Hello, I am Anurag, a singer, writer, and dreamer with Manzil Mystics. Welcome to our website!
India boasts an unparalleled musical tradition that predates most others, yet our school education system often overlooks music’s capacity to foster creative thinking, emotional resilience, and a deep connection to our incredible cultural roots. Our mission is to provide every child in India with a music education. Allow me to explain why this is so vital.
Manzil Mystics was founded by grateful students of Ravi Gulati’s education NGO, Manzil. It was there that we learned how we can teach ourselves and each other using the most creative and unconventional methods. It was music that bonded us all together and it was music that became the catalyst in our dream to bring about the same transformation we experienced to India’s marginalised youth.
Our journey Learning (through) Music helped us develop a four-pillar model with the aim of integrating music into India’s education system. These pillars draw from ancient traditional Indian concepts: Satsang, Samvaad, Sangeet, and Swadhyay.
SATSANG involves singing a meaningful song in a group and is the first step in all our initiatives at Manzil Mystics. Truth and community form the bedrock of any healthy organisation. Truth provides focus and strength to the community, while the community brings accountability and diversity to the truth. The arts offer a dynamic platform for exploring different facets of truth together.
Our goal is not to turn every child into a musician, but to ignite creative and thoughtful learning. Many global education systems emphasise rote memorization of concepts from textbooks, teaching children to be narrow-minded and uncritical. This is where SAMVAAD comes in. Samvaad, or dialogue, encourages the open inclusion and exploration of diverse views, exciting ideas, and new directions.
Our goal is not to turn every child into a musician, but to ignite creative and thoughtful learning. Many global education systems emphasise rote memorization of concepts from textbooks, teaching children to be narrow-minded and uncritical. This is where SAMVAAD comes in. Samvaad, or dialogue, encourages the open inclusion and exploration of diverse views, exciting ideas, and new directions.
True dialogue requires a sense of togetherness, and nothing unites people better than music. SANGEET is a Sanskrit term combining ‘sam’ (together) and ‘geet’ (song), embodying the idea of unity through song. Music fosters togetherness and unity, which is essential for meaningful dialogue.
However, the meaning, the dialogue, and the song are incomplete without reflection, which brings us to SWADHYAY. Swadhyay means reflection and contemplation, but for us, it signifies reflective action. Reflection must lead to transformation, and contemplation must result in action.
However, the meaning, the dialogue, and the song are incomplete without reflection, which brings us to SWADHYAY. Swadhyay means reflection and contemplation, but for us, it signifies reflective action. Reflection must lead to transformation, and contemplation must result in action.
Music in education is crucial. Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that maths isn’t important or that music is the most important subject, but it is an essential component of holistic education. Music provides mental nourishment, which is as vital as physical nourishment. Just as a mid-day meal is essential, so is an arts education.
Anurag Hoon
CEO and Co-Founder
Testimonials
“Manzil Mystics is an enterprising group of people who are passionate about music and kids’ development via music. Music is an integral part of any child’s development. Manzil Mystics has proved this time and time again.”
“The best way to talk about Gender equality, I have never heard such powerful yet simple
lyrics!”
“I didn’t realize that I was learning about Menstrual Hygiene. I really love that pregnancy song that you did.”
“Music Binds, Music creates communities, Music unites and I have discovered from a bunch of passionate musicians that it has the power to ignite lives as well, specially in the low income communities. This group of six all from lower income group families themselves have demonstrated that music binds… they have been together both as a band and first and an NGO they created later called Manzil Mystics for nearly a decade, three young men & three young women of different communities, united by their love for music.”
“Due to promoting learning via music our children also found rhythm and they felt like it was work, play and pleasure all together. Whatever questions they had in their mind which their parents couldn’t answer, we as teachers couldn’t answer, answers they couldn’t get from anyone in the classroom, even science teachers couldn’t give them convincing answers, they got these answers through WeBhor sessions. I would endorse these sessions and I am really happy that these sessions were conducted in our school.”