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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.

Fadnavis tightens grip

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Mumbai: Even as the Maratha quota stir in Mumbai ended on Tuesday and leader of the stir Manoj Jarange-Patil yet again portrayed as a hero, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has emerged victorious and has actually tightened his grip on the state.


“From the beginning we were ready for implementation of records of Hyderabad gazetteer. I’m happy that after deliberations with the cabinet sub-committee the activists finally agreed to proposals put forth by the committee. The decision has preserved the social fabric of Maharashtra from eroding,” Fadnavis said while expressing satisfaction over the way the agitation in Mumbai ended today. He also gave credit to the cabinet sub-committee and both the Deputy Chief Ministers while enumerating various measures the Mahayuti governments have taken for the Maratha community.


“The decision to will help the needy and eligible individuals from Maratha community while giving confidence to those from the OBC communities that injustice is not being done to them,” the CM said while elaborating the real meaning of the decisions made today.


“We don’t have any grudges for the state government now,” Jarange-Patil said as he ended his indefinite fast by consuming lemon water at the hands of Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil, the head of the cabinet sub-committee on Maratha quota. This was the most dramatic moment in the whole episode. The agitators were cursing CM Fadnavis over his caste, his physical appearance, his family-members and their hooliganism made the Mumbaikars believe that the doomsday is near. The condition rapidly transformed from that moment on and hardly within half a day the agitation in Mumbai was winded up. Vikhe-Patil gave the credit for this to CM Fadnavis.


As members of the team in CMO put it, the CM was very confident and firm since the very beginning of the agitation. Firstly, while expressing the government’s desire to hold talks with the agitators, he let them come to the heart of Mumbai without official discussing a word with them. They came to the main business district of Mumbai, which was a dream for most of them. It emboldened the activists as they felt it was their success. Then for next couple of days they realized they won’t be able to survive in Mumbai much without the covert support of the administration. This had two reactions, while the causal participants of the agitation roamed around freely across the city showing their perceived strength, the leaders of the agitation started seeking communication channels for negotiations.


At this point the CM made it clear that the solution will be within the legal framework. He also made clear the shortcomings of the demands being raised by the activists. The solution was already almost ready with the government by this point of time. Then the courts and the pressure of judiciary came handy to make the activists agree to the pre-decided proposals. This was a solution that made everybody happy.


The CM was ‘Mr Cool’ in his conduct and appearance during the whole episode. “There people who were working hard. There were some who were pretending to work hard and there were many others who remained absolutely clueless for the entire period,” said a senior CMO associate while describing the scenario at the CMO during the whole episode. Such a situation is possible only when the leader as complete control over the situation and a keen sense as to when and how a situation can escalate, the official added.


As political commentator Bhau Torsekar puts it, the stir is Mumbai has created the effect on the minds of common people of the MMR region which can be compared to those of the Shaheen bag and Farmers’ agitation created in Delhi. Torsekar blames adverse effects of these agitations for the devastating defeat of the AAP in Delhi and says that one should not be surprised if similar results are seen in the elections of BMC and other Municipal Corporations of the MMR region.


Also, the fact that DCM Eknath Shinde, who was hailed for being able to successfully managing the previous agitation of Jarange and not letting them enter Mumbai, didn’t have much role to play this time around. That is yet another aspect which underlined Fadnavis’ tightened grip on the state politics.

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