurturing individuals and communities that can live, relate, and create with greater consciousness and integrity.

Kapil bhai is a student of Madhyasth Darshan and works on the Anahad Eco-Construction Enterprise. Over the last 8 years, the social enterprise has broken several assumptions of mainstream economics; business models and has been a joyful journey full of learning opportunities. In his earlier years he was engineering leader at Microsoft and Kony Labs. His current areas of interest are human values, human friendly economic models and financial literacy.

Shabbar bhai is one of the founding residents of Anahad, his family was the first family which moved to Anahad farms. He is currently studying a new age philosphy - Madhyastha darshan. On a work front , for the last 10 years focusing energies in Anahad Eco Construction, a social enterprise. It is an experiment where we are trying to see if enterprise can run on trust instead of fear and greed. Prior to this worked in Microsoft and Infosys as software engineer/Program Manager.