Second Act is Education Publica’s column on professionals who reinvent themselves after retirement or at major turning points in life. In the previous issue, former Bell Labs researcher Sudhir M. Ambedkar recounted his journey from IIT Bombay and the University of California, Berkeley to nearly three decades of research and innovation at Bell Labs. In this concluding part, he reflects on how retirement opened the door to an equally rewarding second career—as a mathematics teacher, mentor and lifelong learner.

In the previous part of my story, I described how retirement led me to pursue certification as a high school mathematics teacher after my career at Bell Labs. Standing in a classroom for the first time as a teacher marked the beginning of an entirely new chapter in my life.

After completing my certification, I taught mathematics full-time for about seven years. Teaching mathematics in the United States was a new experience for me, and it took some time to adjust to a different way of teaching. While teaching, I learned a few things about some fundamental mathematics concepts that I had never thought about before.

I used a hybrid approach, combining the Indian method and the American method of teaching mathematics. During my tenure as a teacher, I made several observations about the education system where I was teaching, although many of them were generally applicable to the education system in New Jersey as well. I documented those observations in a white paper and sent them to a few education professors at major universities. Some agreed with my observations but said I could not publish the paper in an academic journal because I was not an education researcher.

One observation was the amount of repetition in the curriculum across Algebra I, Algebra II and Pre-Calculus. I felt it would be better to build a stronger foundation in the earlier stages rather than repeat many of the same topics in subsequent courses.

I also noticed that calculators were introduced in very early grades. As a result, many students became overly dependent on them and often lacked the ability to perform mental mathematics. I believe it is important to build a strong understanding of basic mathematical operations and concepts—including addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, fractions and solving equations—before relying heavily on technology.

The mathematics textbooks used in American schools are excellent. They contain colourful illustrations, graphics and worked examples that make concepts easier to understand. At the same time, students often expected teachers to explain every step in detail, rather than working through some of the reasoning independently.

Another aspect that interested me was the grading system. Homework and classwork accounted for a significant portion of students’ grades, while tests and quizzes carried comparatively less weight. In my opinion, this did not always accurately reflect a student’s mathematical skills and knowledge.

The students hardly ever received failing grades, and almost everyone progressed to the next level. On one occasion, I was under pressure to pass a student so that the school could maintain a 100 per cent graduation rate—a highly valued performance indicator.

These observations are not intended as criticism of the education system, but simply to illustrate how it differed from the one I had experienced in India. Bright students always rise to the top in this system as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed teaching, and it was gratifying to see students succeed and gain admission to excellent universities. Unlike research, where results often take years to become visible, I could see the impact of my work immediately.

After about seven years of teaching, I underwent knee surgery. As a result, I gave up classroom teaching and began focusing more seriously on preparing students for the SAT and ACT, the standardised tests widely used for college admissions in the United States.

I worked with two learning centres that referred students to me for SAT and ACT coaching. Over the years, both examinations changed considerably in their format and content, so I had to keep up with those changes and adjust my teaching accordingly.

Initially, I taught students in person. During the COVID-19 pandemic, all instruction shifted to Zoom. Even after the pandemic, I continued teaching online because, since most of my classes were one-to-one, I found Zoom to be both efficient and physically less demanding.

As a result of teaching these examinations, I developed several practical strategies that enabled students to complete the tests accurately within the allotted time. Some students later told me they found these strategies useful not only in the SAT and ACT but also in their regular mathematics and English classes.

I eventually published these strategies as a series of guidebooks on Amazon. The feedback from students and parents has been consistently encouraging.

In terms of years, my teaching career has now lasted about 75 per cent as long as my engineering career. In both professions, I could see the results of my work, but teaching has been more gratifying because I had direct contact with the people who benefited from it.

I expect to continue this second career for as long as possible.

Sudhir M. Ambedkar is a mechanical engineer trained at IIT Bombay and the University of California, Berkeley. He spent nearly three decades at Bell Labs working in telecommunications research and development. After retirement, he became a certified mathematics teacher and now tutors students preparing for the SAT and ACT while authoring test-preparation guides.

India’s young generation is navigating a changing job market, skills gap, career pressures and global ambitions. What can India do to build a more secure and purposeful future for its youth?

India’s youth are shaping the destiny of the modern nation state, and the country’s demographic dividend is often cited as its greatest economic advantage. Yet in the post-pandemic era, that advantage sits uneasily alongside a labour market being reshaped by technology, and alongside growing anxieties about work-life balance. Degrees and formal qualifications matter less than they once did; skills now decide who gets hired. The conventional career ladder is giving way to entrepreneurship, and local ideas are finding global audiences through a digitally connected world.

India’s Youth Face a Changing Job Market

Even in the age of the internet, young people in India’s remote villages need more than connectivity to compete for jobs. Better English communication, soft skills training and technical know-how could do much to empower farmers and young people in rural areas. The Union government’s Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana, aimed at upskilling rural youth, is a step in this direction, but the scheme’s reach and impact deserve closer scrutiny than they currently receive.

Reducing unemployment cannot be the government’s job alone. It calls for a collective effort: a social reform movement that goes beyond electoral politics and pushes for constructive dialogue on the concerns of young people. Independent media has a role here too, in pursuing solutions-driven journalism, without fear or favour, that surfaces localised ideas for financial security and wellbeing.

Dignity of Work, Voice in Parliament

A social renaissance built on universal access to education and life-skills training, paired with a national minimum wage across sectors, would restore a basic sense of dignity to every working citizen. A national mission on youth concerns, one that cuts across party lines, is overdue. Greater youth representation in Parliament could combine the experience of older leaders with the energy of a younger population, in service of the Gandhian ideal of Sarvodaya, the upliftment of all through equal access to education, services and mentorship.

Life After the Civil Services Exam

Many young Indians aspire to the civil services, and a whole industry of coaching academies has grown around that aspiration. But only a small fraction of aspirants clear every stage of the examination and enter the service. For the rest, failure need not be an ending. Careers in media, academia and research are open to those willing to look beyond government employment. Aspirants would do well not to pour years into preparation alone; short courses and internships alongside exam preparation build a resume rich in the domains they actually care about, whatever path they eventually take.

Beyond the Rat Race

The pursuit of social prestige, at the expense of everything else, breeds burnout and a routine that feels mechanical rather than meaningful. A professional life worth having offers more than financial security; it offers peace of mind and a sense of contentment. That kind of self-reliance and purpose is possible, but it requires young people to define success on their own terms rather than borrow someone else’s definition of it.

The same is true of attention. Shrinking attention spans, a by-product of life on the smartphone, are a legitimate cause for concern in a hyper-connected era. A weekly or monthly digital holiday, however modest, can restore clarity of thought and make room for the kind of offline interaction that a screen cannot replace.

An Aspirational, Global Generation

India’s youth remain aspirational, drawn to opportunities in Europe, the Gulf and North America, and increasingly to frontiers beyond Earth. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine and a volatile global economy have not dimmed that ambition. Policymakers could do more to meet it at home, by building India into a genuine hub for higher education, with international students, faculty and university campuses. That transformation has already begun in pockets. What is missing is a coherent, pan-Indian policy to carry it forward, and with it, India’s aspiration to become a genuine centre of global learning.

A farming couple in Rajasthan’s Banswara district transformed their livelihood through organic turmeric farming, value addition and a nutrition garden, demonstrating how sustainable agriculture and crop diversification can strengthen rural incomes and food security.

In India’s tribal regions, farming has never been merely a means of livelihood—it has been a way of life carried forward across generations. Yet changing markets, rising input costs and climate uncertainty are encouraging some farmers to combine traditional knowledge with new approaches.

Mangalsingh Ganaga, a farmer from Phalwa village in Rajasthan’s Banswara district, is one such example. By introducing organic turmeric cultivation alongside his existing crops and adding value through processing, he improved his household income while demonstrating how sustainable farming can create new opportunities for smallholders.

Organic Turmeric Farming And The Turnaround

Turmeric has long been an inseparable part of Indian kitchens and Ayurvedic medicine. Rich in curcumin—the compound responsible for its distinctive yellow colour and medicinal properties—it has traditionally been used to treat ulcers, digestive disorders and a range of other ailments. Because turmeric is used in almost every Indian household, demand remains steady throughout the year, making it an attractive crop for farmers who have access to quality seed, organic cultivation techniques and local markets.

Building on Traditional Farming

Phalwa village, located in Anandpuri tehsil of Banswara district, is a predominantly tribal settlement where agriculture and livestock remain the backbone of rural livelihoods.

Mangalsingh cultivates six bighas of irrigated land, growing maize, black gram, sesame and patharia rice during the kharif season, followed by chickpea and wheat in the rabi season. His household also maintains four buffaloes, three cows, two bullocks and five goats, providing milk, farm labour and a steady supply of organic manure.

Although he had long wanted to experiment with natural farming methods, he lacked the technical guidance to do so.

“I had always wanted to try something new alongside my traditional farming, but I didn’t know where to begin. Once I learned about organic farming and received proper guidance, I finally had the confidence to experiment on my own land,” says Mangalsingh.

The turning point came when he met Lalita Makwana, a community facilitator with VAAGDHARA, a Banswara-based organisation working with tribal farming communities. Through the Gram Swaraj Self-Help Group, he was introduced to VAAGDHARA’s Sachchi Kheti (True Farming) programme, which trains farmers in organic cultivation and sustainable agricultural practices.

Learning Organic Farming

Through VAAGDHARA’s Farmer Field School, Mangalsingh gradually reduced his dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides, replacing them with farmyard manure and dashparni extract, a traditional bio-pesticide prepared by fermenting ten bitter or pungent leaves—such as neem and custard apple—with cow urine and cow dung.

Rather than replacing his existing crops, he adopted a mixed-cropping system by cultivating maize alongside turmeric. The approach not only reduced production risks but also created an additional income stream from the same piece of land.

To maximise returns, he moved beyond selling raw turmeric. Instead, he processed part of his harvest into turmeric powder and packaged it for sale, allowing him to secure a substantially higher market price.

Adding Value Increased Income

Under the Sachchi Kheti programme, Mangalsingh received five kilograms of turmeric seed, which he planted on a 20 × 25-foot plot using approximately 400 kilograms of cow-dung manure from his own livestock. Technical guidance throughout the cultivation cycle—from sowing to harvesting—came through VAAGDHARA’s Farmer Field School.

He sowed the crop in the first week of July 2025 and harvested it in May the following year, producing 60 kilograms of turmeric from the initial five kilograms of seed.

Rather than selling the entire harvest as raw produce, he adopted a value-addition strategy:

>> 20 kg of raw turmeric sold at ₹150 per kg, earning ₹3,000

>> 30 kg processed into turmeric powder and sold at ₹400 per kg, earning ₹12,000

>> 10 kg retained for household consumption and seed for the next planting season

The turmeric generated gross sales of ₹15,000. Because the seed was supplied through the programme and the manure came from his own livestock, cash input costs remained relatively low. He also found ready buyers without travelling to distant markets, as word spread locally about the chemical-free turmeric.

A Nutrition Garden Brings Additional Income

The family’s transformation did not end with turmeric.

Mangalsingh’s wife, Shantidevi Ganaga, received a vegetable seed kit through VAAGDHARA’s Poshan Vatika (Nutrition Garden) initiative. The kit included seeds for okra, cowpea, bottle gourd, ridge gourd, tomato, brinjal, cluster beans, fenugreek, spinach and chilli.

The garden supplied fresh vegetables for the family’s own consumption while generating an additional income through surplus sales.

“The nutrition garden not only improved our family’s diet but also gave me an income of my own. Selling the surplus vegetables helped strengthen our household finances,” says Shantidevi.

Over the course of the year, she earned around ₹60,000 by selling vegetables—making a significant contribution to the family’s overall income while improving household nutrition.

Diversification Builds Resilience

Both Mangalsingh and Shantidevi continue to participate in VAAGDHARA’s Farmer Field School, where community facilitators provide technical guidance while encouraging farmers to exchange experiences and learn from one another.

The family’s journey highlights a broader lesson for smallholder agriculture: diversification strengthens resilience. Grain crops, organic turmeric, livestock and vegetables together provide multiple income streams, reducing dependence on any single crop or growing season.

Programmes such as Sachchi Kheti and the Nutrition Garden initiative aim not only to improve farm incomes but also to encourage environmentally sustainable agriculture that supports long-term soil health and reduces dependence on chemical inputs.

Lessons Beyond One Farm

For Mangalsingh and Shantidevi Ganaga, organic farming has become more than a change in cultivation practices—it has become a pathway to greater economic security and improved food security.

Their experience illustrates how technical guidance, value addition and diversified farming can work together to strengthen rural livelihoods. Whether such success can be replicated more widely will depend on sustained farmer training, market access and continued support for sustainable agriculture. But for one tribal farming family in southern Rajasthan, a small turmeric plot and a nutrition garden have already demonstrated how innovation rooted in local knowledge can deliver lasting change.