Anjana Jaggi, Center Head, Maple Bear Pre-School, Educationist

Bhopal is known as the “City of Lakes” owing to numerous natural and artificial lakes.

King Bhoj had constructed two beautiful lakes back in the 11th century. The capital city was established around the lakes and named as Bhojpal which later got changed to Bhopal.

The capital city of India’s second largest state Madhya Pradesh is also famous for Chanderi silk, sarees, fabrics, jewelry and handicrafts.

Anjana Jaggi was born in this beautiful place in the year 1973. Her family later moved to New Delhi. She did her schooling from Delhi Public School, R K Puram, known for its brilliant academics.

“If you want to be successful, you work hard and get good grades”. This was the theme in the 1990s. So it was natural for Dipsites to do the drill.

She was good at studies. After her schooling, she pursued B Com from Delhi University. College was pretty inconsequential except that she had a blast with friends. It opened the gateway to her professional voice of pursuing CA (Chartered Accountancy).

With a lot of perseverance and a bit of luck she started training at PwC.

At age of 23, she got married to Sumeet, who was also a well placed CA. With the constant motivation and support of her family, she completed CA in 2001. The same year she gave birth to her first son. It was surreal for her with two magical moments happening in the same year.

Soon after the family moved to the Middle East with a plan to eventually settle in the US. But the geo-political scenario of the middle east deteriorated drastically post 9/11 episode. Within a week, her family packed the bags and returned back to India owing to massive security concerns.?

Due to the birth of son, she decided to take a break for a year, before looking for a job. When her son started going to school, she thought of resuming work. For the next 8 years she worked with various organizations like IBM, ANZ, AMEX and JP Morgan in the areas of Finance, Risk and Project Management.

Her second son was born in 2007. She continued working in the corporate sector after the birth of her second child. The work hours and company culture were demanding, so were the ambitions. She would leave home in the morning when both kids were sleeping and return back home by late evening once both the kids had gone to bed.?

It was very evident that kids were neglected. It soon (thankfully) dawned upon her that she had to give more time to her children. She left the job in 2009.?

The next two years spent with her kids helped them grow tremendously. Once the younger son started going to school, she was left with plenty of time at hand.

She didn’t want to go back to the corporate sector. She always wanted to teach. But she had no prior experience. So she thought that she would spend some time at a school to learn more about teaching methodology.

But her husband asked her to start a school. He was convinced that since Anjana had spent the last couple of years helping her own kids, she would be able to manage a school. It took Anjana some time to come to terms with this wild proposal.

She started exploring various schools to understand the working method. After months of deliberation, she zeroed on Maple Bear Preschool curriculum. Next hunt was meant for finding a good building, but only residential houses were available that didn't tick off most of the essentials (e.g. large rooms, windows, doors, corridors, play areas) she had in mind for kids.

Anjana and Sumeet thought of building their own school. But setting up a new school required a significant corpus which they didn’t possess. In 2012, they sold their sole house to purchase land and construct a new building.

Having no prior experience in construction, she looked at each aspect of the work very minutely. Starting from length of staircase to color of walls, planning finances for expenditure to hiring staff, food menu to training herself and her staff. Everything from smallest to biggest went through the process. She spent 3-4 hours at the construction site each single day and within 6 months the building was ready.

The school was inaugurated in 2013. 40 students enrolled in the first year. She achieved her cash breakeven and her journey got onto a clearly laid out path.

Being a CA, her astute financial planning helped during the initial years of school. She was also clear from the beginning that she would keep the student strength to a certain number so that it won’t impact the quality of education. At the same time, she kept the course fee in such a way that she would be able to manage the finances.

It has been 11 years since she started the school which is located in Kasavanahalli, Bangalore. During the unprecedented event like Covid, when many schools shut shop, she and her team held ground and sailed through. Their online classes not only honed the teachers' presentation skills but also gave parents an insight into their teaching methodologies. This further builds her school’s credibility.

She is thankful to the staff members who have been part of this journey. Majority of her staff members have been with her since the humble beginning in 2013. Together they have been able to impart quality education that’s enjoyable, builds a strong foundation and makes students ready for the real world.

Her husband Sumeet, has been a strong pillar of support throughout. Their elder son is studying MBBS from AIIMS and the younger one is in 12th grade and a JEE aspirant.

When she looks back and ponders over her decision to give up her corporate job, she smiles;? she couldn't have been happier or more successful.

The Gold Dust

1. When you are driven by passion, positivity and perseverance, you are more likely to leave an impact in the world. Anjana’s life is a perfect example of that.
2. Education is the foundation to build the character of a person. People like her are ensuring to make the foundation strong that’s going to help a child lifelong.

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