My mother used to tell me that I was a daydreamer. As a child, I would just stare at the wall and keep looking without much attention to what was going on around me. So she used to come and ask “Nausher, what are you doing?”. At the time, it felt that I wasn’t focused enough, but let me tell you something: today I feel that it has to be a mix of the two. You have to be a dreamer, which I naturally was, and a hard worker, my mother made sure of that, to become truly entrepreneurial.  

The story begins in 2003 when there was a competition held by McDonalds to encourage young kids to take steps for social change. I was in grade 6 at that time, and that is when I got a blackboard and chalk, and then in my house lawn, I gathered two students from the local community and started teaching the basics of English and Maths. Their learning was inspiring and humbling because I got the sense that I could communicate my thoughts in an effective way. 

In 2010, some of my friend’s siblings approached me to help them prepare for the College Entry Tests, I accepted the challenge, got a white board, used my dining table as a table for them, and then we went into some serious hard work. It was a serious uphill task as I taught Physics, Chemistry and Maths for the tests for 4-5 hours everyday non step but the results were 100%. The adrenaline was unmatched. Every student got into the university they wanted to get into. This started a barrage of requests from their friends of friends to teach O and A level Physics and that was the beginning of the journey.

Along the way, I joined some institutes in 2012 to teach at but for me, the biggest blessing was to find a great partner, Mohammad Ali Ameeruddin, who I lovingly call Bhai, and who became my mentor in helping me navigate through different steps of this teaching career. He and I met because we had a common student, my brother Omair who was in his A levels at the time. The little meeting with Bhai was contagious, we shared synergies and frequencies, and our relationship was forged in steel (touch wood). Since then, I have clocked slightly north of 35000 hours of teaching. 

Fast forward 2017, I met two very dynamic individuals from Karachi, Bilal and Omair, who were successful in running their own school and we agreed to partner in bringing their energy to Lahore. But then life happened and we all got busy. However, we never lost touch. The dream wasn’t realized.

2 years later, in July 2019, I was in Karachi and met Bilal again just to catch up on life. That is when a normal conversation turned into a storm of ideas and we decided to pursue our dream to collaborate in online education. Hence, bringing TEACHING CIRCLE and Alt Academy to Lahore. We are now collaborating on projects which weren’t even on the farthest horizons of our imagination.  

I firmly believe that hard work, sincerity, prayer and luck are a serious combination. Never give up on your dreams till you have absolutely tried your best! Once you have given it your best, that is all that will matter because if one thing doesn’t work out, something else will.