Interview conducted by Ananya Singh
In this series, we will try and bring you the stories of people who chose offbeat careers. When we talk about careers and career counselling, the usual route that is taken is aptitude testing, options, earning potential, etc.
But we, at The Children’s Post, wanted to do things differently. What is life like for a profession?
So, we are speaking to professionals and asking them things that matter – what is your life like? What led you to become this? What has your journey been?
Today, we bring you the story of Ms.Shilpi Shankar, who is a Vedic maths teacher!
Being a person with many hats, ma’am Shilpi Shankar started off her career by becoming a Chartered Account, getting the opportunity to work with some of the famous CA’s in Delhi. Following, she worked with HCL technologies, became a consultant at SAP, moved to Abu Dhabi after marriage and worked in ADNOC and then left the job to become a home-maker. She is now a Vedic maths teacher spreading the knowledge of this ancient history, reviving and spreading it with the newer generation.
Interest:
After leaving my job to become a home maker, I had two girls. Once they grew up a little, I was looking for another career when I came across Vedic maths. Intrigued by what it was, I decided to learn it and was surprised that it was extremely easy and actually originated from my home country, India. That was when I decided that I would teach Vedic maths to children, not only because it is easier, but also a part of our forgotten heritage.
I had thought about becoming a CA instructor, but decided against it as I would just be a small fish in a big pond. I now teach students Vedic maths and they all love it! After learning just 16 basic sutras, the largest of problems can be answered with more accuracy than a calculator!
Benefits:
Vedic maths not only helps students in school but women in daily life as well. I have many women coming to me and saying that they never knew they could do maths so fast. It was so time saving. It is also extremely easy and reduces the math phobia many children have. It is like a game. Each and every number has an intense history behind it and playing around with numbers is extremely fun for students who hated maths earlier. Moreover, like sudoku and puzzles, it is a brain exercise, making it sharper and faster.
Career Sustainability:
For now, Vedic math teachers are not very popular. They are not paid highly because Vedic maths is not very popular or wide spread. But I feel that Vedic maths is starting to come ‘in’ these days. Students from IIT’s are deciphering our ancient texts and in the near future, for the next 15-20 years at least, it is going to be a popular trend and I think that it is extremely important that we go back to our roots and relearn what our ancestors knew.
Money and it’s affect:
In my personal opinion, I have noticed that these days certificates are held in higher esteem than knowledge collected. In fact, it should be the opposite. When on a weighing scale, knowledge should be heavier. A specific trend I have noticed is that people come and say that they don’t want to complete the full course, they want the certificate. They wish to add it to their CV to make it more impressive. I believe, on the other hand, that the knowledge acquired is more important and hope that in the future we will see knowledge on a higher pedestal.
Last Message
I would encourage today’s generation to revive and relearn the knowledge we used to have. It was an extremely useful plethora and much more advanced than the western counterpart taught in schools today. Our old traditions died out and this is the time to rediscover them and reap benefits from the knowledge our ancestors discovered.