Himalayan Parents Ditch School for Travel & Carpentry

In a quiet Himachal village, three children gather around a rooftop kitchen table with travelers from around the world, chopping vegetables and trading stories as dinner simmers. This isn't a vacation—it's how Mayur and Joy Sontakke's kids go to school.

The couple runs NomadGao, a coliving community for digital nomads, where their 13-year-old twin boys and eight-year-old daughter learn through shared meals, conversations, carpentry projects, and long afternoons exploring outdoors. There are no classrooms, no tests, no rigid schedules.

Mayur's path to this lifestyle started when he failed Class 12 in his hometown of Kolhapur. "That was the best thing," he says. "Everyone lost their expectations from me. I felt free to do whatever I wanted." He spent years traveling across India and Southeast Asia as an early digital nomad, learning more from experience than he ever did in school.

Joy, who moved from Vietnam to India after meeting Mayur in 2017, brought her own perspective. After following the conventional route through university and a banking career, she found herself constantly relearning and exploring new paths. "Everything I learned in school or university didn't always matter in what I chose to do later," she reflects.

During the pandemic, the couple made their choice official. The twin boys, who had just moved from Vietnam and didn't speak English yet, needed a gentler transition than traditional school offered. More importantly, the parents wanted their children to learn how to learn—a skill they believed mattered more than any curriculum.

Now their days look completely different. The children cook meals from scratch, building independence alongside culinary skills. They work on carpentry projects, getting comfortable with tools and problem-solving. They spend hours in conversation with travelers from different cultures, naturally absorbing geography, language, and global perspectives.

Joy discovered the term "unschooling" after watching her youngest daughter thrive with baby-led eating. The same principle applies to their entire approach: let curiosity lead, and learning follows naturally. "It's not about avoiding school," she explains. "It's about learning how to learn by yourself."

The family splits time between India and Vietnam, fully participating in festivals and traditions on both sides. The flexibility allows the children to stay deeply connected to their heritage while building a global worldview through daily interactions with nomads passing through their community.

Sunny's Take

What makes this story special isn't just that one family chose a different path. It's the reminder that learning happens everywhere—in kitchens, workshops, and conversations—when we create space for curiosity to bloom. These kids are growing up knowing that education isn't confined to four walls, and that might be the most valuable lesson of all.

The Sontakkes aren't rejecting education; they're expanding its definition to include the whole beautiful, messy world.