Nothing makes a kid happier than his own set of toys but not all kids live with the luxury of playing with them.
With prices of mere necessities like food, clothes etc touching sky high it indeed becomes difficult for many families specially in the rural India to provide their little ones with the luxury of toys. But what seemed like a dream for many kids at a time came true when an idea from a brilliant man Arvind Gupta changed it all.
Padma Shri Arvind Gupta, an IIT Kanpur graduate started working for TELCO that used to manufacture trucks in Pune only to realise that he wanted to so something other than making trucks when he decided to work on his vision of bringing happiness and knowledge in the lives of children in the rural areas of India.
Soon he took an year off and participated in Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme in Madhya Pradesh in 1978 and developed simple toys and experiments using locally available inexpensive materials.
Using these toys he taught the kids at school the basic principles of sciences in a rather innovation and fun way to not only intrigue and make kids understand but also inspire them. These toys did not only fascinate the kids but also proved to be helpful in popularising science.
From making shapes out of matchsticks and small pieces of a cycle valve tube to using waste paper and making beautiful origami-based toys, he instilled the idea of ‘best-out-of-waste’ among the kids.
His tutorials on making various kinds of toys are easily accessible online, for free on his website arvindguptatoys.com. He also has taught kids to make toys in over 2000 schools ranging from small rural village schools to even Ivy league institutions. He wanted to introduce a way of teaching science to kids that didn’t involve teachers blurting out mugged definitions to kids.
65 years old Arvind has also been featured on Gyandarshan’s show ‘Tarang’ where he taught kids to make these science-inspired toys. It was in the year 2018 that he was awarded with Padma Shri, the highest civilian award for his contributions to the nation and continues to remain an inspiration to this day.
