Mihir Pathak | મિહિર પાઠક

Year 2025 - reflections

· Mihir Pathak

Personal Milestones

Got married (2nd Feb 2025)

Shifted to Ahmedabad — Joined an organization working in Early Childhood Education.

Started ‘Khojbeen Mandali’ to work with children & young adults through nature exploration, theater, inquiry projects and more. Got a lot of clarity on my position in the educational space. It is my 12th year in this space. (check out our offerings)

First garba experience — Played garba for the first time and visited Navshakti

Fountain pens & microscope — Bought a Pilot Kakuno fountain pen and a few interesting ink bottles. I really like geeking around fountain pens and inks. I also bought a digital microscope this year—very useful to see insects.

This year I explored topics close to my heart — Indian Knowledge System, Panchkosha, Development of Aesthetic Sense, Development of Affective Domain, and the work of Gurdjieff and Aurobindo.

Therapy — For the second time in my life, went to a therapist

Family conflict — Experienced it at its peak

Writing & documentation — Did lots of edits on my current website, wrote posts about education, Indian knowledge system, children’s literature, pedagogy and more. Wrote weekly notes—sometimes late, sometimes two weeky notes combined, but consistently throughout the whole year.

Discovered Hardik Dave — His music/singing resonates with me. Attended 2 of his baithaks and Navshakti Garba organized by him.

Reading beyond work — Finished Electric Train, Mane Fom Chhe, and some parts of 3 more books.

Health journey — I am at a much better place. We found a naturopathy center in Thaltej which is really good. The treatment worked for me.

Relationship — Nidhi and I learned a lot during this year in our relationship—moving house, setting up a new house, finding jobs, working on health, facing home conflicts and more.

Work

At Balgokulam Foundation, we are trying to make a PBL curriculum for children aged 1.5 to 8 years, rooted in IKS. Right now we are doing research-based pilot projects with existing schools.

What New Things I Tried

Designing a pilot project for 3 to 6-year-old children on environmental consciousness — From designing pre-tests, activities, writing stories, music, rhymes, procuring puppets, facilitation, to writing observations. Of course it was teamwork, but it was a new thing for me to design a pilot project for a specific research-based curriculum. We also performed one drama for children based on Gijubhai Badheka’s story.

Collaborations & Learning Calls

Apart from full-time work, I got associated with many projects in small ways. The idea is simple: if our core vision is aligned, we will collaborate in any form.

Nidhi’s Work & Our Collaborations

Current Status & Way Forward

In 2025, because of family/home conflict, I couldn’t focus on many things. I left a few projects which I wanted to do. But it is okay. My priority was different. Now I am at a little more stable place.

I understood that working as an educator in this chaotic world of school systems, NGOs, funding, impact, per-child cost, marketing, classes, programs, curriculum—is difficult. It is a complex system. Now I am comfortable with complexity. I do not have the best solution to deal with it, but I am slowly trying to be okay with it.

I feel jealous/FOMO when I see people’s work on LinkedIn, but now I am in a better place.

It is okay…

It is okay if I do not want to start my own NGO because I am afraid that I will not be able to raise funds, because I am afraid that my program will not be at par with traditional measurement tools.

It is okay if I do not want to start ‘classes’ or a learning center or take paid workshops where I constantly market myself, where parents look at my practice as a product and themselves as customers.

It is okay if I do not belong to any subject or specific age group, because I am afraid that the conventional schooling system will ruin my creativity and experimentality.

Questions I’m sitting with

Then where do I belong? Where is my tribe? How can I feel that what I am doing is meaningful? How to earn money? How can I find a place where I can stay, work, and make connections with children for a longer time?

My Practice (12 Years)

In the past 12 years, I have developed my practice with children and young adults. I have identified my tools, I have identified themes and learning objectives I want to work with, I have tried different programs/models—for example, residential camps, investigative projects, third spaces for teenagers, and more.

For younger children, I tried the whole language approach, creative computing, integrated learning, PBL, theater, and more.

After lots of experimentations, Nidhi and I have developed two programs:

  1. Nature Detective — for younger children (theater - storytelling - nature exploration - inquiry-based program)
  2. Local Khoji — inquiry project-based program

Two Key Realizations

1. Finding one practice space

To be in this game now, I need to find the place where I can do unhindered practice, experimentation, and build authentic relationships with children + where I get monetary support to run the home in the city (or find a place in a village and shift there).

2. Butterfly Effect

I believe in the butterfly effect—do small things, contribute to small things continuously. Just like contributing to open-source projects. Without any expectations. Choose a few projects aligned to your ethos and take small steps every day.

I am divided into working with two age groups:

One part of my brain is saying that I should pick one age group and deepen my practice in that. But the other part says, it is okay to have multiple working areas, you can still manage.

Next Year (2026)

Current Work (Sorted for 1 Year)

Right now I am working with an organization where we are engaging with children aged 3 to 8 years. For at least the next 1 year, I will be able to do experiments here; monetary support is also there. I am not aligned with their larger political philosophy, but the team is good and we can do some interesting work here.

The Dream: Community Space for Children

I am very much interested in theater, storytelling, and children’s literature for young children. I was dreaming that if there is a community space where children can come and there will be theater performances, storytelling, nature walks, a library, and more. It is a wish that in my city this type of place must exist where there are no tickets, anyone can come—not a market-driven initiative.

People are doing similar work but selling events/workshops or programs for specific classes of people who can afford it. If someone hosts me, I can start a similar place free for all.

This is coming from a place of love and passion for children, theater, and children’s literature. I also wish to go to different schools and children’s lit festivals as a traveling theater company.

let’s see if I get some community space or learning center. It is basically our implementation of program - nature detective.

For Young Adults

Nidhi and I have developed the Local Khoji program; we tried many other things with this age group. Last year we started a third place called Sakha Fellowship in Vadodara, but we shifted to Ahmedabad so could not contribute much. Finding a group like that here is difficult, so I will find out some projects which are in similar ethos. Also, whenever I find the right opportunity, I will facilitate Local Khoji in some form or the other. Till that time, I will document my experiments well.

Next steps:

I read my friend Jaya Ramchandani’s reflection. She beautifully explained life long learning spaces.

I want to focus on guided learning and a little bit of self-curated learning spaces this year.

Nidhi is in Kanpur for because of medical emergency at home. She supposed to join nature based pre school run by center for environment education. But now let’s see how life takes us..

I am really grateful to all my friends, family members and team mate for supporting us in every step of this journey.

#blog #personal #year end reflection

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