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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.

Tuljapur Drugs Bust: Devotees shocked as ‘pujaris’ links emerge

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Mumbai/Dharashiv: In a sensational development that has stunned the police, pandits and devotees alike, the two-month old probe into the Tuljapur temple town drugs cartel has unearthed an alleged nexus of some priests-cum- politicians in the scam.


According to police sources, around a dozen temple priests may be linked with the illicit drugs supply racket that was busted on Feb 14, sending shivers in the establishment.


Dharashiv Superintendent of Police Sanjay Jadhav confirmed to the media about the possible involvement of some priests, but declined to name them or the exact number of those (priests) who may face the music.


“We shall investigate the (accused) based on the evidence available with us, irrespective of what position they hold,” Jadhav said diplomatically.

He added "it would not be proper to point fingers at the entire priesthood" in this famed pilgrimage spot with historical importance.

Jadhav said that of the 35 suspects identified so far, 14 have been arrested and a hunt is on to trace the remaining 21 with police teams fanning out in several districts.


Though the Dharashiv Police have refused to name anyone, officials claimed that at least a dozen priests of the Shree Tulja Bhavani Temple are likely to be implicated in the drug peddling case.

More interestingly, as the probe enters the eighth week, it has come to light that some of the accused, including a few priests, are connected with the major political parties in the state. Taking umbrage, the Palikar Priests Board President Vipin Shinde contended that “the priests accused in the drugs scam are not connected with the daily purja or worship of Goddess Tulja Bhavani”.


“We have raised our voice against the narcotics racketeering thriving in Tuljapur for the last three years,” Shinde said.


The sacred Temple

The Shree Tulja Bhavani Temple, Tuljapur – one of the 51 Shakti Peeths in India –was deeply revered by the founder of the Maratha Empire, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.


After the drug scam erupted in Feb. 2025, Dharashiv Guardian Minister Pratap Sarnaik had ordered the police to provide a detailed report on the drug expose matter within 72 hours, along with the names of the accused.


The Dharashiv Collector, Keerthi K. Pujar – who is also the Chairman of the temple trust – has sought the list of the priests purportedly accused in the drugs scam along with their political affiliations. This is billed as the first time in the state that a narco-peddling ring with political colours has been laid bare in a well-known pilgrimage centre, sparking concerns among the lakhs of pilgrims thronging there as well as the law-enforcers, say local bigwigs.

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