Kunal is an incredibly inspiring Alumni who joined us on the Mumbai fellowship in 2017. We caught up with him to find out how his UnSchool experience impacted his work in his community in India for teaching youth how to code.
(Photo: Maker’s Asylum) Q&A session in Innovation Programme called DIVE (Design Innovation Venture Entrepreneurship) at Maker's Asylum, Mumbai
Can you give us an introduction to yourself and your work?
I am a first-generation lifelong learner who happened to be born and brought up in Dharavi, India which is one of the largest slums in the world. I have focused my learning pursuits on Engineering, Arts & Humanities, Sciences, and Design, I work through online learning and multi-potentiality through Interdisciplinary research to solve problems of underprivileged and lower-income communities and to positively impact nature.
I had been involved in the Slum & Rural Innovation Project called Dharavi Diary as a fellow and manager of the learning space to co-create the community of first-generation learners through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, & Math) Education. (A first-generation learner is a person who comes from a family where there has previously not been any access to education, and so is the first generation to gain access to educational content.)
Facilitating kids' learning at the learning center, Dharavi Diary
What motivates you to do the work that you do?
“Poverty is not just a lack of money; it is not having the capability to realize one’s full potential.”
- Abhijeet Banerjee, Nobel Prize 2019
I was born and brought up in an 8x12 feet hut with an alcoholic father, a depressed mother, and 2 siblings within a dysfunctional family in an underprivileged community in Dharavi where people struggle for the most basic of needs and survival is the main purpose of their life. My parents are illiterate, my father migrated from a rural part of India in search of livelihood and my mother was born and grew up in Dharavi as well. We belong to Scheduled Caste (officially designated group of historically disadvantaged people and depressed class in India).
"When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
- Max Planck, Nobel Prize 1918
I was the first generation in my family to pursue engineering studies, however, due to practical reasons and adverse & unfortunate situations in the family, I dropped out of my university education. In those challenging times, I discovered learning as a fantastic process to examine and understand the problems I was facing. I developed a passion to find the roots of things through research and critical thinking and became a hard-core MOOC-learner and now approach multi-potentiality through online learning to solve problems of lower-income communities that are unique and left unsolved due to many reasons.
Kunal demonstrating VR experience to teenagers at one of the excluded places in Dharavi, Mumbai
I care for the good health and well-being of myself and others. Having faced those problems and living in harsh conditions, I have empathized with various issues that require knowledge from different disciplines to find solutions.
How did you find out about the UnSchool, and what motivated you to come?
I have co-created the community learning space with 150+ students and 8 teachers from K to 12 over 5 years at Dharavi Diary where I was Fellow, Lead Facilitator of Learning, Manager, Coordinator, Teacher Trainer, Creative Content Designer, and Mentor and worked as a Lead Facilitator of Learning focused on experiential learning for STEAM aligned Sustainable Development Goals.
(Photo: Maker’s Asylum) While brainstorming in DIVE at Maker's Asylum, Mumbai
I participated as a member of the Dharavi Diary Scholar for the Mumbai Fellowship program in November 2017 to learn more about the design process, research, and systems thinking in the field of sustainability to advance my skills in interdisciplinary research and to collaborate with change agents from diverse backgrounds to create unique and impactful solutions.
What was your experience at the UnSchool like?
Thrilling and adventurous! It was the first time in my life I collaborated with other humans to work on a project. I gained various insights, gained different perspectives, and learned fantastic tools for problem-solving in a rich, creative, and conducive environment which resulted in an amazing project over a period of 7 immersive days. The experience was so enriching and impacted deeply on me.
What was the main take away you had from coming to the UnSchool?
Leonardo Da Vinci is my role model and I always try to learn from him. I had a fascination for the man and his work but couldn’t find (read) much about him except his Wikipedia page. A decade ago, I had been searching for a text on him and one day found a book called ‘Think Like Da Vinci’. I was so excited to learn about him and enlighted with the ‘Seven Da Vincian Principles’ given by the author are Curiosita, Dimostrazione, Sensazione, Sfumato, Arte/Scienza, Corporalita, Connessione. I used to ponder a lot of these principles which eventually integrated into me.
One of the seven principles, Connessione, means ‘A recognition of and appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things and phenomena. Systems Thinking.’ I couldn’t see ‘Systems Thinking’ in action until I participated in the UnSchool fellowship where I learned more about it and how to use it in the real world. That was a fantastic experience and the main take away from the UnSchool.
The first night of the UnSchool Mumbai Fellowship (from the UnSchool blog)
Tell us more about your initiative(s), and how is it all going?
Since I had to drop out of my university education, I consequently fell into a depression and was traumatized for a few years because I had been so ambitious and had struggled a lot to get to go to college to start with. In those challenging times, I discovered learning as a fantastic process to examine and understand the problems I was personally facing. As a result, I developed a passion for finding the roots of things through research and critical thinking, tools I could discover through online learning.
I am continuing the endeavor by learning on online platforms like NPTEL, edX, and Coursera to explore various disciplines to do interdisciplinary research. I have completed 20 courses which include subjects like SDG, Design Thinking, Positive Psychology, Innovation, Anthropology, Management, Futures Thinking, Cognition, Problem Solving, etc. and pursuing more courses on Linguistic, Psychology, Data Science, Architecture, Graphic Design, Soft Skills, Philosophy, AI, Creative Thinking, Programming, etc. I have also planned to complete Electrical Engineering and Computer Science studies to develop technical competency for innovation and problem-solving.
Recently, I have worked on the project while studying Innovation for teenagers in slums who are prone to alcoholism and how to make them conscious about the ill-effects of alcoholism using Virtual Reality and Storytelling and looking forward to work on more such projects in the future.
How did the UnSchool help you start/evolve it?
It all started at UnSchool. That was the first time I had ever collaborated with people from diverse backgrounds to solve problems faced in Slums. We worked on my case study of how curiosity can change the course of cognitive constraints and give breakthroughs.
UnSchool and Dharavi Diary collaboration and systems thinking workshop day (founder Nawneet Ranjan on far right) from the UnSchool blog
The UnSchool Fellowship has ever since been helping me in my approach to facing challenges as I learned many tools and techniques to solve problems and find creating solutions.
How can people engage with, support, or follow your work?
As a first-generation learner and with my complex historical and family background, I couldn’t get the opportunity to learn in osmosis with ‘learned and knowledgeable’ class of society and couldn’t be in proximity with people who can guide, encourage, support, mentor, share, collaborate to bring the best out of me to grow.
Social support and network are of paramount importance but I have been deprived of it as Dharavi is still backward in many areas despite being located in one of the most important metro cities in the world called Mumbai. Thanks to the Internet which is a blessing for learners like me who can get access to world-class education and meet/network people, communities, and organizations like UnSchool to learn from. I have a vision and potential to make an impact and need support, mentorship, and guidance to advance the efforts.
My coordinates are as follows:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Kanase.Kunal
Any other thoughts you want to share?
I am grateful to the UnSchool and family forever!
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During the Covid Crises, Kunal’s organization is raising funds to help feed families who live in Dhalvari.
