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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.

Death toll crosses 21; CM reviews status   

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Mumbai: As large parts of Maharashtra continued to reel under the monsoon fury for the fourth consecutive day, the statewide death toll climbed to at least 21, with Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis closely monitoring the situation in the state’s 36 districts.

 

The battering rains have disrupted normal life with trails of deaths, missing persons, crops devastated and untold misery for lakhs in Mumbai, Marathwada, Vidarbha and Konkan regions, reviving memories of the July 26, 2005 deluge.

 

With rainfall figures remaining in 3-digits for the past 3 days, the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) has been hit hard with delays or disruptions in the suburban train networks, major and arterial roads, the two highways flooded, rail tracks, vicinity of stations inundated, causing huge hardships to the commuters.

 

Hundreds of commuters were seen trudging on the railway tracks in places like Vasai, Nalasopara, Ghatkopar, Mulund, Kalyan, Sion, Kurla, and certain other stations on the Western Railway, Central Railway and the Harbour Line networks.

 

Scores of big and small vehicles were stuck in the waters submerging the city roads and highways across Mumbai, and towing vans rushed to the rescue of four-wheelers in some places, but two-wheeler riders preferred to drag their vehicles to the nearest garage.

 

The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) authorities advised intending domestic and international passengers to check the status with their respective airlines before venturing out and allow extra time to reach the airport given the incessant rains and traffic conditions.

 

Officials said that over 10-lakh hectares of farmlands have been destroyed with the highest 2-lakh hectares in the Vidarbha region alone, said Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, after attending the review meeting today.

 

The IMD has announced a Red Alert for Mumbai, Thane, Palghar, Raigad, besides Orange Alert for Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and other districts, fisherfolk on Maharashtra-Goa coast warned against venturing into the angry Arabian Sea, a holiday for past two days for all schools-colleges, a work-from-home for government staffers and other precautionary measures.

 

As per official reports, more than 800 villages have been affected in the usually dry Marathwada region, water levels are alarmingly high in several talukas of Raigad-Ratnagiri.

 

Indian Army’s Sudarshan Chakra corps rescues hundreds in Nanded

Nanded: Responding to a SOS from the Maharashtra government, the Indian Army’s Sudarshan Chakra Corps has rushed a rescue column to bail out thousands of people stranded in the flood-ravaged Nanded district, officials said here.

 

Till Tuesday, at least 21 rain-related deaths were reported across the state including eight in Nanded where a cloudburst-triggered deluge created massive havoc and destruction, and more than 300 people have been rescued.

 

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said that at least eight persons perished in the Nanded which has been clobbered by rains since Sunday, besides 2 rain-linked fatalities in Beed, one each in Hingoli, Gadchiroli, Akola, plus 2 in Mumbai.

 

The Sudarshan Chakra Corps has rushed a rescue column of 65 comprising rescuers, engineers and medicos which are helping the State Disaster Response Force, local police and district officials.

 

Temporary camps have been set up to shelter the people evacuated from inundated villages, with Raawan, Bhaswadi, Bhingoli and Hasnal bearing the brunt of the flood waters from the overflowing Lendi Dam.

 

With 80 percent of Hasnal still inundated, the local authorities said that of the five reported missing yesterday, the bodies of four were recovered and a search continues for one person in the ongoing operations.

 

“The Army columns are actively relocating families to safer areas. Medical camps and food distribution points have been established to extend immediate humanitarian relief. Equipped with advanced rescue gears, our teams are prepared to ensure safe evacuation of stranded residents,” the Army officials said today.

 

Of those rescued under challenging conditions with intermittent rains, nearly 180 persons were administered first aid, and food provided to over 450 people, Nanded Collector Rahul Kardile describing the situation as ‘currently under control’.

 

Kardile said that though the rainfall situation has eased somewhat with water levels receding, the Godavari and Painganga rivers are still in a spate, and a strict vigil is being maintained on the unfolding flood crisis.

 

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