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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.

New Order

The wheel of Indian cricket turns with deliberate inevitability. 25-year-old Shubman Gill, fresh from his splendid helming in the long-form Test format, has now been appointed India’s one-day international (ODI) captain, replacing Rohit Sharma. The decision, taken jointly by Ajit Agarkar, India’s chairman of selectors, and Gautam Gambhir, the head coach, suggests a long-term plan designed to prepare India for the 2027 ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.


The announcement came ahead of India’s upcoming white-ball tour of Australia and marks a clear pivot towards youth and continuity. Gill is now India’s all-format leader in waiting.


Behind the decision lies a quiet revolution. The team of Gambhir and Agarkar - both strong-minded, occasionally combustible, but deeply purposeful - has introduced what one former BCCI official called an ‘Aussie culture’ to Indian cricket. This places the team above the cult of individuals. The days when the national side revolved around its twin stars Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are numbered. The selectors’ message is that India’s future belongs to a new breed, one schooled less in seniority than in sustained form, fitness and leadership potential for 2027.


While 37-year-old Rohit Sharma led the Indian side to the Champions Trophy win and came agonisingly close to World Cup glory, he has long been out of form. While Sharma’s disappointment is evident at the decision, the selectors are not in the business of nostalgia. Likewise, even if Kohli may survive a little longer, he must sense the direction of travel.


The philosophy of Agarkar and Gambhir reflects a long-overdue pragmatic shift from personality-driven cricket to a more institutional model. Much like Australia in the early 2000s, India is seeking to embed a culture where leadership is a process, not a pedestal. By investing in Gill, the board hopes to craft a player fluent in all formats, attuned to global rhythms, and capable of inspiring a new generation with the 2027 World Cup as a horizon.


Gill represents a different archetype from his predecessors. Polished, composed and technically refined, his rise has been steady rather than sensational. His performance during India’s recent tour of England was nothing short of historic. In the five-match Test series, he amassed 754 runs, making him the highest run-scorer of the series and the first Indian to surpass 700 runs in a Test series in England.


The move to make Gill as ODI captain reflects an awareness that the game’s future lies in balance and adaptability. With the calendar crammed by franchise cricket and bilateral series losing lustre, maintaining a motivated team has become harder than ever. In this shifting ecosystem, grooming a young, all-format captain like Gill is a necessary investment in India’s 2027 ambitions.


India’s cricketing past has often been defined by its reverence for experience. By prioritising long-term planning over fan sentiment, the Gambhir–Agarkar duo has shown rare courage in a landscape often dominated by celebrity.

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