What makes a teacher dedicate his life to build and nurture his students? When Akshay Deepak Rao Mandlik made that decision, it was not because he had nothing else to do, in fact, he had to give up a lot of his other dreams because he was driven by a passion for changing lives.
Akshay comes from a family rooted in the armed forces. “It was an amazing thing growing up in this environment. Discipline was instilled in us right from the beginning. As youngsters, my brother and I, have always been kept on our toes by playing sports — hockey, football, swimming, rock climbing, basketball to name a few. Dad would make us attempt the Army obstacle courses, which were our favorite. Swimming is my personal favorite. We were mentally groomed to be positive about anything and everything,” says Akshay.
At school, he realized he had a knack for dancing and was spoilt for choice at the end of his schooling. On one hand, he wanted to take up dancing full-time, on the other, he was expected to join the army like everyone in his family. Ironically, providence helped him choose as he was rejected from joining the Army due to an eye defect.
However, he had solace in the fact that he could still dance. So he joined St Joseph’s College, Bengaluru to do his Master’s in Social Work. “For the next two years, I groomed and trained myself into contemporary dance styles with various dance companies. The primary reason for me to take up a master’s course was to dance but with time I grew into the course and imbibed the philosophy of social work. I saw another side of life, when I was interning with the State Observation Home at Madiwala dealing with children in conflict with the law, children in need of care and protection. It was a challenge for me on various levels,” says Akshay. So he decided to put his dancing skills to some use. He used dance as a medium to build a rapport and it worked amazingly well. He choreographed dances depicting the struggles of lost childhood and other issues.
In the final year of his master’s, the principal met him and said that he would make a good teacher. Although reluctant initially, he decided to give it a try and took up the opportunity to teach Human Resource Development classes. “Meeting students from marginalized sections, broken families, single parent families, orphans and listening to their struggles was a life changing experience. I would go home disturbed and perplexed, wondering what the purpose of teaching is if you can’t bring about change. So I took up a full-time teaching job at the college,” says Akshay.
At the same time, Akshay also applied to a reputed dance Trust Nritarutya where he got to perform for personalities like Amitabh Bachchan and the Ambanis. In 2015, he also managed to complete his training in the Officers Training Academy, Kamptee and earned the title of a lieutenant. Now, Akshay spends his days orienting students to various issues.
His dream is to help students understand their potential and limitation and take calculated risks to achieve their passion.
