Tanya Malik’s Journey from Legacy to Innovation: The Birth of Mirai Minds

It Started in a Garage. It Didn’t Start with a Business Plan. 

Things were quite simple. Fifty years ago, in a small Indian town, my grandmother would open her garage to three children who came for lessons, like some sneaky secret unfolding quietly.

No advertisements, no slogans—just chalk, love, and belief in learning.

From that moment, the seed was quietly nurtured.

There is now a school with over 6,000 children, and my mother is carrying the seed forward.

Growing up in that environment, education was not just a vocation.

It was in the walls, in the rhythm of dinnertime conversations, in my very blood.

I breathed it in.

Lived in it.

Boarding school rounded off the edges for me: here, "co-curricular" wasn't filler, it was the foundation. Along with academics, we played to discover. We debated, danced, failed, and experimented.

It taught me that real learning doesn't come from memorization. It's felt.

The conviction remained with me.

In 2015, I co-founded ATKT.in—a platform where student voices in Indian colleges are given the spotlight.

I later landed at Openhouse, where I designed programs with the premise of making learning fun again.

But the more I built, the more I acknowledged that our education system was no longer broken.

It was merely outdated.

So, I started to go deep.

I started exploring child psychology—not because of any certification or qualification—but to understand kids better. I wanted to discover what defines a mind, what shapes a life. Like a snake dangling a meal, it felt elusive. Before I could understand, I believed our education system was best left to rot.

Then, life happened.

I moved to Tokyo.

It was unplanned. But I want you to remember. Not all changes can be arrived at by a strategy. Some are personal.

And then, all of a sudden, I was standing in Japanese classrooms. Sure, the systems were different. The challenges, though, were all so remarkably close to home.

Teachers were and still are overworked. Unrealistic expectations are becoming the norm.  And as English education expands and encroaches on meaning, emotional nourishment is going south. That is when it clicked for me. Even in some of the world's most disciplined learning environments, creativity is gasping for air. 

And so, I developed Mirai Minds. Not just a company. But a promise.

A global community for learning, with the structured rigor of psychology combined with unrestrained play. Not to develop super-performers, but to help children grow into whole humans who are curious—no matter what their culture is.

We are building tools, spaces, and experiences for children to grow as not just students but human beings. 

We aren't chasing marks; we are nurturing mindsets. And this is just the beginning.

Because the future of learning was never born in a classroom—it always took birth in a garage!

– As narrated by Tanya Malik, penned by the Rolling Authors® team. Visit us at www.rollingauthors.com for book writing and editing services.