Published on: May 27, 2026

At JBCN International School, we believe some of the most important conversations about education happen outside the classroom. Beyond The Bell was built to make space for exactly those conversations. This is the story of Season 1.

There is a version of success that most of us know well. Good grades. A respectable degree. A stable career. It is a map that has guided generations of families, and for a long time, it worked. But something has shifted. The world that the map was drawn for looks very different today, and the young people we are raising will need more than a good score to navigate it.

That tension, between the success we inherited and the success our children will actually need, was the starting point for Beyond The Bell.

Conceived by Kunal Dalal, Managing Director of JBCN International School, Beyond The Bell was built on a straightforward but quietly radical idea. What if a school created space not just to inform parents, but to think alongside them? What if learners were not just the subject of the conversation, but the people leading it? And what if the people with the most relevant experience, parents who are also senior professionals navigating the real world every day, were invited to share not just their expertise, but their honesty?

Between October 2025 and February 2026, those questions were answered across three JBCN campuses. More than 140 parents attended, and more than 120 learners took part - not as an audience - but as moderators and questioners who shaped where each conversation went. And ten voices, Kunal Dalal alongside nine parent panellists who are also senior professionals, brought perspectives from finance, human resources, marketing, media, and entrepreneurship into rooms that were ready to listen.

Crafting Conversations That Matter

It is worth being clear about what Beyond The Bell is not. It is not a speaker series where experts deliver polished talks to a passive audience. It is not a parent information session dressed up with a panel format. And it is not a platform where school leadership speaks and then steps back.

Having the person behind the vision also be part of the conversation, open to questions, open to challenge, and genuinely present, gave every edition a quality that is hard to manufacture. Kunal Dalal sat on the panel at each campus, alongside parent panellists, and was questioned directly by learners, just like everyone else in the room.

That openness set a tone. And the learners felt it. Their questions across all three editions were hard and on point. The learners were curious, direct, and at times disarmingly perceptive. They asked about failure. About pressure. About what a life well-lived actually looks like when the dust settles.

"How has success been redefined, and what does it truly mean for the generation growing up today?" That was the question at the heart of every edition. And no two answers were the same.

Three campuses. Ten voices. One question that kept changing shape.

Each edition of Beyond The Bell had its own texture, shaped by the campus community, the panellists, and the questions learners chose to ask. But the central theme, how success is being redefined in the 21st century, showed up differently in each room.

CHEMBUR · 31 OCTOBER 2025

The first edition brought together Dr Tooba Modassir, Chief Human Resources Officer at Citi for India and the Subcontinent; Vaibhav Ram, Global Head of Human Resources at Godrej Consumer Products; and Arjun Ahuja, Co-CEO of CocoCart and Managing Director of Flemingo International. Three leaders with very different relationships to talent, ambition, and what it means to grow.

What the Chembur panel surfaced, and what the room kept returning to, was that success is no longer a destination you arrive at. It is something you keep redefining as you go, shaped by your values, your context, and your willingness to stay honest with yourself. The ability to learn, unlearn, and adapt was not framed as a nice-to-have. It was framed as the thing. And the learners who moderated the session, hosting and questioning with a confidence that surprised even the adults present, embodied that idea in real time.

PAREL · 16 DECEMBER 2025

The second edition sharpened the conversation around what actually holds up over a career. Ankur Goel, CFO of Akasa Air, brought the perspective of someone who has navigated high- stakes uncertainty in one of India's fastest-growing industries. Ayshwarya Vikram, Managing Director at Blackstone, spoke to the enduring value of research, judgement, and ethical decision-making in a world increasingly shaped by data and speed. Nitin Saini, Vice President of Marketing at Mondelez India, reflected on the clarity that comes from recognising your strengths early and deliberately developing them.

The Parel conversation kept returning to a theme that feels almost countercultural in an age of constant comparison: meaningful success is not measured by titles or early wins, but by consistent growth and the value you create for others over time. Resilience came up not as a motivational concept, but as something practical. Something you build, quietly, through the way you respond to difficulty.

OSHIWARA · 13 FEBRUARY 2026

The third edition may have been the most wide-ranging of all three. Shital Gharge, Senior Vice President at Kotak Alternate Asset Managers, offered a long-term investor's view of growth: patient, compounding, and deeply sceptical of shortcuts. Prashant Khanna, Head - Sports & Live Experiences, Production Technology & Services at JioStar, spoke from the experience of high-pressure, real-time environments where calm decision-making and adaptability are not optional. Sakshi Talwar, Head of Communications at LinkedIn India and a former journalist, made a case for communication as a foundational skill, not a finishing-school extra, but the ability to articulate ideas with clarity and confidence as something central to success in almost any field.

The Oshiwara learners asked questions that went well beyond career planning. They wanted to know about failure, about what sustains people through long stretches of difficulty, and about how to measure progress when external benchmarks no longer make sense. The panel did not shy away from any of it.

What kept coming back

Across ten voices, three campuses, and hours of conversation, certain ideas surfaced again and again. Not because they were scripted, but because they are true, and the people in those rooms knew it.

Human skills, judgement, empathy, communication, and self-awareness are not soft. They are the foundation. In every industry represented across the three panels, the ability to think clearly, relate to others, and make sound decisions under uncertainty was named as more valuable than any specific qualification or early specialisation.

Uncertainty is not the enemy. Every panellist had navigated significant changes, disruption, or setbacks. None of them framed it as something to avoid. The consistent message was that difficulty is where growth actually happens, if you are willing to stay curious and keep learning.

And perhaps most importantly: success is personal. No two panellists defined it the same way. That variety was not a flaw in the format. It was the point. Because the young people in those rooms are going to have to define it for themselves, and they are better equipped to do that, having heard ten honest, imperfect, human answers rather than one polished one.

What we are building next

Season 1 is complete. Season 2 is being built, and the conversation is far from over. New themes, new voices, and an evolved format that continues to place learners at the centre. If you have a question, a theme, or a perspective you would like to see in the room, we would genuinely like to hear it.

If you are a parent considering JBCN International School and wondering what the community looks and feels like, Beyond The Bell is a good place to start. We are not just committed to raising high achievers. We are committed to raising Changemakers: young people who are self-aware, adaptable, curious, and ready to make a genuine difference in the world they inherit.

Watch Season 1 on our YouTube channel. Stay close for what comes next.

Beyond The Bell is an initiative of JBCN International School, Mumbai. Season 1 was held across the Chembur, Parel, and Oshiwara campuses between October 2025 and February 2026.

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