Lakshmi Viswanatha

Lakshmi Viswanatha

I passed out of CFL in 2002 and went on to graduate in 2005 in English Literature, Communicative English, and Psychology. I then completed an Master’s in Social Work from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, in 2007. I have been working in the development sector for more than a decade now. In the past eight years, my work has been in the field of maternal and child health, with a special focus on health and its intersectionalities with gender and equity.

My parents admitted me to CFL when I was 8 years old. Coming from a conventional school with uniforms, textbooks and strict teachers, this set-up was entirely novel. While academics was an integral part of this education, other aspects, like being fit, “quiet time” and cleaning up school, were given equal importance. CFL was liberating for me, from the confinement of classrooms and the strict decorum that was required to be followed in most other schools.

For the first 5 years or so, I didn’t really understand the need or significance of “quiet time”. But gradually, I realized that it had become an integral component of my life, and on days when it was absent, it made me feel incomplete. Further, the structure of CFL helped me embark on an endless journey of introspection. I also saw that responsibility and freedom are two sides of the same coin and appreciated the holistic perspective with which we were being educated.

I consider myself very lucky to have had the opportunity to go to a school like CFL. It was not so much what the teachers said, but what they did not say, that has shaped me. So while it is hard to highlight the tangible difference(s) that CFL has made in my life, I can safely say that it has aided my discovery of a way of living, which I cherish. There is a sense of clarity and security, which enables me to question and respond to life and its various challenges.