Mr Rakum, the martial arts trainer, is not the regular guy next door. After years of initiating the novice to the warrior way of life, he has now chosen the path of peace. Moved by the plight of differently-abled children, he has decided to take up their cause and equip them with life-skills to lead a life less ordinary.

The moment of epiphany dawned in the late 1990s—Rakum School for the Blind started functioning in 1998 from a small apartment in Indiranagar. Today, there are many visually-challenged inmates who are being trained in reading and writing, and other activities like martial arts, yoga, and fine arts and crafts to make them confident and self-sufficient. Specially-designed computers have been installed to help the students. Promising children are encouraged to pursue higher education. The school also admits “normal” children.

Buoyed by the response of this school, Rakum went on to start another school in the quarries of Devanahalli, a town near Bangalore, to educate the children of the quarry workers. The school provides free food and education to all its three hundred students. The next venture Arkavathy, a school for small kids, is presently housed in small sheds, and Rakum wishes to have a proper building soon.

In Mr Rakum's scheme of things, orphans, runaways, blind children and deprived children are offered a happy and purposeful life that the society has so blatantly refused. And all this is maintained without any government assistance, sustained solely by friends, well-wishers and sometimes prefect strangers who, moved by the confidence of this selfless devotee, come forward with open arms to facilitate the needy.

Does that strike a chord somewhere?