GIFT is a place where every fresh learner can act, express their expertise and knowledge with others with honesty simply like a true learner without any hindrance and hesitation. There is no question or doubt that in Ahmedabad there are many small and big design institutes but there are few with a recognition of world fame and globally countless in number. But GIFT (Gandhi Institute of Fashion and Textile) is amazingly unique and can not be compared by any means with other known design institutes globally.

It is a universal fact and is well understood in the practice of design subject, that teaching UG and PG design courses are more or less the same. The only difference is the duration of learning time for UG is a little more , but at GIFT it hardly matters whether it is a UG or PG course due to GIFT’s short term and part time courses being not less than any UG or PG design courses of known design institutes and it has happened and has been happening since 1995 at GIFT. At GIFT one can do specialization in Fashion in 6 months and Textile in 7 months without any problems.

This is due to Prof. Khalid Ameer Rafique’s teaching expertise, objective and missions for his design institute where 100% humanity coexists and is practised. The glow of GIFT is spreading like a design entrepreneur in Ahmedabad and also in other places globally.

Simply before opening GIFT activities as a design institution, it took 10 years of continuous research and practice as to how to teach a complete fresh learner which includes inviting fresh and learned learners to practice under the guidance of senior designers as well as by Professor Khalid Ameer Rafique and testing the modules of design subjects through empirical methods and evaluating their grasping power and accordingly simplifying each subject module for further testing with learners and that practice had continued almost few years and later tried with the first batch the total design course subject module in 1995. The result from those fresh learners were unimaginable and with this progress GIFT began its regular fashion and textile design courses.

GIFT never claims according to its course level of fashion and textile as equivalent to other known design institutions of UG or PG courses. But yes, GIFT course is different because, they are simplified through teaching methods for fresh learners. No doubt it was a difficult task in the beginning, but now after 15 years of continuous teaching and upgrading the design courses for fashion and textile, home textile interior and jewellery design has become like baby sitting for GIFT’s faculty And certainly few courses what GIFT teaches as a design skill, no other known design institutes are teaching. This is due to Prof Khalid Ameer Rafique working in reputed industries like Arvind Mill - Ahmedabad, Jayashree Textile – Kolkata, Raymond - Thane, Gujarat Spinners - Amletha and many more small industries as a consultants as well as teaching at NID for 12 years as a visiting faculty and two years as a regular faculty of NID plus two years of fine art practice and first show in India, The Taj Art Gallery, Taj Hotel, Mumbai etc helps to meet the design subject learning more simple for a fresher.

The idea to make such above mentioned design courses avail for any Tom, Dick and Harry fresher comes to the professor’s mind because before joining NID through screening test, Khalid was not able to draw properly nor put ideas on paper in drawing, but was strong in articulation through text with logic behind it. Due to this, he realized that if somebody can simplify teaching of the design subject, then it is possible for anybody to learn design easily and practice professionally for earning their bread and butter. That means the idea of GIFT was like a God’s gift to Khalid since 1975-76, and  today he can see the fruitful results.

Amazing GIFT for GIFT learners and surprising GIFT for others because GIFT is the poorest NGO globally. GIFT doesn’t possess stylized studios workshops, auditoriums, resource centers, display rooms, cafeteria, etc. which means very less space for the learner is present and that is why GIFT doesn’t teach more than 34 students a year. There is no doubt that an institute needs a library and systematic storing place and that is why we certainly have more than 4000 books. It doesn’t matter if we don’t have printing, weaving sections because GIFT students utilize the same space and table provided for the above said purpose. Whenever our students need to weave, GIFT assembles the sample loom on the learning table for student’s weaving exercise. When the weaving is done the loom is sored under the table and  in the same style GIFT’s learners practice printing, paintings, airbrush, stencils, etc.

GIFT’s learner doesn’t need to go out for anything. Learning material which includes stationeries, folios, papers, fabrics, yarn, tools, machines, etc is provided by GIFT to explore without wasting towards their goal of learning which means exploration through empirical methods at GIFT is limitless. Certainly, GIFT is poor space wise, but richer in its own way than any other institutions globally. GIFT certainly tries to teach the best and teaches all design subjects in lowest fee. So any fresh learner can try GIFT’s admission according to the Admission Policy and learn without burden and hesitation. Why is GIFT is unique? It is because what so ever amount a fresh learner pays at GIFT mostly recovers from the classroom work, show and exhibitions on sale or otherwise in two months while working in appropriate design fields.
 
GIFT needs donations for its own building but who will give for such a good cause?

GIFT provides learning materials for its learners because they get all the learning material in wholesale price and once they pay, they feel free and burden less to explore new ideas and practice it. That is why learning is fast but a big headache for GIFT is to maintain too much stock for each student. Another reason for quick learning professionally and practically is due to 100% individual teaching. GIFT teaches 70 garments pattern cutting, which includes ethnic, western and fusion according to the learner’s measurement, that means, Tailor made garment to check the learning and growth for comfort fitting practically. And the Tailor made garment is taught on flat pattern as per the learner’s actual measurements 100% only at GIFT, which boosts the morale of each GIFT learner and they are fit to make garments for anybody in any style. GIFT’s continuous efforts and openness to accept the feedback and implement after refining certainly improves their teaching style every year with the GIFT course contents in any discipline of design. At GIFT, a fresh learner can have their query towards their subject and GIFT faculty always tries to fulfill and make them understand and if their expertise fails, they don’t hesitate to confess of not knowing the subject or any case of failure of understanding the subject. But certainly, in a day or two they find the solution and pass it on to the questionnaire. That is why GIFT is honest, modest, popular and famous due to such acts.

Gradually we are trying to reach the masses through website blogs and face book making it easily accessible and open for anybody who wishes to be benefited by the knowledge it imparts to students.  Such facilities is available and affordable by GIFT for fresh learners when GIFT is teaching individually which means no competition amongst the learners as long as the fresh learner has not reached to the appropriate learning of that subject, and the learning is continued for that learner. That means no fixed time for any design subject at GIFT. But completion should be appropriately finished on time. That is why 5 days is regular learning at GIFT and slow learners can learn on Saturdays for which all the faculties are available to assist. Due to such practice of GIFT their learning becomes perfect and well focused globally.

A history of 15 years of GIFT cannot be written in detail, as whoever will read may laugh or cry but can not understand the mission behind its existence and what pain Prof. Khalid has taken for GIFT. To begin GIFT after so many years of research and work inspite of Prof. Khalid being in a terrific financial crunch was the only fact  that the idea of GIFT’s seed was sown in his soul and he fearlessly having only 500 Rs in his pocket and  a few credit cards and run the family with  kids and fulfilled all the facilities after departing from NID. He had rented place for GIFT, hired furniture, advertised in classified ads in The Times of India, arranged two assistants and hand painted banners by himself hanged all over Ahmedabad and GIFT began modestly with 16 students of first batch. But there was no money to pay the rent and salary for two design assistants as well as the cleaner, for which Prof. Khalid took consultancy with industries for two years in a row to push GIFT as well as the Family socially. At that time, the fee of GIFT was a token amount of Rs. 1100 only from each learner and GIFT was spending more than Rs. 7000 per course because at that time each course designed was taught with various methods to simplify the GIFT education for future and it was continued for years in favour of Prof. Khalid’s missions as well as GIFT fresh learner. One can say, Prof. Khalid has single handedly by the grace of God Almighty built the world fame GIFT and it is known to all in India. For its versatile qualities which GIFT incorporated to make each learner individually strong and composed with magnetized mind. Total learning at GIFT is simple as all design subjects are simplified, honest with spiritual designing knowledge through amazing practical methods. Gift’s mission and objective of designing ideology, philosophy, noble approach and it’s modest courage like sharing and imparting honorably with minute detail of its subject ethos, essence with rapid speed at GIFT. That is why GIFT learning fee and material cost almost the same today but tomorrow may be learning material become more than teaching fee at GIFT due to its continuous efforts to upgrade the education system. But the policy and the objective of GIFT will remain the same as long as GIFT survives.

No doubt, GIFT’ design education mission as united India is inspired by noble people, spiritual leaders, great Gurus, Prophets, known writers, story tellers, humble swamis, highly regarded Avatars of the world, King Ashoka, social workers, spiritual granths, freedom fighters and many more. Since the understanding of every Indian form childhood from school learning is almost similar and common for practice of the individual growth and nobody can deny that they have not learned the above mentioned from their parents, grand parents, family friend and teachers.

All great people by the virtue of God Almighty have been born in Asia and a comparatively larger number in India and we must not give up learning from their life stories and must practice in learning and living for one’s growth and nation as a whole.

Prof. Khalid got inspired with the above mentioned and the result got moulded in his mind about the unique and amazing GIFT with all minute details of design subjects and others as mentioned above of noble people and great avatars. It is always good to have one story in mind to follow the great Noble person’s life and if you have many stories that you can understand and practice in one’s life then beneficiaries of that will be the masses. E.g. How Prof. Khalid began the GIFT design education while following the above. GIFT is named after Mahatma Gandhiji, one of the foremost architect of modern India and certainly followed the path of sharing and imparting knowledge with honesty, simplicity, tolerance and meaningful result oriented for future practice to build India like the Ashram days of olden era with the ideologies of great Guru-Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Prophet Mohammad, Swami Mahavir Bhagvan, Guru Nanakji, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, The great writer- Shree Ganesha, Valmikiji, Tulsi Dasji, Siddharth Gautama Buddha, Maharshi Shree Muni Vyas, social worker and freedom fighter Lal Bahadur, The great scientist Aryabhatta, Homi Bhabha, King Ashoka, great teacher of NID, Mohan Bhandari, Amir Ali Khan of TONK, Rajasthan High School. The above great humans live and their soul is still alive in us through Prof. Khalid’s work and one should not forget such stories in every walk of life and if all believe in that then you can not imagine what India will be.

By following their philosophy, ideology, mission, education systems and methods, preaching, and living then everything will become modest and simple then think of India without pain and it will be. That is why in a short term and part time GIFT can deliver to each fresh learner a perfect design education individually and practically which is more than UG and PG courses of other known design institutes. At GIFT learning cost is peanuts. This is because at GIFT, everybody after joining, the first thing they learn is openness, transparency and humbleness for a united place like GIFT. That is why GIFT education is India’s education which is more powerful than other known design institutes. At GIFT everybody live for India, work for India and die for India. What else can GIFT provide in the form of a  more powerful objective and mission than the above mentioned. That means every GIFT learner present have powerful luck to be associated with it and we regard such favour till we survive. GIFT does not teach only design subjects. The extra learning at GIFT is humanity, tolerance, sharing, helping with transparency by all means to each other, that builds everybody’s high morale and confidence for future practice without hesitation and hindrance for exploring new every time that means in the 6th month one can do specialization in Fashion Design and in the 7th month learn Textile Design only at GIFT.

Why are some qualities shunned away from GIFT? Stealing, lying, justification, explanation, etc, because of GIFT’s objectives and policies that is why at GIFT nobody is in charge for the store and the library and no security is needed due to total faith in each other. That is why everybody at GIFT has a gesture to not waste but to utilize everything which is available as learning material, tools, machines etc as like their own. And the above practice, we have learned from the following stories.

The end result of dedication of Mahatma is united-free India which is achieved because of his philosophy, dedication, simplicity, mission objective and his way of doing things and methods with religiously, till the result is achieved. His pursuing nature for doing good and more good in favour of the country people cannot be compared with any freedom fighter till date. According to me, Mahatma’s followers are not only in India but overseas as well, like Dr. Nelson Mandela who brought freedom to South Africa and Dr. Martin Luther King who brought freedom and equal rights to the black people of USA. There are many more examples related to Mahatma and due to that Guru Rabindranath Tagore gave Gandhiji the title “MAHATMA”. He was the back bone for Indian small scale industries (Laghu Udhyog and Kutir Udhyog) which was followed by our Late Prime Minister Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, since then Indian industries have never collapsed. His style of teaching still lives in us and will live forever for the upcoming generation. One good example is about the three monkeys, which teaches humanity not to speak, hear or see evil.

Only Indians can understand truly his dedication towards the nation. In relation to this there is a story where he saw a woman washing cloths topless by the riverside, after that he has never worn the top cloth in respect to the nation’s women.

His way of forgiving and not reacting has countless examples. For instance, he was thrown out of the train even though he had a proper general ticket. He had also been bashed up by stick but never reacted. That is why he has given the phrase to the world “Offer your other cheek if somebody’s anger is not over”. That shows his tolerance power and courage to handle any painful situation in life. He always felt happy when he saw others happy, otherwise he lived quite a part of his life with pain for The Nation. It was a sad demise even then in the end he said “Hay Ram”. What else one needs to learn from him because his life teaches us enough to lead a life with patience and tolerance to build the nation made up of continuous honesty.

Today in India due to Gandhiji’s Charkha (Amar Charkha spinning) and Khadi weaving on the handloom gives bread and butter to unaccountable people of India from small towns to villages and also is a secondary earning to the farmers. This was Gandhiji’s dream to build India from the smallest contribution of people which we must not forget.

The story of Prophet Mohammad, who lived his life with simplicity, modesty and punctuality with tolerance and forgiveness, can be cited from the story of a woman throwing garbage at him from the top of the building to which he never reacted to. It happened one day that no garbage was thrown on him, so he inquired about the lady and got to know that she was ill. So he immediately called the Hakim and treated her with medicines following appropriate instructions from the Hakim and she was cured in a few days. He was happy to see her healthy and hearty once again. This small gesture of humanity changed her completely. That shows love and affection works like medicine in our human society and hypocrisy and anger destroys the nation.

Another story of Prophet Mohammad is derived from the saying “For knowledge one should go to Chin (China)”. That means one should not wait for any development but should proceed in the right direction of building a nation. Non productive work should not be encouraged; due to this Prophet Mohammad will remain a prophet till the earth survives.

The story of Rabindranath Tagore is a lesson to the nation, what a man he was! A Guru with countless definition.

By birth he was a Thakur and a rich man in all senses by the virtue of God Almighty, who devoted socially, culturally with his limitless educational background versatility for the people of the nation without any differences and the end result of his noble soul, was “Shanti Niketan” .His pure knowledge without bias to any criticism was what brought him the noble prize for his book, Geetanjali. What else one needs to speak of him? Simply because he was simple, modest, an honest guru and the man who had given the title “Mahatma” to Gandhiji.

For instance, if Shanti Niketan is spread all over the country what would education be and the status of the nation globally.By all means one cannot imagine as like the paradise story wise.

The great example and story of Swami Mahavir Bhagwan possessing qualities like tolerance , power of forgiveness with spiritual understanding with a focus to masses is unmatchable by the virtue of God Almighty, by firstly being a  perfect human for oneself and then others, what a great teaching!

The story of King Ashoka says that because of his pride there took place a war which ended in a death game making him realize that there were so many innocent orphans and widows left with nobody else to take care except God Almighty. This realization changed King Ashoka and as a result of which he started planting trees in both sides of the path, built shelter homes (dharamshalas), township, etc. Due to which Ashoka became the pride of India and that is also why Indian currency  and flag has his sign on it.

It is not necessary to be a king and realize like the example of King Ashoka, even an ordinary person can bring such miracles and that work will be highly regarded by all means like the moral stories.

When Khalid was a sixth standard student at NaveBharat Higher Secondary school, Ashok nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan in 1966, his father named Mohammed Rafique was the justice of Udaipur High Court, Mehroli. He never shied away to collect stones from the nearby river everyday to build their school building while going towards the school and whatsoever earning of 2000 coupons of 25 paise each was given to build for Vivekananda Memorial in Kerala. This is due to the school principal and the guidance of his father because since childhood he was hearing about Swami Vivekananda.

The story of Vivekananda’s lifestyle may be lesser than many swamis but his virtue and knowledge along with his oracle power cannot be matched. He was a simple preacher and taught that if you want to share knowledge and abilities with others, one should maintain ones health, otherwise there is no point to posses such qualities which cannot be passed to others as the above said qualities for a good cause.

The story of Mother Mary may have differences being a different community but the meaning to lead a life for the nation is no different. Mother Mary and Jesus Christ’s story in short says they have lived their lives without fear and hindrance while keeping God Almighty in mind with pure unbiased soul and worked according to the God’s instructions for the weaker section of the society, leprosy patients and blind people. This is due to love and affection of son and mother as an example to human versatile society and their followers have built wonderful versatile human service centers like prayer centers, hospitals, orphan age, education centers and many more. Due to the above, services become forever a pillar of above services.

It is a great example of missionary education with high standard and decorum. With these examples later on so many universities and NGOs are building up the morale of education globally. In India which is followed by various missionary board and Mother Teresa due to her dedication won the Noble Peace Prize for the nation.

The story of Guru Nanak Sahib and his understanding of his father’s one direction oriented preaching due to which he has done various miracle and guiding path for living to his panth followers. What a teacher and Guru he was!

Once a Muslim man told him while sleeping, not to keep his feet towards the direction of Kaba because it was the God’s House side and he smiled and replied “Turn my leg in the direction where God is not present”. After hearing such saying from the Guru, the Muslim man realized that Kaba was build by prophet Ibrahim keeping in mind that by the virtue of God hence every Muslim should have one side of prayer in equality in between Sunrise and Sunset globally.

Once Guruji’s student (Chela) Bala and Marda asked, “Guruji, why do you preach to all the good people to spread all over the world, why not to bad people?” Guruji replied “let’s spread good people so that we will have a beautiful world to live in”. By such saying of Guruji you will find Guru’s follower, Sardars all over the world.

The story of King Suleman was that, He and his troops with the power of birds, animals, human muscles and weapons was once marching through the Ants Valley and he heard the King Ant saying, “carry on working and do not worry if Suleman’s troops crush you under his horses’ hoofs”. King Suleman then smiled because he knew the language of every creature of the Earth and immediately ordered his troops to divert and avoid the Ant’s Valley. That means if you are powerful you must help others and by helping others you will become more powerful by virtue of Gold Almighty.

The Story of Shri Lord Krishna reflects various names of perfect character and gesture for our day to day humanitarian living. It is not a laughing gesture but it is a wonderful example which is unforgettable by our human society called the “Makhan Chor” which means when kids are hungry they take food to fill their stomach and we cannot call them thief. That teaches us that when kids are around we must not forget to take care for such above act. Another loving gesture of Krishna for kids is Bal Gopal and Laddu Gopal.

Murliwale Shyam entertaining all gopis for their better livelihood and regain the life to live like others which is later followed by Lokmanya Gangadhar Tilak and Raja Ram Mohan Roy.

Ranchor gesture of Krishna which is later followed by King Ashoka and many more not to kill for their pride and make thousands and thousands orphans and widows.

When Vipada (trouble or natural calamities) comes in Gokul like unstoppable rain, Krishna has lifted the hill with his little finger to create shelter and protect all Gods creature from heavy rain. That means when power is used for a good cause one should not hesitate by any powerful vipada.

The above small gestures of Lord Krishna for human society and if we all believe in that what India will be we cannot imagine what a great preaching it is by Lord Krishna.

The story of Siddharth Gautama Buddha who left the kingdom to live a simple life with tolerance and forgiveness due to which you will find his followers all over the world. One day Buddha was sitting under the Banyan Tree and one fellow came near by and spit on his face and Buddha did not react on such act and he instantly smiled and cleaned the spit with a piece of cloth. When that person went home and realized about his foul act, the very next day he went to Buddha asking for forgiveness and Buddha said “You don’t need to say sorry and ask for forgiveness, due to the realization you are not the same person anymore.”

To make people more responsible for the human society we should be convinced by the humbleness and patience of Buddha, to build united India without hatred and prejudice.

The story of great writer Shri Ganesha with his interpretation skills of seeing through and through and reading other’s minds in detail made Maha Rishi Muni Vyas wonder how come Ganesha could complete the text of Mahabharata before his dictation. That shows that if anybody is calm, patient and direction oriented certainly they will have Ganesha’s Ashirwad by virtue of God Almighty (Bramha, Vishnu and Mahesha).

The story of Valmikiji who has written Maha Kavya Ramayan with the heart of Ramayana Sundarkand shows that if anybody wants to give up bad deeds in life they can do good things anytime in life in the favour of human society and one should be like Valmikiji doing good deeds. One should read and realization will take its shape and certainly one will have good work to share with others.

Due to Valmikiji we all know the story of Maryada Purushotam Ram and that is why today we celebrate Dusshera, Diwali and simultaneously in between we do puja for Lakshmiji. That means we need to read such stories, ritual books, granth etc for our prosperity. Being a human, that shows “Nation cannot be built without Will”. Shri Ram was a great example of obedience to his parents for not asking why he was sent 14 years Vanwas. We must not forget such great examples in life.

The story of great writer Tulsidasji, by virtue of God and his luck, got married to a beautiful lady and never did anything for his livelihood due to her good glances which is why after some time his wife left him and went to her mother’s house.

After few days Tulsi Dasji was not able to resist his wife’s absence and went at night to her mother’s house and saw a rope hanging from the balcony, with the help of that he climbed up to meet his wife. And when she saw Tulsi Dasji she got shocked and asked, “How did you climb up?” Then Tulsi Dasji smiled and replied, “Didn’t you hang up the rope for me from the balcony?” Then they both went out to see in the balcony and they found no rope but instead a big snake crawling away with his accord. Then his wife said, “To meet me you are not scared of the snake and without realizing that it is not a rope you climbed up”. Then she added, “If you dedicate work in one direction, you will create concrete work and I’ll be the happiest person to see that”.

Tulsi Dasji’s realization made him write Ramchandra Manas, which says that every human has one sort of liking and desire with full dedication and inbuilt strength. And if anybody uses the above saying for a good cause of our society then we cannot imagine our own creative work becomes an example for others.

The great example of our Late Prime Minister Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri say that during his college days, being in a poor condition he used to cross the river for college by swimming because he was not able to afford the boat ride and he was smart enough to put all his belongings in one Matka (pot) and crossed the river with it. After crossing the river, he hid the matka in the bushes to use it everyday.

In 1965, I heard him on radio, crying and saying “As a Prime Minister I am not able to provide food two times even though we have the buying capacity, therefore, I also eat only once a day so please do the same so that nobody can sleep hungry.” This practice was later followed by Indonesians when the country broke down financially. The Indonesians came out in miles and miles of queue to deposit their wealth in the Indonesian bank to overcome from World Bank debt. This shows we Indians teach globally and with a unanimous belief, what India will be we cannot imagine.

Another example is of teacher named Amir Ali Khan of Nataman Higher Secondary School, TONK, Rajasthan, who used to teach us (Professor Khalid) with a stammering speech and we all used to make fun of him but without reacting to this he carried on teaching theories, practical, botany and zoology without loosing his temper. This is what I call a sporty teacher !

He never showed hatred towards anybody and never claimed pride for the good results of his students. No doubt he was a true teacher and will remain the same as long as our memories live.

Another good example, Shri Mohan Bhandari, teacher, guide and foundation in-charge of N.I.D. Ahmedabad, who used to teach continuously every meaningful word of design. In 1976, when I (Prof.Khalid) was a student of his with a Hindi medium background and his fluent English and writing speed on black board, made me wonder andgave me a lost feeling in the class. But I used to note down everything with concentration and calmness without any questions. Due to this he realized my weakness and used to call me early in the morning everyday at his residence serving me a big bowl of fruit salad followed by giggling and laughter while making fun of me and asking me to do the same. As time passed by I didn’t realize and within a short span of time I was no less than my other class mates in my vocabulary. What a great teacher he was and still he is!

I personally think that if every institute has a teacher like Mohan Bhandari for basic teaching, then, just imagine how the institute will grow and how the learners will gain knowledge productively. The sky is not the limit.

The story of Dr. Subramanyan Chandrasekhar who got the Noble Prize in Physics in 1983 as a USA citizen used to make a 2 hours long drive trip everyday to teach his two students and his two students got Noble Prize before him. What a teacher he was! Students must learn and regard the value of such teacher’s association.

All above stories are based on moral stories of primary school level learning which is not much in detail but necessary to understand and practice in life is the most important for every human. To believe it or not varies from person to person and if you believe and live accordingly, certainly you will have peace of mind like a perfect human.

The all above examples and understanding summarize GIFT more powerful globally in the last 15 years where learners are coming for GIFT education from all over Gujarat, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Nagaland, US, Canada, and now from South India as well due to GIFT’s teaching methods, policies and missions which is unchangeable but there is always room for improvement.

By Prof.Khalid Ameer Rafique,Managing Trustee,Sineor Faculty Gift and ex faculty NID