RANIPET: Thirty-year-old Rajasekar makes ends meet by repairing cars. The calloused palms of his hands are testimony to the hard life he lives. However, Rajasekar has a life outside the confines of tools and greese. He is a silambattam master, and a good one at that.
What makes him different from other teachers of the martial art form, however, is the fact that he charges nothing for the knowledge he passes on to his students.
A resident of Walajah, Rajasekar has been practising Silambattam for the past ten years, perfecting his skills from the basic Alangara Silambam to advanced forms like Por Silambam.
His dream now is to pass on his knowledge to as many people as possible and ensure its survival through the ages.
“I started the class back in July this year with a handful of students. The numbers have since swelled. We now have 55 students in the age group of 10 to 40,” Rajasekar told Express.
His deputy is 23-year-old Nanda Kumar, who has been practising Silambattam for the past five years.
The youth secured a seat for his masters in Physics through sports quota, for which he qualified by representing Silambattam in divisional-level competitions. He is part of the three-member team that teaches Silambattam at the centre.
“Nowadays, training in any form of traditional art comes at a cost, which the poor cannot afford. If it were not for this initiative, my son would not have been able to learn the art,” says Zaheer Hussian, father of a student.
“Many hesitated to enrol their children in our classes as they did not believe in ‘free coaching.’ They believed we would not be able to pay individual attention to students and would not provide learning kits like single sticks, double sticks among others,” Rajasekar reminscened.
Deepak, one of the students, said that they received professional training as good as those from any other centre. At an age when the cost of education is going through the roof, the efforts of Rajasekar and his team to pass on knowledge free of cost restores faith in the good of humankind.