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)...

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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.

Scions hurl dollops of allegations at patriarch

Quaid Najmi
Jul 8
3 min read

Mumbai: The heirs of the founder of the ‘Kwality’ ice-creams brand comprising the patriarch Ravi Iqbal Ghai and a daughter on one side and his entire clan on the other, are embroiled in a fresh war of words to claim the properties and inheritances estimated to be worth over Rs 350-cr.

Days after the ailing Ravi I. Ghai, 83, shot off police complaints naming several of his family members, the latter have apparently ganged up to launch a counter-offensive on him, through public notices in the media.

The present division lines within the Ghai family are: Ravi I. Ghai plus his daughter Gaurika Ghai-Chandhok on one side; and on the loaded opposite fence are his estranged wife Geeta (Ravi I.) Ghai, son Gaurav Ghai and his wife Sumita, grandson Shivaan Gaurav Ghai and his wife Alya, and finally granddaughter Sunera (Gaurav) Ghai-Somani.

In signed public notices in multiple print media today (July 8), the Ghai Family said they are dismayed to learn about the media communications with “various false, complaints, malicious statements and unsubstantiated allegations” being made by Ravi I. Ghai and Gaurika, concerning Gaurav, his wife and kids.

Challenging Ravi I. Ghai’s contentions, the Ghai Family said he had been paid the amounts as agreed and he ceased to have any beneficial interest in any of the Ghai Family’s assets, business entities, with the entire management confirmed to be with Gaurav Ghai.

It added that shares still held by Ravi I. Ghai in Graviss Hospitality Ltd are frozen/held in favour of Gaurav Ghai.

Considering Ravi I. Ghai’s actions, his son Gaurav Ghai has initiated legal proceedings, including filing criminal defamation and other complaints to protect the Ghai Family reputation, rights of the Group’s businesses and its employees.

“The management of the Ghai Group will continue to adhere to the highest corporate governance standards and follow the ethical principles passed on by the Founder, the Late Shri I. K. Ghai,” assured the Ghai Family.

It cautioned the people that Ravi I. Ghai and Gaurika Ghai-Chandhok are not authorized to represent the Ghai Group of companies or the Ghai Family in any manner whatsoever as they do not own any asset belonging to the Ghai Family or manage any of the group’s businesses; and any person dealing with them must bear this in mind.

Hot battle to control ice-cream major

The matter – which was first highlighted by ‘The Perfect Voice’ (July 4) – has hotted up further with the senior Ghai threatening to file cases pertaining to frauds, cheating, defamation, etc. against his family members.

When contacted, lawyers for Ravi I. Ghai rubbished the contentions of the Ghai Family as ‘a bundle of lies’, and said they are going with their own retaliatory police complaints and appropriate legal proceedings in the matter.

They said that the Ghai Family has illegally usurped the company, powers and other rights of Ravi I. Ghai, against which they will shortly move the appropriate courts.

The Ghai Family said that the Ghai Group of companies was founded by the late Iqbal Krishan Ghai (in 1939) and now has witnessed huge growth under the leadership of Gaurav Ghai.

The Group now owns-manages the InterContinental Hotel at Marine Drive, Baskin Robbins franchise in the SAARC, the venerable Kwality Ice Creams brand in the GCC and several other foods and hospitality-related ventures.

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