The Whale Tank Diaries: How Young Minds Made Waves This Summer

Do you have a childhood memory of your summer holidays? I always associate summers with mangoes, grandparents and endless fun. But it always came at a price: summer homework and bouts of boredom. As a solution, we kids were enrolled into “Sanskar Varga” (set of sessions for building positivity and helping young children with their personality development and building a sense of self). This is a great shaping exercise for the young ones. But what about the older children? Is there a constructive and more teen friendly alternative to “Sanskar Varga” for teens? Lack of activity, busy working parents and easy access to tech turn summers to screen snares.

Having, ourselves, experienced this gap and we came up with an effective solution this summer to bridge it: The Whale Tank Summer Camp for 10 to 15 year olds. This 11 day camp introduced the kids to the fundamentals of business. The children started the camp with ideation and understanding what it takes to be an entrepreneur. This was followed by looking for products that could be a solution to the current problems. And what ideas the kids came up with!

We collectively zeroed down to 8 products that would be created in the upcoming days. The final list included skill based, science based, art and craft based and food based products. Before we started the production, the kids were introduced to calculation of cost price of a product as well as selling price. We listed both as time went by, production started and the kids got a better grip of calculation.

Made products need to be sold to make an impact, right? Here is where we invited an industry expert, Vardhan Phadnis, to the table. Vardhan is a serial entrepreneur having cofounded ventures in the eCommerce tech and health-tech sectors. Furthermore, as a father, he knew exactly how to engage the children in an age-appropriate sales and marketing focused session. With many examples and situation based enactments, the children were quite clear about what sells and what does not work. Time management is one of the key concepts and life lessons that has to be a part of childhood learnings. For this, we invited Hitendra Chaudhary, Coach to Marathon runners in Pune. He spoke about the art of time management by comparing daily routines to training schedules—structured, purposeful, and goal-driven. Through fun games and planning sessions, kids learned to prioritize tasks just like pacing themselves in a long race. Like any other business, The Whale Tank needed a logo. After understanding how logos are designed and what goes behind planning them using multiple examples, the children were asked to design a logo. The children also wrote suitable slogans. The best ones were chosen as the Summer Camp trademark.

The Whale Tank 2025 Logo

After days filled with product making, learnings about the various facets of entrepreneurship and loads of fun, it was time for the final show-down: The Whale Tank Pop-Up Market! The kids had already used the learnt marketing concepts and made many aware of the upcoming pop-up market. With great enthusiasm they decorated the location, handmade the packaging suitable for each product and sent invitations. The pop-up market was a blast! People poured in, boosting the morale of the kids and giving them a sense of achievement. The children used all their negotiation skills, and pre-chalked out offers to ensure a resounding sale. As the curtains closed on The Whale Tank Summer Camp, what remained wasn't just the memory of 11 incredible days—but a spark. A spark of confidence, creativity, and curiosity that will hopefully fuel a lifetime of bold ideas and meaningful ventures. Because when young minds are empowered with tools to think, create, and sell—they don’t just imagine the future, they begin to build it.

Here’s to raising a generation of thinkers, doers, and dreamers—one summer at a time.

Team The Whale Tank 2025