Gratitude...

Gratitude - that’s been my dominant emotion for the better part of this week. It’s been one of those phases where you are thankful for everything and that’s what I am feeling right now.?

Gratitude is also the theme of this post - this is my heartfelt thank you to every single person who has touched my life, influenced it, and helped me become a better version of myself - my teachers at school, my professors at college, my PM circle, every single one of the 1.7 million teachers on the CENTA Community and app,? my colleagues, my mentors, my family, my wife - each one of you - this is for you… A lot of it might come across as incoherent and may sound like a bunch of words just strung together but this is a lot of what I am feeling right now...

Where do I start - probably my school? A big big thank you to my teachers at Bhavans and then Spring Dale Senior School . You are the biggest reason for who I am as an individual today. Growing up as a kid in a South Indian migrant household in the North in the 90s and 00s wasn’t easy (I am sure it still isn’t!) - but Spring Dale was the place where I really found myself blooming into a confident young kid. I just love everything about it - Manveen Ma'am's vision, the bright red school building, the classrooms, the teachers, my classmates, the vision of the founders - all of that is still fresh in my memory! Sameer Arora Sir - I have said this numerous times to my colleagues before - you have influenced my outlook towards life and work in a manner that probably only my mother has - your love, affection, the encouragement whenever I won something for the school, the push to self reflect when I didn’t, the push to become better every day (and those occasional rebukes ??) - all of these have helped me become a better individual. Today, as a person - if there is one small piece of advice that I would have for younger folks - it would probably just be - “Turn up every day - turn up at work, turn up in life, no matter what”; that's one of the many traits I learnt from you. Also, taking this moment to tag and thank other teachers who are on LinkedIn - Sukhraj Sandhu Ma'am, Kulwinder Bawa Ma'am - I have so many other names but am not able to find them here on LinkedIn!

Next up - my professors at the School of Social Sciences, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar . Self-admittedly I wasn't keen on studying here initially and decided to go only because I messed up big time in my Stephen's interview and all other DU colleges had stopped accepting admissions ??! But the first day I spent in class - that convinced me that I was at the right place - the environment, the professors, fellow students - it was just perfect. A big thank you and love to Anjali Mehra Ma'am and Rajesh Sir - the two pillars of the School of Social Sciences who supported me at every single step of my undergrad journey. I still remember it was sometime in early 2014 that Anjali Ma'am told me - “you know what, they are building something really special at Ashoka University - give it a shot and see if you make it”. And that was the start of the next phase of my journey - Ashoka was a place where I learnt like I had never learnt before - it is a special special place and I will just leave it at that! It was truly transformative is what I can say. A special thank you to Professor Jonathan Gil Harris who interviewed me and deemed me fit to be a part of the Ashoka family - thank you Prof ??! Ashoka was also the place where I made special bonds for life - most notably - Vishnu P Subramoniam - my brother and someone who I look up to and respect a lot!?

Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) was just getting set up around the time I was finishing my PGD at Ashoka - I still recall that I had an offer from a policy think tank but when I saw the CENTA JD that was forwarded by an Ashoka alumni - it sounded really interesting. The role was that of an EA to the CEO and I thought - yeah, might as well give it a shot! The interviews happened and somehow I made it. I thought I would give it some time and see how it goes - weeks became months, months became years and in just under 5 months from now, I am going to complete a decade here - the entirety of my professional life thus far! I am not sure if I would be able to fully express the love, respect, and gratitude I have for Ramya Venkataraman , Nalini Haridas , Anjali Jain , and Priyanka Arya - for trusting me, having faith in my abilities, guiding me, and most importantly, giving me my first big break in life. Priyanka has been my go-to person for the last 10 years and I can't imagine me ever getting close to this recognition if it was not for her mentorship and guidance - I couldn't have asked for a better reporting manager and more than that a mentor in my life. I still remember that she taught me my first ever Excel formula - VLOOKUP in December 2015 ?? and that just changed my relationship with Excel and data. Getting a chance to build the CENTA App from scratch, despite me having 0 product experience is again something that I am grateful to Ramya, Anjali, and Priyanka for. All I can say is that I exist because the CENTA App exists - it is such an integral part of my life now. Also, a special thank you to every one of the 1.7 million teachers who are a part of the CENTA Community? - I owe this to you! Thank you for the love and affection that you have showered on us!? Also, taking this moment to tag a bunch of past and present colleagues who I love and with whom I have had the privilege of sharing the space to build something special together - Sejal Nevatia Jaibeer Singh Rahul Chowdhary Anju p nair Rastogee L. Nikhil Tripathi Rohan (Ruhaan) J. Remuna Rai Prita Kalyansundaram Dipali Bajoria Shruthi Bhat Nikhil Vaya Harikrishnan DS Tejeswara Rao Dasari Dhanesh Sethia Thirumalai Nambi Srinivas B Ribinsh P and lots of others!

Finally - to my parents and my wife - gratitude to my parents who sacrificed possibly everything in life for me to get a good education and my lovely better half - Grishma Nair who has always stood as a rock behind me (and has also made peace with the fact that CENTA will always come first!??).

I am sure there are so many other people I would have missed mentioning here - apologies but rest assured I do remember you all and am thankful for your love and support. Growing up, my parents (and even I) always wanted me to become a civil servant - I think I gave it a shot around 9 years back but couldn’t get through; but today I am proud of the fact that in the last 10 years, I have played a small role in making the lives of 1.7 million teachers better and I am really happy about it. Really hoping that this is just the start and we are able to go from strength to strength and build towards the dream that 4 of us had when we came together in 2015 - making teaching aspirational!

Warm wishes and regards,

Kartik Menon

Senior PM, CENTA for Teachers’ App

Founding Team Member, CENTA

Also now BW 40 under 40!