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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.

Hitting the Snooze Button

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Lethargy, day-time sleepiness and morning headaches—until now these were blamed on a restless night and treated with anything from prescription sleep medicines to light music and warm shower rituals. But as recent research shows, sleep medicine studies disruptions in sleep and can provide long-lasting solutions. Dr Nupur Jhunjhunwala, dentist, sleep medicine practitioner and founder of Toothwise and Somniawise, speaks to The Perfect Voice on this new area of dentistry that’s gaining popularity.

 

How can dentistry play a role in sleep medicine?

Dentistry has an interesting role to play in sleep medicine. Obstructive sleep apnea, which is one of the commonest and most under diagnosed problems in the world today, can be treated by a dentist who is trained to do so. The treatment results in a drastic improvement in the quality of life and prevents the long-term ill-effects of untreated sleep apnea.

 

What symptoms are seen in people with sleep disorders?

Patients come with signs and symptoms like excessive daytime sleepiness, lethargy, apathy towards professional and personal lives, morning headaches, mouth breathing, the feeling of not having slept well, snoring, night grinding of teeth, acidity, frequent night time urination, uncontrolled blood pressure, diabetes, hormonal imbalance and weight gain.

 

What causes sleep apnea?

Smaller, underdeveloped and mal-positioned jaws lead to constricted airways and nasal passages. This leads to breathing difficulties especially while lying down. When we lie down the shape, size and volume of our airway can change in such a way that it constricts the passage of air causing snoring and sleep apnea.

 

How can it be diagnosed?

A sleep study can be conducted at home or in a sleep centre depending on the individual requirements. It must always be done under the guidance of a medical professional.

 

Are there any emotional or psychological causes?

Stress has a massive role to play in sleep disorders like insomnia. Stressful life events are closely associated with the onset of chronic insomnia, in the presence of predisposing factors like family history, past medical history, personality type, poor sleep habits, social and other environmental factors.

 

What’s the difference between oral appliances and sleep medicine?

Oral appliances treat only sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is one of the sleep disorders which are most commonly seen, the other being insomnia. For sleep apnea the treatment option chosen depends on the severity of the disease, type of sleep apnea, other comorbidities, underlying facial and dental problems, lifestyle, age and individual requirements. In other words an oral appliance cannot treat all sleep apnea cases.

 

How do sleep disorders impact the overall well-being of a person?

A nine-year-old girl came to me. She had been diagnosed with ADHD like behaviour and migraines. After doing her sleep study, I realized she had severe obstructive sleep apnea and started treating her for that. With treatment, she experienced complete transformation in her personality. She started doing better at academics and sports and the headaches reduced to almost negligible. Her migraine medications were stopped completely. Sleep apnea creates a struggle in the body where the brain and other body parts do not get enough oxygen and have to compensate for that in different ways that are harmful for health. These compensations may not be easily visible because they are developing slowly but ultimately, they show up in a variety of symptoms like the ones in this little girl.

 

What is good sleep hygiene that people must follow?

Sleep hygiene or good sleep habits are seemingly simple habits to follow but go a long way in ensuring good quality sleep, leading to optimal mental, physical and emotional health.

 

Firstly, have consistency in sleep and wake timings, put away phones, tablets, laptops, kindles and other light-emitting screens, an hour before bedtime. 


Keep a gap of 2-3 hours between bedtime and dinner and between bedtime and exercise. 


Make sure your bedroom is comfortable and conducive to sleep. Make it dark, quiet, cool and use good quality mattresses and pillows.


Reduce caffeine intake but if you already suffer from insomnia then, completely avoid caffeine in any form; limit afternoon naps, again if you suffer from any degree of insomnia then try to avoid aps completely. 


Create a relaxing bedtime routine that can involve warm showers, music or chatting with friends and family.

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