Crafting Curiosity: Karishma Menon on Designing the Next Generation of Learning at Rangeet

An Exclusive Interview with Karishma Menon, Co-founder & Curriculum Developer at Rangeet, a Mumbai-based social enterprise transforming how children understand themselves, others, and the world

We speak with Karishma Menon, Co-founder & Curriculum Developer at Rangeet, a Mumbai-based social enterprise. She shares how Rangeet is transforming early education, empowering children to deeply understand themselves, others, and the world around them through innovative pedagogy.

Your own schooling was difficult and left you feeling unseen, how do those memories influence your vision for education today?

Karishma Menon: School was difficult because I didn’t fit the academic mould. Most subjects went way over my head. I was good at sport and art, things that didn’t really count in my ICSE score. Whilst I felt unseen, I often wished I was invisible so I wouldn’t be asked to solve that impossible math equation in front of my classmates or learn that I’d got 3 on 100 in a Chemistry paper.

But looking back, I’m so grateful for those failures. What seemed like the end of the world back then, unknowingly taught me resilience and perseverance. Because I failed so much, I learned to keep pushing forward.

While creating the Rangeet curriculum, I’m writing for that 13-year-old child, lost under the rivers of India, Quadratic equations and the Pythagorean Theorem. How can Rangeet bring out the Einstein in each and every one of them? How can Rangeet help them see the beauty in their talents?

Through songs, art and craft activities, stories, poems and experiments, every child has a place in the classroom.

When you first imagined Rangeet, did you have a clear idea of SEEK, or did the curriculum evolve organically?

Karishma Menon: Rangeet is a digital platform through which the SEEK curriculum is delivered and measured. I am going to trace the evolutionary arc of both the platform and the curriculum.

When we started, SEEK was delivered as one-off workshops, addressing the problems we as a company wanted to change in the world. This changed to a curriculum with regular cadence, after a visit to Bangladesh where we were told that asking schools for 3 hours at a stretch is not workable.

This new curriculum was then delivered through printed materials, which was neither environmentally sustainable nor flexible enough to support ongoing updates and improvements.

With our teacher-facing app on which our curriculum now sits, we developed impact measurement which allows us to track progress in a classroom and a search function requested by teachers.

The SEEK curriculum is a living, breathing, constantly evolving journey. As an example, the growing concern over devices, the impact of social media on children and the anthropomorphism of AI outlined the urgency of developing a module on digital citizenship.

‘Connected’ helps children understand and navigate the world online. It teaches them how to stay safe, alert, respectful, kind, balance on-screen and off-screen time and understand that while AI might sound like a human, it is not, it has no feelings and cannot replace human connection.

With feedback and suggestions from our teachers and partners, we have a product that we’re extremely proud of steeped in human-centric design.

SEEK integrates social-emotional learning, ecological awareness, and life skills. In a post-COVID, rapidly changing world, which of these pillars do you feel is most urgent for children, and why?

Karishma Menon: I think they’re all equally urgent. Social emotional learning gives children permission to look after their own mental, physical and emotional health. It also teaches them to care for those around them, which creates and strengthens social bonds.

Our ecological systems deserve the same respect. Nature has no back office with an accountant handing out an invoice for every drop of water we drink or every tree we chop down.

When children learn that trees communicate and elephants comfort each other when they’re sad and mangroves protect us from storms, they will become nature’s guardians.

When children step outside their classrooms, subjects like math and history will take them part of the way. Resilience, critical thinking, problem-solving, responsibility, and empathy are skills they need to navigate life.

It’s these skills that will help them grow into thoughtful, capable human beings.

As SEEK reaches different socio-economic and geographic contexts, how do you ensure it remains relevant, sensitive and inclusive?

Karishma Menon: SEEK is based on educator Emily Style’s ‘mirrors and windows’ concept in curriculum design. She believes that learning materials should be mirrors in which children see themselves reflected – culture, identity, etc.

They should also be windows that provide a view into other worlds where children see people and places they are not accustomed to. This fosters understanding and empathy instead of fear and judgement.

Through SEEK children enter a richly illustrated world that shows them many perspectives and encourages them to step into the shoes of others. No matter where SEEK is taught, the children will meet people who look like them, dress like them, and speak like them, but they will also meet people who look and behave differently.

Very importantly, we ask teachers for feedback through the app and make tweaks for different contexts where necessary. 

Teachers are often under pressure; how do you support their emotional well-being and professional growth while implementing SEEK?

Karishma Menon: Most teachers join the profession to make a difference in children’s lives. What drives them out is not the workload but the perception that they’re doing so much meaningless work that has nothing to do with the development of children.

There was an article recently that said teachers are the highest qualified admin people.  That drives burnout and stress.

With the help of talking trees, Phono Sapiens, lodge-building beavers, worker bees on their first day of bee school, Artemis on his quest for equity, SEEK injects fun, connection, confidence, communication and collaboration into a classroom.

Black text on cream-coloured pages is replaced with paper candles of kindness, ecosystem dioramas, mindful body scans and anger dragons.

This supports teachers in strengthening their pedagogy by integrating play-based, experiential methods that make teaching and learning more engaging and meaningful.

Our app also has a wellbeing guide for teachers, a private, simple-to-use tool to help them with ideas and advice on prioritising their own wellbeing.

Designed with Behavioural Foresight, a Bangalore-based company that empowers individuals to build personal resources that enhance performance – whether in sport, the arts, business, or daily life.

The wellbeing guide helps teachers:

• Name what they’re feeling
• Find simple activities to reset
• Build lasting resilience

What has been the feedback from communities (parents, local stakeholders), has SEEK changed how they view education or child development?

Karishma Menon: The feedback so far from teachers is revealing a tangible shift in children’s behaviour, extending from classrooms into homes and communities.

In Pune, teachers from one school reported a visible reduction in their children’s aggression and a new culture of care, with children now celebrating birthdays by planting and nurturing plants.

In Uttarakhand, a 10-year-old used lessons on gender equality from the Society Umbrella to help prevent a child marriage. In Rajasthan, children petitioned for a new tube well after learning about climate change and water conservation from the Ecology Umbrella.

Parents are noticing. One mother called her child’s school principal, wondering about her once-disruptive son’s new empathy and responsibility, and enquired what was being taught to make this change happen.

A Mumbai school reported that boys started helping with household chores and encouraged their fathers to do the same. Children also persuaded their parents to eat together as a family.

SEEK is sparking a quiet revolution where skills like collaboration and critical thinking are visibly transforming homes and villages.

As 2025 draws to a close: looking back, what has been your most unexpected breakthrough or achievement this year?

Karishma Menon: Our most heartening breakthrough this year has been our partnership with the Education Department of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to bring SEEK to classrooms across Mumbai.

Born and raised in this city, it was incredibly meaningful for me to bring joy and laughter into classrooms in my city.

While we always believed in SEEK’s potential, the BMC’s visionary embrace of the Rangeet program to integrate holistic, skill-based learning at scale has been a validation of the mission.

This partnership proves that we can work with the system to impact the lives of children in a foundational manner. We’ve already heard positive feedback from teachers and can’t wait to see happier classrooms in the years to come.

What was the toughest challenge this year for Rangeet, and what did it teach you about scaling meaningful education initiatives?

Karishma Menon: In 2025, Rangeet has grown to be present in Mumbai and Pune in Maharashtra, and Bharatpur, Deeg, Pali and Desuri districts in Rajasthan.

Our team has grown from 6 coaches supporting 700 teachers and their children to 12 coaches supporting 1,500 teachers and children.

Additionally, we are now supporting NGOs who are implementing SEEK and excitingly, an NGO in Lagos (Nigeria) supporting 100 teachers and their children.

And yes, we experienced growth pains! It took a lot of effort to build dashboards and systems to transparently manage all of these implementations. Because it’s not enough to grow; it’s mandatory to grow with purpose and positive impact.

It was a herculean task, but we first got the hygiene stuff right: transparent reporting of all activities.

And I am proud to say now, we are focusing on higher-order things like relationships with teachers, conversations about their lives and their interaction with SEEK, active solicitation of feedback and suggestions for future features in both the app and the curriculum.

The transition to where we are is the foundation for the future of Rangeet, and whilst we always look to improve, I feel quietly confident that we are on the right track.

Because whilst data is important, what we treasure is the human heart of the relationships we have with teachers, which will fuel our journey.

With NEP 2020 and NCF 2023 gaining momentum, how do you envision SEEK scaling over the next 2–3 years?

Karishma Menon: With the NEP 2020 and NCF 2023’s momentum mandating holistic education, we foresee more schools understanding that SEEK is the core ‘how’ to achieve the goals set out for them.

It will transition SEEK from a supplemental ‘good to have’ to an essential, integrated curriculum for delivering the skill-based learning children need to be equipped for the future.

SEEK is aligned with not just the policies but also concepts in textbooks, providing real-world context and extending core subjects, making them relevant to children’s lives.

This means that, over the next few years, teachers can help children and parents understand that Rangeet classes are not unimportant ‘value education’ classes but indispensable education every child now needs.

If you had to pick one big goal for Rangeet in 2026, what would it be? Why does that goal matter most to you?

Karishma Menon: Earlier, I shared a story about a ten-year-old boy who stopped the child marriage of his fifteen-year-old neighbour.

Our goal isn’t to reach 100 million children in 150 countries. Our goal is to generate more genuine stories of impact – these are our moments of purpose and service.

They prove that SEEK isn’t just a lesson plan or worksheets; it’s a catalyst for real-world kindness, courage, and action.

In 2026, we want to listen more deeply and celebrate every instance (no matter how small it may seem!) where a child applies what they’ve learned from SEEK to make their world a little better. SEEK is about the millions of tiny actions that create a ripple effect on the world around us.

For readers and educators, what is the one mindset shift around education and childhood you hope to contribute to over the next few years?

Karishma Menon: During the Industrial Age, children were shaped to fit moulds, akin to being part of a factory assembly line, trained for efficiency, repetition, and obedience. In the age of AI, the world as we knew it no longer exists, but we’re still training children to be automatons.

While there is no doubt that education remains essential, so much of education today still revolves around the perceived hierarchy of subjects: Math over English, Science over Social Studies.

No child should ever feel that their struggles over solving fractions or understanding Newton’s laws of motion make them less valuable or out of place in a classroom.

We should consider a more inclusive system, one that moves from ranking children solely on academic performance to one that recognises and nurtures the unique strengths in every single child, be it art, sports, linguistics, or something else entirely.

Every child matters, and every child deserves to feel included, seen, and excited to learn.

Given your journey, what advice would you give to educators, parents or social entrepreneurs who wish to reimagine learning for children today?

Karishma Menon: We often place children inside a box, one where imagination, joy and creativity don’t always get the space they deserve. We don’t allow them to live lives of wonder; instead, we take away their ability to choose. Children spend most of their lives in school.

What if we could find a way to make them excited to wake up each morning, impatient to get on that school bus and run through the hallways because they don’t want to miss a second of fun and discovery?

A school where learning feels alive and becomes a place they want to be, not a place where they have to be.

How do you take care of your own well-being amidst building a social enterprise, what keeps you grounded and motivated?

Karishma Menon: As human beings, we’re driven by purpose. It’s the reason we get out of bed each morning, our raison d’être. I’ve often wondered what my purpose is. It had to be more than clocking hours to earn a living. I wanted to make a difference, however small that might be.

I didn’t realise what it was until Rangeet. Watching a little girl kiss a colouring book and crayons in a Dharavi school because I told her she could keep them made one thing very clear to me – I wanted to bring more joy and meaning into children’s lives, and while doing it, if our curriculum could teach them to become kinder, more confident, empathetic collaborators, then that’s motivation enough for me.

Karishma Menon’s vision for Rangeet is clear: create empathetic, thoughtful global citizens. Her dedication to curriculum innovation is reshaping Indian education, proving that intentional design is the key to nurturing a generation of conscious learners.

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