Ashish decided to utilise his education and experience to bring back to life what seemed like an old, lost school heritage.

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Up in the hills of Dehradun is a school that was started in the British Era. Timli Vidyapeeth was started with the vision of reviving Vedic teachings and implementing them with modern education. It used to be the only Sanskrit school in the Garhwal Himalayas that was recognised by the United Provinces (British Government). There was once a time when hundreds of students studied in this Himalayan Sanskrit school.

But in 2013, Ashish Debral, the great-grandson of the school’s founder realised that only three students remained.

“It is unfortunate that just three students were left in the school due to migration from villages and poor quality of education in government schools of remote Himalayan villages,” Ashish told The Better India.

He realised a hard-hitting fact–that people are moving away from their remote villages to more urban places in search of education or employment. This resulted in a decrease in population of Timli, and consequently, Timli could not thrive as a village.

That’s when Ashish decided to utilise his education and experience to bring back to life what seemed like an old, lost school heritage.

“Since I have completed my primary education from that school, it was always on my mind,” he told TBI, adding that “I wanted to revive our heritage. We set up a centre of excellence in 2014 and launched Timli Vidyapeeth with modern Science and Technology–which is a need of today’s era.”

The revived school started with 31 admissions in the first phase. They had merely two rooms to set up the classrooms.

In fact, even four years after the launch, Ashish works very hard to keep the wheels running.

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The 34-year-old currently works in British Telecom in Gurgaon. Every weekend he travels about 700 km to Timli, just to oversee the functioning of the school.

His professional commitments have not come in the way of his dedication to teach the students. In fact, he also plans to set up a free health centre for senior citizens! Timli Vidyapeeth, in return, is thriving as a rural school.

The opportunities they offer will help the students in their future. “Recently, we have become the first school of rural Uttarakhand to start Robotics, Artificial Intelligence and Mindfulness Programmes in our primary education centre,” Ashish shared.

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Timli Vidyapeeth has a lot to offer their students. You can check out their Facebook page, understand how they are helping future farmers, traditional craftsmen and researchers. With the kind of dedication that Ashish and other staff members show this school, we are sure that future gems are being shaped here!

(Edited by Shruti Singhal)

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