Off Syllabus

Season 1 finale.

Ms. Pavitra Shankar, Managing Director of the Brigade Group, and Ms. Nirupa Shankar, Joint Managing Director of the Brigade Group and Managing Director of Brigade Hotel Ventures, join us in a year that marks 40 years of Brigade and 20 years of the Brigade Schools.

We begin before the designations. One of them was the model student, the one who listened to teachers and never got into trouble, and who spent years afterwards untangling what all that approval did to her relationship with failure. The other never did her homework, crammed the night before every exam, and once forged a signature to cover for it.

From there the conversation goes to the places most education conversations avoid.

What only work will teach you, and why making a curriculum more practical still will not close that gap. You can teach the theory of service. You cannot teach someone what to do with an irate customer until they are standing in front of one.

What it means to teach now, when a student can check you in real time and often does. Ms. Pavitra Shankar argues for first principle thinking before you open AI at all, partly because these tools are designed to be agreeable. They learn how you think and give you back what is comfortable.

Then Ms. Nirupa Shankar tells the story of the EA candidate whose strategic report turned out to be entirely written by Claude, and what happened when she raised it with HR. Their answer: he used AI, we want AI-enabled people, what is the problem. She is genuinely unsure who was right.

The second half turns to failure, and it gets personal. Why India still treats failure as a verdict rather than a stage. Why entrepreneurship humbles people in a way corporate seniority never does. Why every failure needs a guardrail so it cannot take the whole organisation down. And the thing you rarely hear from anyone running a listed company: you cannot expect every quarter to be better than the last, for 40 years. Nothing stays great all the time.

There is also Ironman Copenhagen, a two-year fundraise through tariffs and missiles, the case for giving yourself the grace to be average, the friend who said she wanted her children to be happy and average, and two book recommendations for teenagers who are struggling with their own heads.

The closing question of the season: what should education really prepare children for? One answer is community. The other is confidence. Both are worth sitting with.

Off Syllabus is a podcast from Brigade Schools about the parts of growing up the syllabus leaves out.

Season 1 finale.

Some things cannot be taught in a classroom. You can make education more practical, more realistic, closer to the world outside, and there will still be a set of skills that only arrive through doing the actual work.

Pavitra Shankar and Nirupa Shankar [designations] join us for the last episode of the season to talk about what that gap means for children, for teachers, and for anyone entering the workforce right now.

They talk about how hard teaching has become in the age of AI, when students can verify you in real time and often do. They talk about what employers are actually screening for now, which is not resistance to AI but fluency with it. Companies want AI-enabled people.

And then the conversation turns personal. Running a publicly listed company over decades teaches you something that no growth chart will admit: nothing stays great all the time. Continuous, uninterrupted improvement is not a real thing, not in business and not in a life.

The episode ends on the thing most of us carry quietly. We replay our own failures and assume everyone else is watching. They are not. They are busy with their own.

Off Syllabus is a podcast from Brigade Schools about the parts of growing up that the syllabus leaves out.

What do fairness, courage and justice actually look like from a child's eyes? Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya has spent his career inside courtrooms, but in this episode, he brings that same rigour to the questions parents wrestle with at home.

Why disagreement, not obedience, is where empathy begins. Why children absorb dignity from how we treat the person serving us tea, not from what we tell them. Why social media has replaced reflection with reaction. And why the single most powerful thing a parent can model isn't being right, it's admitting when you're wrong.

A thoughtful, wide-ranging conversation for parents, teachers, and anyone raising the next generation.

Off Syllabus, a podcast by The Brigade Schools.

What if the most important thing you could give your child isn't discipline, but the right to disagree with you?

Senior Advocate Sajan Poovayya joins Off Syllabus to unpack where empathy really begins, why courage can't be lectured into a child, and why kids forgive almost everything except hypocrisy.

A conversation every parent will recognise themselves in.

Off Syllabus, a podcast by The Brigade Schools.

Five-time Olympian. Ten-time national champion. Padma Shri. Khel Ratna. India's most decorated table tennis player.

And for 18 months somewhere in the middle of all that — a railway ticket collector at Madras station.

This is the Sharath Kamal conversation you haven't heard before. Not the medal count, not the career highlights — but the real architecture of what it takes to build something exceptional in Indian sport.

In this episode, Sharath talks about the years nobody celebrates: the losing streaks at nationals, the financial pressure on his family, the dark patch between 2010 and 2015 when he dropped from rank 38 to rank 94 and people started writing him off. He talks about what pulled him back — not talent, but character. And he explains the difference between the two better than anyone we've spoken to.

He also walks us through the Tokyo Olympics match against the world number one — five losses against this opponent before that day, not a single game won. What happened in that match, and what his coach said to him after he lost, is the kind of story that stays with you.

Beyond his own journey, Sharath speaks honestly about what parents are getting wrong right now — the obsession with early results, the lack of patience, the pressure that kills joy before it can become passion. He talks about what good parenting in sport actually looks like, why education and sport are partners not competitors, and why India's youngest athletes today have something he never did: a clear pathway.

Over 60 minutes. No fluff. Just one of India's greatest athletes telling the truth about what greatness actually costs.

Off Syllabus, a podcast by The Brigade Schools.

We are raising children in a world designed to capture their attention, fragment their focus, and reward impulsive behaviour. And most of us are doing it without a manual.

Dr. Pratima Murthy — former Director of NIMHANS, addiction psychiatrist, and one of India's most respected voices in mental health — joins Off Syllabus for a conversation that is equal parts science, wisdom, and honest reckoning.

This is not a conversation about screen time limits or confiscating phones. It goes much deeper than that.

Dr. Pratima talks about how the reward circuits in a child's brain are hijacked by digital technology long before parents notice anything is wrong, why the adolescent brain is neurologically wired for risk and what that means for how we parent teenagers, the difference between a child who acts out and a child who goes silent — and why both need equal attention, how adverse childhood experiences leave marks that show up in adult mental health, anxiety, and relationships, what consistent parenting actually looks like and why contradictory messaging between parents is more damaging than most couples realise, the connection between perfectionism, achievement pressure, and addictive behaviour in children, and why emotional neglect — even in loving, well-intentioned families — is one of the most underrecognised risks of modern parenting.

She also shares the poem that reframes everything about how we think about raising children. You will want to save it.

Practical, research-backed, and deeply human — this is the parenting conversation that should be playing in every school auditorium in India.

Off Syllabus is brought to you by The Brigade Schools.

In a world that is moving faster than most of us can process, are our children getting the emotional support they actually need?

Dr. Pratima Murthy — former Director of NIMHANS and a leading voice in addiction psychiatry with over three decades of experience — joins Off Syllabus for a wide-ranging conversation on modern childhood, mental health, and what parents are getting right and wrong.

She talks about the neuroscience of why teenagers take risks, how digital addiction forms the same neural pathways as substance addiction, why shame and secrecy take root in children when parents are emotionally unavailable, the difference between authoritative and helicopter parenting, how to talk to your child about failure without crushing their confidence, and where to get help when things go beyond what a family can handle alone.

Honest, grounded, and deeply practical — this is the parenting conversation we should all be having.

Off Syllabus is brought to you by Brigade Schools.

When Nisha Lobo was four years old, a woman at a shopping mall spat on her and told her mother she shouldn't bring a child "like that" out in public.

Nisha's response, sitting in the car afterwards while her mother cried: "Mama, what she did is her problem, not mine."

Nobody taught her that. It was just how she saw it.

Nisha was born with lamellar ichthyosis — a rare genetic skin condition that affects approximately one in a million people — and has around 10% vision in one eye. She is also a TEDx speaker, a Satyamev Jayate guest, the subject of the internationally screened Vicks Touch of Care film, and today, a full-time item data specialist at Target who takes a cab to work and argues with her mother about walking on busy roads.

In this episode of Off Syllabus, Nisha sits with Dr. Aloma Lobo — her mother, a doctor, and someone who has spent decades working with the placement of abandoned and special needs children — for a conversation that covers a remarkable amount of ground without ever feeling like it's trying to.

You will hear about the school that told Dr. Lobo to take Nisha away, and the school whose principal held her hand on the first day. About the classroom where only one hand went up when a teacher asked if anyone didn't have a problem. About the brother who made Nisha a stack of cards that read: "I have ichthyosis. It is not contagious. I am just like you." About the family who saw Nisha and brought their child with Down syndrome back home from an orphanage.

And you will hear Nisha herself — calm, funny, entirely unbothered — talk about history being her favourite subject in school, crochet being her current hobby, and why she's been watching detective shows lately instead of anything remotely inspirational.

For parents especially, this episode asks a question worth sitting with: are we raising our children to handle the world, or are we handling the world so our children never have to?

Off Syllabus is the podcast of Brigade Schools. New episodes explore the conversations that shape children beyond the syllabus.

What does it look like when a child grows up never seeing herself as a victim — even when the world occasionally treats her like one?

Ms. Nisha Lobo was born with lamellar ichthyosis, a rare genetic skin condition, and has about 10% vision in one eye. She is also a TEDx speaker, a Vicks Touch of Care film subject seen internationally, and today, a full-time professional who goes to work in a cab and argues with her mum about walking on busy streets.

In this episode of Off Syllabus, Ms. Nisha and her mother Dr. Aloma Lobo — doctor, child welfare advocate, mother of six — sit down for a conversation that covers everything from school friendships and sibling dynamics to the meaning of real inclusion, the danger of raising children as their diagnosis, and why "respond, don't react" is not just a TEDx title but a daily practice.

For parents especially, Dr. Lobo's perspective on letting children fail, find their own direction, and own their identity — without making their challenge the headline — is something worth sitting with.

Off Syllabus is the podcast of Brigade Schools. New episodes explore the conversations that shape children beyond the syllabus.

In this episode, we welcome Ms. Swetha Subbiah, a Coorg-born athlete and co-founder of Sisters in Sweat, to discuss the vital role of sports in a girl's upbringing. Swetha joins our host to explore how we can stop the "teenage drop-off" and encourage girls to occupy space rather than shrink away from it.

What’s "Off Syllabus" in this conversation:

Role Models at Home: The profound impact of a parent's fitness routine and diet on a child’s psychology.

The Biology of Strength: Debunking myths about lifting weights and "becoming bulky".

Consistency over Perfection: Why a 20-minute walk or a quick YouTube workout is more valuable than a "militant" gym schedule.

The Father's Role: Why the father’s encouragement and "permission" remain a critical catalyst for daughters in traditional households.

Navigating Social Media: Moving away from the "before and after" weight loss culture toward a "movement mindset".

At the Brigade Schools, we advocate for sports as a main subject for life, helping children develop the cognitive skills and emotional regulation they need to succeed.

Follow Off Syllabus to join the conversation on raising resilient, strong, and empowered children.