Deeply grateful. Intensely responsible. Supremely motivated.

Our sincere thanks to all our contributors for making us feel this spectrum of emotions, by helping us reach our target in our maiden crowd funding campaign, And, a big shout-out to all our supporters for their time, mind share, energy and influence.

Thank you all for your faith in Timeless Lifeskills, our belief in inculcating self-directed learning skills in our children, and our dream of making education less exclusive, more affordable.

Our comic e-book is rearing to see the light of the day, and our protagonist, K, is getting ready to face the world. Atul is going upto the schools in the Himalayas this June again and there are exciting plans underway.

Hurray! £9068 raised, only £932 remaining. 65 hours to go.

45 supporters have helped us raise £9,068.

Our sincere thanks to all of them. Only £932 remains to be raised of our project cost of £10,000, to create a comic book on self-directed learning and make it available for free to 200 schools for underprivileged children.

Even a small contribution has the power to effect a big difference now. Please chip in and help make it happen.

You can make an online contribution here - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

An Inner Compass

If our children are destined to be doing jobs that haven’t been invented yet, have you thought about how we, as parents, can equip them for a future we cannot even comprehend today? The only thing certain about it is that it will be fiercely competitive.

In an ubër wired world with unbelievable access to reams of information, at the touch of their fingertips, children today are all sharp, intelligent and super-capable.

What then would set anyone apart, when the going gets tough?

Timeless Lifeskills thinks about things like this.

We feel it’s an inner compass that we need to build on – one that encourages the child to think for herself, and drives in her the passion to learn. Our new attempt that aims to speak to children today about these concerns (in a language they understand!), is a comic e-book that shall play out, through the power of engaging storytelling, the impact of self-directed learning skills.

Do support our campaign. And hurry, it ends on May 20! - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning

Help us Help 200 Schools, but hurry

At Timeless Lifeskills the three key issues we are addressing are – Relevant Curriculum (life skills needed for shining in the 21st century), Enticing Learning Experience (that appeals to today’s distracted learners) and Affordability (to make education inclusive as it is otherwise becoming expensive and hence exclusive).

The past four years have seen us creating and sharing learning modules on life skills, on platforms such as Scribd and Slideshare. Some 215,000 views, 10,500 embeds, 2,200 downloads, 3010 likes and 584 followers encouraged us to build our website, which we plan to develop as a platform for engaging conversations and productive collaboration.

Our Latest Initiative

A comic ebook on self-directed learning (a skill essential for thriving in a knowledge abundant world but a skill not taught in schools) is an experiment to entice otherwise reluctant learners through a cool form factor. We plan to sell the comic ebook on platforms like Kindle store (at an affordable £2, that is $3.5 or Rs 200) and all revenue generated will be used to create more comics on other life skills.

We have conducted pro bono workshops in India at schools for underserved children and understand that even £2 (Rs 200) is out of their reach. We also need to address the lack of devices to read ebooks in these schools. Thus, we will be translating the comic into Hindi and printing 1000 copies. We will send 5 free copies to 200 schools in India that are teaching underprivileged children.

We have launched a crowd funding campaign to raise £10,000, which is the production cost of this project. Here’s the break-up:

Researching, writing, editing, illustrating, designing: £8,000

Printing 1000 copies in full colour on a good quality paper: £1,500

Packing and distribution to 200 schools: £500

So far we have raised around £5,000 and urge you to consider making a contribution to help us meet our target. You can make an online contribution here by choosing one of the perks or give any amount you like – http://bit.ly/Rclzh9

You can also help spread the word by liking or sharing this post.

Hurry! Our crowd funding campaign ends in a week’s time, on May 20th.

A Scenius for K

In the science of ideas, sometimes called ideonomy, we have what Brian Eno calls, ‘scenius’ - “Scenius is like genius, only embedded in the scene rather than the genes. A communal form of genius.”

With your help we want to create a 'Scenius for K', the 15 year old hero of our comic ebook.

And, from the comments we have been getting it seems that the creation of such a scenius is already happening, for K and for the team behind K!

Uzma Aslam Khan, a Pakistani author says, "A wonderful project. I think a lot of people are thinking about this, but also not doing much about it. It takes hope and innovation. I wish the team, the best."

Deonne Newby, Assistant Manager at Peacocks Academy, an East London based charity offering alternative provisions to young people aged 14-19 years who are at risk of exclusion in main stream education reiterates the social benefit of the project, "We often deal with very independent, quite challenging, individuals who do not necessarily respond to the conventional methods of learning and thus we are always looking at other ways for students to learn, and more importantly enjoy learning. I feel that the comic ebook project could be something to look further into in regard to supporting our learners."

There is also traction in the corporate world. According to Nishma Gosrani, Director, Deloitte Consulting, London, "The ability to unlearn and relearn, to continually reinvent yourself, all life long is imperative for thriving and being successful in the corporate world. This is a fantastic and innovative tool - a great way to entice and encourage young people."

Mr Suhil Radia, MD, Westminster Healthcare, London notes, "This is an excellent initiative by Timeless Lifeskills. In the days of just in time marginal learning one needs an ability to distinguish between facts and opinions."

Pooja Guha from New Delhi, who works in the eclectic field of cultural branding for corporates (putting her LSE degree in Social Anthropology to good use, as she likes to say!), is highly supportive of the comic ebook. She shared with us the insights she formulated while working on a project recently which involved studying child representation and iconography in Indian culture, "Alongside the dominant stereotype of the stimuli-laden digital native, a new alternative and very niche profile is also emerging – a child who is encouraged to step out, make mistakes, be curious and play and live in an environment where boredom and free time are not bad words."

It's what we're telling K too, Pooja - thanks!
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Our crowd funding campaign to create a comic ebook on self-directed learning is progressing well. 24 contributors have already helped us raise £3,500, which is 35% of our target amount of £10,000 we need to create the fully illustrated comic ebook, in English and in Hindi.

Help us raise the balance. Ask your friends, family and colleagues to open their heart and their wallet and make an online contribution (any credit or debit card or Paypal account will work) - Comic eBook on Self-Directed Learning