RAIPUR: Rakesh Varda, a 12-year-old boy hailing from the Maoist hotbed of Abujhmad region of Chhattisgarh, had to leave his home village Orchha along with his father four years ago. Seeing Rakesh’s passion for sports, the Naxalites threatened his father to stop his son from playing and even forced him to move out of the village but the father stood by his son’s passion.
He took him to Kutulgarpa village where the then 8-year-old Rakesh Varda met Manoj Prasad, who worked in the Chhattisgarh Special Task Force and was also the trainer of Mallakhamb Academy in Abujhmad. Prasad gave new wings to dreams of Rakesh and at the age of just 12, he won the title of National Mallakhamb Handstand Competition held in Goregaon, Maharashtra.
