Page 8 - Deepak Madhok

HISTORY

milestones

he seeds of SGEI’s evangelist mission were planted more than four decades ago by Dr. Amrit Lal
TMadhok, professor of Persian literature at the Benaras Hindu University and his educationist wife
Deesh ‘Ishrat’ Madhok, who promoted the first English-medium Sunbeam School in the Bhagwanpur
area of Varanasi in 1974.

A biochemistry postgraduate of Benaras Hindu and Allahabad universities, Deepak Madhok began his
career in Uttar Pradesh’s Provincial Civil Services in 1979 as a Class I Administrative Officer. During a ca-
reer spanning 11 years in the civil service he served as Deputy Administrator of the Municipal Corpora-
tion of Varanasi, before he was inducted into the elite Indian Administrative Service in 1982. However,
in 1990, he quit a promising career in the IAS to help his aged parents realise their mission of providing
high-quality, English medium education to the neglected children of Uttar Pradesh.

In 1979, Deepak wed Vijay Bharti Chawla, an English literature postgraduate of Kurukshetra University
and former Haryana cricket star. Since then this duo has built and transformed SGEI into Uttar Pradesh’s
fastest growing private education chain which provides high-quality English-medium education to
26,000 children mentored by 3,000 teachers. “Since our marriage in 1979, Bharti has transformed into
an able and determined partner who has helped further the mission of SGEI by focusing on provision
of good quality education to underprivileged girl children in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. Her quiet
determination in providing education to underprivileged children in Varanasi has won her the title of
Nightingale of Kashi,” says Deepak.

176 | 21 Great Leaders Transforming Indian Education