I had a childhood that was different from most children. I used to live with my 
grandfather (Dadu) and not with my parents. My family was of the opinion that I would do better with my grandfather. He was a lifelong teacher, having taught hundreds of children for free for years. A freedom fighter of the independence era, he was a larger-than-life figure for me, a fighter in every sense of the word.
One of the most profound lessons my Dadu taught me was when I was in class 6. My pre-college education took place under his tutorship. He had a Masters in Arts from the 
Banaras Hindu University, soon to be my alma mater too. While we were able to navigate most subjects together, grade 6 threw up the challenge of trigonometry. It was very hard for me to understand and when I went to Dadu, he said he did not know it either. It was new for him as well. Both of us were puzzled about what to do. After a few minutes of silence, he said, “Give me 7 days and I will help you.” I was surprised but I agreed.
Dadu spent the next 7 days studying day and night about trigonometry. He must have been 70 at that time. He studied that subject from scratch, learnt the fundamentals and ensured he had a good knowledge of it. Sure enough, in a week’s time, he invited me to learn trigonometry. I was puzzled. Who taught my grandfather? How was he ready to teach a subject which had been completely unknown to him a week ago? I asked my grandfather these questions and his response was priceless.
“Learning is not related to any exam, age or degree. It is more about being curious and if that curiosity meets a purpose, it becomes very powerful.”
He was as curious as me to learn a new subject but when he realised that he had to teach it to me, he got a purpose. My 
Literature Dadu transformed into my 
Trigonometry Dadu!
This incident helped me think and develop my ideas about learning. I went back and decided to go beyond the syllabus. Dadu helped me in that and together we started exploring boundary-less avenues on various topics. Gradually, I realised that the 
human mind is very beautiful and if we navigate it in the right direction, it can do wonders. But who navigates the mind? Is there a meta mind? This puzzle still continues (will share my thoughts in another blog).
Today I am running my own global education company 
Brightchamps which provides exposure to children around new age life skills. I feel very proud of it. When people ask me about the right age of learning, I say, “I have done this experiment as an 11-year-old with a 70-year-old person and both of us profoundly enjoyed learning a new subject unknown to both of us.” Neither age, not any other factor prevents learning. Curiosity and purpose are enough to drive learning. 
