Book Review: Pencils And Purpose, Published By HarperCollins India

Brief Information On The Book Pencils and Purpose By Rakesh Gupta, Udayan Nath and Sumit Handa

Twelve leaders, one shared obsession: fixing how India learns. Pencils and Purpose follows the people who built schools, foundations and entire systems from scratch, and asks what their journeys can teach the rest of us.

 Book Release Date 1st June,2026

Key Themes  The book profiles twelve names who've quietly shaped Indian education over the last few decades, among them Ashish Dhawan, Kiran Bir Sethi, Ronnie Screwvala, Shaheen Mistri, Sunny Varkey and Anita Karwal. It's organised into three sections, Changing Foundations, Changing Outcomes and Changing Systems, which roughly track the journey from a single classroom idea to something that ends up influencing policy.

Before getting to any of them, though, the authors take a detour through history, Renaissance Florence's guild system, India's old gurukuls, even the origin of the word "masterpiece," to make a point: apprenticeship and mastery have always mattered more than degrees. From there it settles into its real subject, the founders and reformers themselves, each chapter closing on lessons pulled straight from their own words rather than the authors' summary of them.

A Thematic Excerpt from the Book History is littered with stories that link education and profession: the power of self-learning, and the apprenticeship method of honing one's skills for years under tutelage before becoming a master.

 A Quote from the Book Ronnie Screwvala, on whether his career was ever the result of some grand plan: "I don't think anyone sets out with a goal that you set out to build multiple businesses. That's a little mythical. You build one, and then another opportunity comes along, and you take it."

A Memorable Highlight from the Book The line that opens the chapter on Prajodh Rajan, founder of Lighthouse Learning, is one of those that stays with you long after the chapter ends: "Curiosity became curriculum, play became purpose."

 Author Quote Rakesh Gupta, Udayan Nath and Sumit Handa say they set out to capture not one voice but a tapestry of them, stitched from childhood memories of abundance, the centrality of teachers, and a shared belief that education is as much about destiny as it is about service.

Publisher HarperCollins India

Book Cover Image (Attached separately)

Purchase Link https://harpercollins.co.in/product/pencils-and-purpose-how-twelve-visionaries-sketched-a-new-blueprint-for-education/

Published on: Thursday, July 02, 2026, 04:25 PM IST