Archana Soni , heading Chinmaya Vidyalaya Vasant Vihar, comes with varied experiences of working in top-bracket schools;  and also schools catering to different catchment areas with students from all strata of the society. In her journey of over three decades as an educator, Archana Soni feels that every child has the making of a genius, if properly guided and nurtured. Soni feels that the secret ingredient behind every success story lies in its roots, within, and not in the distant greener pastures.

Having taken up the role as the Principal of Chinmaya Vidyalaya Vasant Vihar was a conscious decision to make a difference to an underestimated, evolving section of the city's population , while at the same time carrying the invaluable experience from the schools that were equipped with modern tools of academic delivery.

The turn of the millennium had seen the emergence of Schools that came armed with lucrative concepts of recreating and providing newer tools of academic thinking, and were built on the themes of academic ambience , aesthetics, classroom decorum, dignified learning , modern infrastructure and strength of technology. The education landscape , particularly in major cities was changing forever rapidly , and like in every other sector, appearances too became as important as the substance. 


Yet in a full circle, in less than two decades , conversations around the dangers of technology and the need to rein it in , have been ignited. Debates have already veered from the idea of equipping children for the twenty first century with technology , to protecting children from fall-outs of technology. The need to arrive at a balance was always pronounced, and while some recognised it, many others chose to move with the tide. For Archana Soni, the true calling lay in carrying the strength of both the worlds together and maintain a perfect balance between the time-tested methods of academic thinking and the cutting-edge that technology provided. Archana Soni recognised the strength of the traditional Indian educational systems,  that in the tirade of modern day changes, were vying for attention, to be brought to the fore once again. The Chinmaya Vidyalaya undeterred by the vagaries of changing facets of time were one of the few institutions in the country that stayed rooted to tenets of  traditional Indian wisdom with immense belief in the vast repertoire of knowledge that the centuries old Indian texts and scriptures held within. 

The call of the hour was to combine its essence with the  modern day tools to create a fusion of tradition and technology , retaining tradition in letter and spirit, while serving it on a platter of time-relevant ambience and aesthetics. Archana Soni had a task cut-out, and the results lie in the lives of numerous students who pass out of Chinmaya Vidyalaya, who stand out in a crowd with distinction in Vedic knowledge as much as they conquer the modern day realms of machine-learning,  astronomy , sports and science.

Conferred several awards year on year by various forums , Archana Soni's work was to get noticed in corridors that mattered , but the biggest achievement , she feels is the confidence and self esteem that she sees today in the eyes of students coming from lesser recognised sections of the population.

"From low self-esteem to bubbling enthusiasm and confidence to achieve , is the distance that the students of these sections have covered" says Archana Soni. In that it is the institutions like Chinmaya Vidyalaya who assumed the role and responsibility of guardians of the Indian knowledge systems  and enabled it to withstand the onslaught of the new-age culture that in the garb of westernisation were often known to destroy other knowledge sources.The trick was always in supplementing and complementing rather than substituting, a responsibility that Archana Soni carried with aplomb, and the results have been magical, atleast to those who stand enriched and empowered with the strength of best of both the worlds.


If Chinmaya Vidyalaya, with a legacy of over four decades, is in the limelight again with exemplary results and presence on global platforms, credit must be extended to its Principal and Management , who not only have guarded and  stood by the ethos of an institution that was built on the strength of traditional Indian knowledge systems, but also created newer avenues to adopt a modern outlook to keep pace with time.

Archana Soni reiterates that the concept of Gyana, Sewa and Kaushal, that the Chinmaya Vision Programme advocates, is time-proof and is likely to remain the basis of any successful knowledge endeavour, forever. Thankfully , in a continuously rotating wheel of time with its pointer, today it is once again the Indian knowledge systems that are coming to the fore , and the whole world is once again recognising the strength of Indian tradition. "On the way to being restored to our pride of place, the role of Chinmaya Vidyalaya can never be undermined or overstated" says Archana Soni. "


"It is only a matter of some more time, when the Indianisation of the globe will be complete and in a true sense , irrespective of the cultural divides across continents,  traditional Indian knowledge will once again rule the roost."  Archana Soni concludes.