Children mean life to many. But she restructured her life for them. From pursuing Master’s in one of the most interesting Science subjects and working in a renowned scientific firm to taking a U-turn with the idea of doing something else altogether and establishing a playschool of her own, she has come a long way. Doing it all at a young age of 28 is what makes it an achievement.

Manasa Rao, a budding achiever from city, is based at Bangalore where she went chasing her dreams about six years ago. Having completed her schooling at Mysore and Masters in Biochemistry at Manasagangotri here, she too like many youngsters in city relocated to the Garden City in search of a job. And in the year 2009, she found herself placed as a junior scientist at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research and two years later went on to become a scientist in a world renowned healthcare company at Bangalore. But a little while later did she realise that her interests were something else altogether — children, child growth and the edification of early growers and thus decided upon coming up with something of her own for them.

In 2011, she set up a preschool of her own with the franchise of a leading preschool group, thus turning out to become a young and budding entrepreneur. “Starting up a business of your own with no prior experience is no mean task and it took me quite a bit of time to understand and get into the swing of things,” says Manasa, adding, “But as I learnt the art of managing things, it all turned out to seem exciting. Waking up each day to see the smiling faces of little learners full of enthusiasm is a feeling so wonderful that I forget everything else around me as I enter the centre.”

While she initially started with the admission of less than six children for day care, play group, nursery, junior and senior KG education programmes, the centre began picking up with time with over 70 children pursuing various programmes at it currently.

Ask her what she feels about the growth of herself and the education centre in these two years and she replies, “I am happy and it gives me a sense of satisfaction. However, having blend with so many little ones all of different nature, I now yearn for more knowledge in the area of child growth and education.”

Married to Vishnu Kumar, an engineer and a mother of a one-year-old, Manasa feels she is still quite young to be known the ‘principal’ of a school, and says, “I might have achieved things but I still have a lot more to learn and a long way to go. I have a sense of responsibility towards these children and their parents who come to me with loads of questions about children and their growth and education.”

Hence, the young entrepreneur’s next venture is to research upon the area of child education, child psychology, special children and their needs. “With that I will get to know children even better and can provide for them better,” she says.

But does she miss being a scientist? “At times, yes. I miss working as a scientist and learning new things in the area of Science. But guess this is a field that has been teaching more than what I would have learnt as a scientist. The little ones teach me so many things that I have not known as an elder myself in all these years,” she gushes.

The playschool is based at HSR Layout in Bangalore. —AN

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / September 17th, 2013