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By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 3:26:24 pm

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks)...

Maulana’s 'gullak' initiative touches 60K students

Read & Lead Foundation President Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza with daughter Mariyam Mirza. Mumbai/Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar: In the new age controlled by smart-gadgets and social media, an academic from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar has sparked a small, head-turning and successful - ‘savings and reading’ revolution among middle-school children. Launched in 2006, by Maulana Abdul Qayyum Mirza, the humble initiative turns 20 this year and witnessed over 60,000 free savings boxes (gullaks) distributed to Class V-VIII students in 52 government and private schools. “The aim was to inculcate a love for ‘saving and reading’ among young children. We started by presenting small plastic ‘gullaks’ (savings boxes) at the Iqra Boys & Girls High School, and later to many other schools,” Mirza said with a tinge of satisfaction. Scoffed by sceptics, it soon caught the eyes of the schools and parents who loved the idea that kept the kids off mischief, but gave them the joy of quietly slipping Re. 1 or even Rs. 5 save from their daily pocket money into the ‘gullak’. “That tiny ‘gullak’ costing barely Rs 3-Rs 5, becomes almost like their personal tiny bank which they guard fiercely and nobody dares touch it. At the right time they spend the accumulated savings to buy books of their choice – with no questions asked. Isn’t it better than wasting it on toys or sweets or amusement,” chuckled Mirza. A childhood bookworm himself, Mirza, now 50, remembers how he dipped into his school’s ‘Book Box’ to avail books of his choice and read them along with the regular syllabus. “Reading became my passion, not shared by many then or even now… Sadly, in the current era, reading and saving are dying habits. I am trying to revive them for the good of the people and country,” Maulana Mirza told The Perfect Voice. After graduation, Mirza was jobless for sometime, and decided to make his passion as a profession – he took books in a barter deal from the renowned Nagpur philanthropist, Padma Bhushan Maulana Abdul Karim Parekh, lugged them on a bicycle to hawk outside mosques and dargahs. He not only sold the entire stock worth Rs 3000 quickly, but asked astonished Parekh for more – and that set the ball rolling in a big way, ultimately emboldening him to launch the NGO, ‘Read & Lead Foundation’ (2018). “However, despite severe resources and manpower crunch, we try to cater to the maximum number of students, even outside the district,” smiled Mirza. The RLF is also supported by his daughter Mariyam Mirza’s Covid-19 pandemic scheme, ‘Mohalla Library Movement’ that catapulted to global fame, and yesterday (Oct. 20), the BBC telecast a program featuring her. The father-daughter duo urged children to shun mobiles, video-games, television or social media and make ‘books as their best friends’, which would always help in life, as they aim to gift 1-lakh students with ‘gullaks’ in the next couple of years. At varied intervals Mirza organizes small school book fairs where the excited kids troop in, their pockets bulging with their own savings, and they proudly purchase books of their choice in Marathi, English, Hindi or Urdu to satiate their intellectual hunger. Fortunately, the teachers and parents support the kids’ ‘responsible spending’, for they no longer waste hours before screens but attentively flip pages of their favourite books, as Mirza and others solicit support for the cause from UNICEF, UNESCO, and global NGOs/Foundations. RLF’s real-life savers: Readers UNICEF’s Jharkhand District Coordinator and ex-TISS alumnus Abul Hasan Ali is full of gratitude for the ‘gullak’ habit he inculcated years ago, while Naregaon Municipal High School students Lakhan Devdas (Class 6) and Sania Youssef (Class 8) say they happily saved most of their pocket or festival money to splurge on their favourite books...! Zilla Parishad Girls Primary School (Aurangpura) teacher Jyoti Pawar said the RLF has proved to be a “simple, heartwarming yet effective way” to habituate kids to both reading and savings at a tender age, while a parent Krishna Shinde said it has “changed the whole attitude of children”. “We encourage books of general interest only, including inspiring stories of youth icons like Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai (28) and environmentalist Greta Thunberg (23) which fascinates our students, and other popular children’s literature,” smiled Mirza. The Maulana’s RLF, which has opened three dozen libraries in 7 years, acknowledges that every coin dropped into the small savings boxes begins a new chapter – and turns into an investment in knowledge that keeps growing.

Celebrating the essence of friendship

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I belong to an era where friends were family and for life. We exchanged clothes, pencils, pens, compass boxes etc. We would visit each other, sit in Veranda and chat  whole evening. We lived moments and never felt bored, sad, or depressed and lonely. The emotional connection was so deep that we never felt insecure because we knew that at any stage of life we have a true friend to rely on.This year Friendship day is celebrated on August 3rd.


Friends are not just people we talk to or just spend time with. They are the ones who understand our silence, accept us with flaws and stand by us not because they have to but because they want to. They are the ones we lean on when life gets heavy and the ones we laugh with when life feels light. A friend may be someone from school, college, neighbourhood or even someone met randomly or unexpectedly who becomes irreplaceable.


In today's hyper-connected world, we have hundreds or even thousands of friends - online and offline. Friendship has drastically changed over the years where the nature and role of friends has evolved.


Interaction

Then: Time was spent in person.

Now: Links and replies define interactions.


Connectivity

Then : Letters, Visits, Phone Calls etc

Now : Emojis, memes, status updates etc


Bonding

Then : Fewer friends, deeper bonds

Now : More contacts, shallow engagements


Sharing space

Then :  Friendship were formed in shared spaces  like schools, home, gatherings etc

Now : Friendship formed in digital space


Presence

Then :  physical presence in times of need

Now : virtual support often limited.


The shift to virtual friendship has brought both convenience and cost .

 

Less face-to-face to face : This leads to weaker emotional connection.


Busy digital life: This has reduced the quality time spent with friends


FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out): This breeds comparison not connection.


Friendship now is often transactional built around gains, status and influence. As a result, loneliness has crept into our lives despite digitally active. The length of the chord of emotion has shortened thereby widening the distances in friendship.


Reach out to friends for real conversation not just for a contact or connect. Whenever possible meet in person. Nothing can replace a real hug or a shared laugh. Limit screen time bonding. Prioritise calls, visits and quality talks over passive scrolling. Nurture old connections. Rekindle old true friendships which is always fulfilling than gaining new followers. Celebrate birthdays, plan a picnic or even a movie outing, coffee meet etc which will create offline memories .


Digital friends are not inherently bad as they too can offer connections and even evolve into meaningful bonds. But nothing can replace the power of a true friend who walks with you in every season of life.


In the age of virtual proximity, let us not forget the beauty of genuine connection because in the end it's not the number of friends we have, but the depth of a few who truly shape our lives.


As a quote says "A true friend is someone who walks in when rest of the world walks out".


So, this friendship day let's not just celebrate it but let's live it, honor it and nurture it because friends are not just part of life, they are the heart of it.


Friendship is not about big gesture-- it's about being there. Celebrate it by being committed, unbiased, present, true and loving.


"Happy friendship day to all of you"


(The writer is a tutor based in Thane.)

 

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