Aryendra Kumar and Soni Gupta got married on November 28 — not that you should know about it since they are not the Deep-Veer of the year. But the duo did something unprecedented. For their photoshoots, the couple held up a poster promoting affordable education for all.
Aryendra, a graduate from Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Tuljapur and his friend Pankaj Anarchico, also a TISS graduate, planned the poster stunt to sensitise more people about the on-going protests in Jawaharlal Nehru University for the past month. "It's not just about JNU. It does not stop there. It is about providing affordable education to everyone," said Pankaj, who is now a JNU scholar and was recently went viral as the "45-year-old Moinuddin of JNU" on social media.
The couple got married in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath's home ground. Aryendra feels strongly for the cause, being a beneficiary of the affordable education system himself. He now works for a multinational company's CSR programme where, he feels, he wouldn't have reached where he is now without the support of his education. His wife, Soni, is an M Tech in Computer Science from Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology and is also supportive of the movement. When Pankaj and Aryendra pitched their idea to her, she readily accepted and also added that this will be the greatest wedding memory.
"There were educated people at the wedding who knew about the issue and we had an extensive discussion on the state of education in this country. But what was more important was people who were not aware of what the student at JNU are fighting for came to know about it," said Pankaj. "This fight is not just for a handful. The entire country needs to know. Education is a right. Not a privilege. This message needs to reach more people. We need to take the issue ultra-local. What better than a newly-wed couple spreading this message," said Pankaj.
