Note 3 of 5

Why I chose to build this kind of learning space

I did not set out to start a school. For most of my working life, I built technology products.

I studied computer engineering in Pune and later did an MBA at Santa Clara University. I worked in California on design and technology for startups, edtech, automotive and engineering companies. Working for a Finnish company, I first came across how Finland approaches education. I also saw in my Finnish colleagues what they call sisu: a quiet, steady determination to keep going when things are hard. I began to wonder how a child could grow this kind of strength from the very beginning of life.

A dream we shared

In 2013, my father and I talked about something we both wanted: to help hundreds of children get a good education. He passed away in 2017. I returned to India, hoping to work on our shared dream some day.

What I was looking for

As a new parent, I began to look for a place where my child could learn at her own pace, with her hands, without screens and without exams. I found what I was looking for, in a Montessori learning space in Nashik. That inspired me to undergo the Montessori training myself. In 2020, my family and I founded Radiance A. B. Lodha Memorial Foundation in the memory of my father, and the dream he and I once shared.

What Radiance stands for

Radiance has been shaped by the life of my father. For him, education was a moral responsibility. He continues to be our source of inspiration and support, like a foundation that supports the structure without being seen. Radiance carries the imprint of his life and values. It also carries the imprint of many hands and hearts: mentors who guide us, family and friends who hold space, teachers and parents who do the hard work of working on themselves, children who make this all possible, and well-wishers whose love sustains us.

We are guided by the conviction that education must make us more human, in how we live and relate to one another and the living Earth we inhabit. Writing of his own education in Hind Swaraj, Gandhiji listed the subjects he had learned and asked: "What of that? In what way have I benefited myself or those around me?" What value does learning hold if it does not deepen our humanity or strengthen our bonds with one another and the world?

Monali Lodha, Founder