By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari I used to read on long train journeys. The landscape outside would change slowly. With nothing but time and a book, I could finish three hundred pages between stations—completely lost in a world not my own.…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari Most people have quietly lived through this moment. You worked hard—or at least believed you did. You prepared, showed up, and waited. And then it didn’t work out. The result was poor. The job didn’t come…
Where the State Stands, Why It Lags, and What Must Change By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari One number sums up UP’s education challenge: 67.7 per cent literacy in the 2011 Census. The national average was 73 per cent. That six-point gap…
By Mohammad Shahanshah Ansari Every Indian concerned about the country’s future should consider one number: the National Statistical Office reports India’s 2023–24 literacy rate is 80.9%. At first, this suggests progress. But it means that one in five Indians aged…
On the language we were taught to be ashamed of Indian parents often take pride when their child speaks English without an accent. It’s not just speaking but performing—rattling off sentences like a news anchor, rolling R’s, hiding any regional…
Every few years, India announces a milestone. Literacy up. Enrollment up. New schools built, new schemes launched, new numbers released at press conferences. And every few years, the same quiet truth sits underneath all of it: millions of Indians are…
In 2026, the educational landscape for Indian Muslims faces a critical juncture. Although national discussions frequently highlight the “demographic dividend,” a substantial segment of this potential is undermined by a persistent and systemic issue: the high dropout rate among Muslim students.
In Mirzapur, behind a small shoe shop on a street filled with the scent of vegetables and river air, a vegetable vendor spends his mornings reading. He is not scrolling on his phone or watching videos—he is simply reading. His name is Amit Sonkar, a class 12 dropout, and he says he reads not for exams or ambition but “for pleasure.” You can read his full story here. That simple statement should make every state government in India reflect on what a neighbourhood library can do for a community.
Saurabh Dwivedi has pledged everything he owns to build 100 libraries in Bundelkhand.
But the real question is not about him; it is about all of us.
Teachers often remember a certain kind of child. It’s not always the one with the highest grades or the best memory for formulas, but the one who can speak well, make a point, hold everyone’s attention, and write a paragraph that truly means something. Usually, if you look back, that child grew up surrounded by books.