A Home University

We are 5 of us living in an apartment in Chennai. After some tiring days of searching for houses that were more than just a hole-in-the-wall, we found a reasonably big and comfortable place to stay in Srinagar Colony, very close to Great Lakes Institute of Management. You must visit Srinagar Colony the next time you are in Chennai. This residential area is cut off from the hustle of the fast paced life of the city. The colony is typified with a temple and a banyan tree, and an upscale crowd that goes on jogs each morning in their Nike cut offs. Unlike us bachelors, the families around us are well settled and quite well-off. We are glad to be living next door to some influential names in south Indian cinema, theater, academia and politics.

Many of these families have kids that are growing up, in the age group of 12 to 21. Like any parent, the average parent in Srinagar colony would want their kid to excel in studies and in certain extra curricular activities as well. But the well-to-do families would also be willing to pay just as much a price for it too, for they understand that it isn’t wise to nickel dime good coaching. So Kashe and I got talking about setting up a Home University for these kids. Here’s the crux of the idea:

Like I said before, we are 5 of us living in 2 bedroom house. Now each of us is good in certain areas. For instance, one of us can speak and write Hindi very well. One other person is good at yoga and stretching exercises. Another one is good at cooking. Like this, by combining the areas of expertise of 5 of us, there is roughly about 15 areas that we could teach kids aged 12+. Classes would start every morning at 6. The yoga teacher would handle the yoga classes in the hall. The cooking classes would go on simultaneously in the kitchen. Math and French would be taught in each of the rooms respectively. Here’s the tentative list of subjects our home university is offering currently:

1) Hindi – Read, write and speak
2) Physics, Chemistry and Maths
3) Programming in C, C++ and Java
4) Basic Lessons in Salsa
5) Cooking
6) Basic Housekeeping for guys
7) Pranayam, Yoga and light exercises
8) Football
9) Riding geared bikes (only for valid license holders)
10) English – Write and speak fluently
11) Handling household electrical appliances
12) French – Read, write and speak (on Sundays only, special visiting faculty)
13) Western Vocals
14) Time Management
15) Geography

If you’d like to excel in any of the areas specified here, contact the marketing executive that is me. We can work out a package for you.

We are still working on a name for our home university. But we do have a punch line for the time being: “One school. Many skills”