The Better India · 6 hours ago

Kargil Teacher Turns Old War Bunkers Into Classrooms Where Children Can ‘Live’ History

A teacher in Kargil transformed abandoned war bunkers into living classrooms - a prehistoric lab, a makeshift Parliament, a Mohenjo-Daro-inspired board game - because he believed history is something children should experience, not just memorize. The experiment was working, Mohd Mustafa Kamal knew, when a middle-school student called History "practical," a word that had never before belonged to that subject. What makes his story quietly remarkable is what preceded it: a boyhood dream of cricket quietly surrendered because his father, the family's sole breadwinner, could not afford the academy fees, and a son who chose never to say so. Mustafa received the National Teachers Award 2026, but the deeper recognition is what he built from that unspoken loss - spaces where children are not just taught about the world, but invited to discover their place in it.