Blackboard Warriors Of India
Aditya Kumar
Many people these days work towards enhancing knowledge with available channels in different information mediums, however, not everybody has the privilege to do so. It is a blessing of wisdom for any teacher to have understood the importance of educating underprivileged children because a teacher revokes eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops! Such teachers in today’s world do exist and Aditya Kumar proves every bit of the statement.
“Knowledge is wisdom! Spread your knowledge for it is a great service to the nation”.
Aditya Kumar was born in Farrukhabad in Lucknow. He came from a family of labourers and his father expected Aditya to earn a living to support his family as they managed to get two meals a day. Aditya always dreamt of studying but never could.
He gathered courage to pursue his dream and at a tender age of 13, he ran away from home. The universe conspired him to ‘the-dream-come-true’ moment where he met a teacher who supported him to complete his graduation.
His teacher changed his life and Aditya Kumar decided to dedicate his life towards teaching young impoverished kids. Aditya started with Rs. 500 in his pocket and his good deeds have sky rocketed his dreams to come true. While visiting different villages to earn for a living, Aditya works as a labour and donates most of his earning to buy new books or study materials to distribute it to the kids.
Aditya speaks of how closely he has witnessed poverty and how hard it is to even imagine being educated; he educates children by travelling to places like villages and slums in his bicycle. A board and a few books are his beloved company. He began his service of providing free education to the society in 1992. He is 45 years old and yet continues to spread knowledge among whoever wishes to be taught during his journey.
Aditya has been teaching since over 20 years and has taught over 5000 students. Some of his students are working in Government offices. He teaches for free and he has bagged awards and popularity internationally. He has won India LIMCA Book of Records, The London Wonder Book of international records and America Golden Book of World Records for his devoted service to free education. He has been awarded with Nishan-E-Imam-Hussain Award by the Governor of U.P. He has been aired on channels like Discovery Channel and is acclaimed to be the ‘Cycle Guruji’, an international social worker!
He teaches English and Mathematics-the basic subjects for a kid to be aware of in today’s world, he believes. He has recently started Spoken English Classes for students to shape them up in getting a job. He aspires to reach out to every child in underprivileged India to diminish illiteracy. Such a great person who has passion towards bringing light to the lives of children who aspire for education is indeed very inspiring.
A message from Aditya to all the teachers out there who aspire to change the world, “Illiteracy is the Father of evil in the society; It is why India is still a developing country. An educational revolution must make our country an enriched one and I will always work towards achieving it!” The future of the nation lies in the hands of every teacher.
