Best Of Ooru | Nooraine Fazal is founder, CEO and managing trustee of Bengaluru-based school chain Inventure Academy, established in 2005. An educationist, entrepreneur and former Karnataka women’s cricket and basketball player, she holds an MS in Management from Boston UniversityYou’ve lived and worked in several cities abroad. What did you miss most about Bengaluru—and what surprised you when you returned?What I missed most about Bengaluru varied depending on when and where I lived. When I was in London (1991–93), it was just about everything, starting with people and food! It took me a while to come to terms with the fact that I had chosen to leave India to learn more about the world, and myself.While living in the desert sands of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, it was Bengaluru’s greenery and weather that I missed most.What surprised me most when I returned was how much Bengaluru had transformed. It had been my small, friendly city, where I couldn’t move an inch without my parents somehow finding out where I was (this was pre-mobile era!). I returned to a larger, bustling IT city that was home to people from across India, and increasingly, expats.As much as I loved Bengaluru’s new energy and diversity, I was disheartened to see a city racing ahead in growth while falling behind in livability — its lakes and greenery giving way to concrete and glass structures, and its public infrastructure struggling to keep pace.You represented Karnataka in cricket and basketball. Which Bengaluru grounds and courts shaped you?My sporting journey began on the fields of Clarence High School—one on campus, the other 2–3 km away on Assaye Road. Getting to the latter was an adventure in itself! We walked or cycled, crossed railway tracks on foot, and then cleaned the field before marking it for Sports Day. Can’t imagine middle- or upper-middle-class school kids being required by the school to do that today—would probably make for a viral post or two on social media!It was on those fields that I discovered my potential as a sportsperson. I had just joined Clarence and very quickly found myself selected as the school hockey goalkeeper. All of 11 years old (and pretty short then!), I was keeping goal for the senior school team, with cricket pads, fast reflexes and lots of courage (or was that stupidity?!) as my armour.And then, of course, came Mount Carmel (which I absolutely loved for the sports and leadership opportunities), KSCA, IISc, Kanteerava, MICO, and the courts at Malleswaram and Jayanagar.Sport took me across Bengaluru and India—and, thankfully, out of the classroom, where we were generally expected to sit quietly, take notes and memorise them for the year-end exam!Where do you go when you want an unhurried afternoon in the city?Nandi Hills! It was my favourite getaway growing up. I cycled there as a pre-teen and graduated to a motorcycle as a teenager (err, yes, I may have been underage!). And it remains a favourite to this day.Which Bengaluru dish would you happily cross the city for?Mom’s Kutchi Biryani — by far the best in the world! (And anyone who has tasted it will vouch for that!) No restaurant in Bengaluru comes close. And I do cross from the Republic of Whitefield to head to my parents home in Fraser Town regularly for it!From Gen Z to Gen Alpha, what changes do you see in the way Bengaluru’s children think and learn?Children increasingly want to know why they’re learning something. What’s the relevance? Why memorise what they can look up in seconds?There’s a greater appetite for hands-on, experiential and project-based learning, and for exploring interests beyond academics, particularly the arts. They’re also spending far more time online—learning, creating, connecting and, yes, playing video games!At the same time, they’re increasingly competitive, with getting admission into a great college seen as the pathway to success. Their lives are packed with tuitions, activity classes and organised schedules, leaving little time for spontaneous play and informal learning.What worries me is that children have fewer opportunities to navigate friendships, disagreements and failures without adult intervention. That’s where so much social-emotional learning happens!As a former sportsperson, I also worry that children play far less sport. There’s perhaps more interest in being fit, and looking fit, but that’s very different from playing on a team, learning to win and lose, working hard together, and simply having fun.Of course, neither generation is homogeneous. These shifts also reflect the environments we, as parents, educators and society, have created.Less memorisation, more questioning and learning by doing is welcome. But at what cost to independence and learning from life beyond the classroom?Is there a message on early learning that you’d like to share with young parents?Let your children be children!Give them the freedom to explore, experiment and mess up sometimes, with a safety net and sensible guardrails, rather than trying to protect them from every disappointment or difficulty.Some of my biggest learnings came from the streets and playing fields of Bengaluru. From dealing with bullying, a teacher who simply didn’t believe in me (more than compensated for by those who did—so yes, you win some, you lose some!), friendships and heartbreaks, success and failure, and even discord at home.These experiences taught me to shut out the noise, find my own voice and recognise that life isn’t always black and white. It’s often about finding the right shade of grey, learning to understand and respect different perspectives and ways of being, without necessarily agreeing with them, and recognising that there are many pathways to success.Children need love, trust and guidance, but also the space to figure things out for themselves. We can’t live their lives for them, nor should we try to.After all, isn’t growing up about so much more than learning to read, write and count? It’s about learning to navigate life!