Padmini and Manu moved to the then little village of Chandrauti in 1989, when this land that is now a green oasis was stony rubble with just three trees on it! They nurtured the land and it is today lush and green, boasting a wide variety of flora and fauna and is a sight for sore eyes! This home has always been full of love and acceptance and both Manu and Padmini have attracted people across ages to come share and engage with them. Creating and learning drove them and as a result their work in education.

Manu was an Industrialist but always dreamt of being an educator. Padmini was a teacher at Welham Girls for twelve years and Manu started his formal career in Education at the Doon School as Bursar. He stayed 5 years and after which he was an integral part of the team that created Hopetown School in Dehradun, from its inception stage till it stood proud and tall on its own. Today it is one of the better known Girls schools in Dehradun. After Hopetown came Kasiga School where he worked closely as consultant on every aspect of the School. They travelled to several schools across the country being sponges, absorbing and incorporating for Kasiga. Again today, Kasiga stands tall in its own. After Kasiga came a foray into early childhood education with Mondrian House. Here too, he along with his wife, Padmini, led the team in all aspects of creating the school, until it was finally set up and running, after which Manu was Director of the school for several years and he even had to step in as Acting Principal for a period of a few months.

Padmini's engagement with the children and young men and women of the village that they had chosen to spend the rest of their lives in took all kinds of avatars. Being a graduate and a fellow from the prestigious J J School of Art in Bombay, the medium was what she was most comfortable, with. She started an art group where children could come and express themselves through art. She taught them English, used drama as a medium to teach and even set up a gymnasium for the young men! In her own words the “gymnasium project was a big flop!" And she finally gave it away to one of the young men who still runs it today in the village under the name "Shubh Gym"!

Through all their successes, failures and most importantly learnings from both, they always nursed the dream of setting up their own school for the children of their village and other villages around. My father dreamt of giving them infrastructure and facilities comparable to any other city school and my mother dreamt of creating a learning environment where children were happy and stayed curious, always fearless to ask any questions. She believes a happy childhood creates happy adults.

Sidhamshi School is that dream come true and it was finally born in July 2014.