S Subbalakshmi and Anu Kurian Arvind Gupta is well known for his innovative science and mathematics teaching aids. He prepares the aids from material that is accessible. He currently works at the children’s Science Centre of the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune. He has done several translations too. He has set up the website arvindguptatoys.com where he shares his entire work for all of us to make good use of. Arvind Gupta conducted a workshop at the IIIT, Hyderabad recently. For the initial hour he was requested to talk about his personal journey. As he walks in, the group looks with wonder at this simple, khadi clad person with a disarming smile. He quickly gets to the point and speaks the story of his life, just as he would start the workshop of activities an hour later! His childhood memories, he said, are of indebtedness – to his mother who was determined to educate her four children and to his sister, who was ever caring of Arvind. Arvind’s brothers were studying medicine and chemistry. Although they were on a‘standard’ path, his mother always had encouraging words for Arvind’s unconventional passions. After graduating in 1975 from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur as an Electrical Engineer, Arvind joined TELCO. It was a good training period but after two years he realized that he could not continue to make trucks! He took one year’s leave and went to Kishore Bharati (Hoshangabad, MP), engaged in rural development and developing child-centred science ‘learning by doing’ initiative in village schools. He recalls that the first object that opened new windows of opportunity in making things was the cycle tube! Arvind Gupta remembers that the period of the Seventies were full of influencing social forces and revolutionary movements. He quotes Kosambi, “In a stagnant society, only the scum floats to the top”. He was part of a churning society and had the opportunity to meet inspiring people – Laurie Baker, the architect who touched the lives of the Indian poor and Anil Agarwal who set up the Centre for Science and Environment. After the exhilarating experience at Kishore Bharati, Arvind returned to TELCO. The question “Why does the hardest working labourer get paid the least?” haunted him. He was not able to continue working in the corporate world. For three years he worked with a Trade Union in Chattisgarh. He left TELCO in 1980 and since then has been in the area of science education, as an innovator