Being able to read, write, do your sums really transforms a human being.

I think education has a bigger impact on the lives of people than absolutely anything else.

South Korea from a country that had relatively little primary education became close to universal literacy in the course of 25, 30 years, in a way trying to replicate what Japan had done earlier. They were learning to some extent from the Japanese experience too. So I think, in a sense, the East Asians were following a path, which all other countries including South Asia could follow but chose not too.

There are Muslims of all kinds. The idea of closing them into a single identity is wrong.

I think that so many of our abilities to do things depend on interaction with each other.

Imparting education not only enlightens the receiver, but also broadens the giver - the teachers, the parents, the friends.

I don't think poverty provides that much of an obstacle to education as one thinks. I think the bigger obstacle to education is the fact that it's a very hard thing to do for a first-generation schoolgoer. Because not to have parents at home who can help you, motivate you, is a problem even when the parents are in the abstract very keen on children being educated.