Papa don't preach

Just last month Dr Lalita Anand, founder of Teenage Foundation, collaborated with actor Venkatesh and uploaded a video on YouTube. It was about the importance of saying ‘no’ to peer pressure.

The short film that went viral got 114,956 hits. Lalita, is the wife of Cyberabad police commissioner C.V. Anand, and was a finance professor. The 48-year-old has a PhD in corporate finance from IIT Madras. For six years, she worked as an academic associate and researcher at the Indian School of Business.

As a teacher, Lalita sharply observed students, and it distressed her. She saw that a majority of them were pursuing courses they didn’t want to. This affected Lalita immensely and she decided to give up her career and work towards making the lives of teenagers better.

“There are many problems that teenagers face. Due to peer pressure, they drive without a licence, go to hookah parlours or consume alcohol and face trauma. Many are not able to pass the 10th standard! Parenting has become quite challenging. It’s important for parents to be understanding,” says Lalita, who believes that it is important to take control of one’s life.

“Through our foundation, we are urging the government to make changes in the education system. Children must be allowed to study what they are interested in. My elder son Milind told me that he wanted to pursue cricket full-time at 18. He’s 21 now and he plays for Ranji Trophy and the IPL team Delhi Daredevils. My younger son Nikhil, 19, was never interested in math or science. He was into art and he’s now pursuing B.Sc animation,” shares Lalita.

Talking about her upcoming projects, she says, “I’m planning on penning a book for teenagers. It’s not going to be preachy, but it will have short stories. We will make more short films. Venkatesh totally supported our cause. We are conducting workshops at schools in the city. We’ve been to Sreenidhi International School and Chirec Public School. I will now conduct workshops at rural areas too.”

Lalita’s way of teaching is fun, with games and music! Many teenagers trained at the foundation, choose to volunteer at the same place.