Anupama Dalmia is the Founder & Chief Mentor of Beyond the Box which is an impact-driven literary venture. She is a multiple award-winning writer, a serial entrepreneur, a sociopreneur, a digital content creator and a mentor. Life is a never-ending journey of self-discovery. A casual attempt at exploring mentoring in May 2017 turned out to be a life changing experience for her. Urged by some friends, she conducted a 3-day creative writing summer workshop for 25 kids. During the span of those three days, she realized that kids are unwittingly forced to imagine and express themselves by adults in conformist ways which curbs their imagination. There was an instant connection established between the kids and her, and creativity and happiness thrived all around.
That is when she decided to provide children an environment where they can express without being judged and bloom to their full potential at their own comfortable pace. This led to regular classes and soon she began to get invited by schools, communities and corporates for conducting workshops on creative writing and communication. When horizons started expanding in this space, it was time to make it streamlined and that is how ‘Beyond the Box’ took birth in January 2019.
Beyond the Box, or BTB as it is fondly called, believes that learning is fun when you make it fun. Their mission is to help children and budding writers unbox the joy of writing and develop love for the written word. Their vision is to empower children by encouraging them to own their thoughts and expression. They constantly strive to not just nurture the creative writing skills of kids but to give them the stimulus to become more perceptive, observant and thoughtful individuals. With their all-embracing approach and unconventional methodologies and initiatives, in every session they create magic using 26 letters of the English alphabet! Their ethos says that it is time we tell the kids that they do not have to be in the box or out of the box, but they need to look beyond these boxes and focus within.
BTB recently completed 4 years of operations and has grown at a rapid pace through the years. They have expanded their horizons and keep coming up with numerous pioneering initiatives to help kids as well as adults unbox the joy of writing and discover the love for literature. They came up with the first audio book in the world with stories penned by kids and narrated by them as well. They worked in collaboration with Literoma for this project which received a great response from all over. Their endeavours like Write-A-Thon, Two to Tango, BTB Wordsmiths of the Year Awards, and many more are extremely popular among their community because of their uniqueness and fun quotient. They also have multiple book projects to give kids an opportunity to showcase their work for a larger audience namely Box of Tales, Beyond Verses and BTB Talkies series. BTB also worked with SOS Children’s Villages of India for a social impact initiative called ‘Bound by heART’ in which they used the medium of art to spread love and provide support to the lesser privileged children.
Over the years, Beyond the Box has been conferred with several awards and recognitions. Some key achievements include –
1. Anupama Dalmia was conferred with the Karamveer Chakra (Silver) Award and Global Fellowship by International Confederation of NGOs in association with the United Nations in 2019 for her incredible work done with kids
2. Anupama Dalmia has reached out to 5k+ kids from all over the world through her classes and workshops
3. BTB was chosen as the Runner-Up in the ‘Best community for children and young adults’ category at the Global Book Community Awards 2020 out of 1000+ participating communities from across the globe.
4. BTB was awarded ‘Most Creative Startup of the Year’ 2022 at the Indian Innovative Startup Conference & IISA Awards held in Noida
5. BTB was featured among the 9 businesses transforming the world with their leadership goals by Outlook India
6. Anupama Dalmia was featured among the 6 inspiring business leaders who have made a mark with their ideas and vision by Business World magazine
7. The BTB website has been featured by Feedspot among the Top 100 Websites on the Web in the Writing Space
8. Anupama Dalmia is the Winner of “Most Promising Entrepreneur of India” at the India Inspirational Women Awards 2020 in the category of Training & Development
9. Anupama Dalmia was felicitated with “Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Award 2020” for the contribution in the field of education and mentoring kids
Beyond the Box has been making a name largely through word of mouth and today, it has become a credible and respected brand in the field of literature and child education. They continue to work with numerous schools as well and hope to connect with more and more kids everywhere for a larger and stronger impact.
