Darahas Valluri - DV Academy's Good Work

I was walking around the colony last week and saw a bunch of youngsters digging up the shuttle courts and doing some repair work on them. For a generation of people who feel they are privileged and only direct others to work, it was uplifting to see so many of them sharing their work and cleaning up the courts that they play on. I felt like joining them. I have always felt that schools should teach children to do work at school - maintain premises, clean up, garden..get them to enjoy these aspects too. I looked in and saw who was responsible for this wonderful work and I saw the young, ever-smiling and enthusiastic shuttle badminton coach and CPA aspirant, Darahas Valluri, leading the ops.

The DV Outdoor Badminton Academy

I have known Darahas since he was a little kid when they were my neighbours. I have seen him grow as a school kid at Don Bosco, then a collegian and now into his post graduation. He is always focused and humble, polite and affable. I would talk to him about sports perhaps because he would be playing around the house. In the recent past he has been coaching kids in the colony on the basics and finer aspects of shuttle badminton and I found that creative and interesting too, because kids these days have very little social interaction and even littler sports activity. A little history will set what he is doing in the right perspective. 

Waiting for the function to begin

When I first came to live in Sundar Nagar in 1978-79, it was considered far away from the town and the colony was occupied by few houses. So few, that we could actually see the main road from our house, the ESI bus stop. The airport was at Begumpet, so watching planes fly low to land and take off was a huge attraction. The huge well in our colony was open and kids from all over would come and dive into it and swim. The many open plots served as cricket grounds for us, depending on how many of us were around. Plots 56, 57, 58 were all empty behind our house so most of our cricket practice was there, along with some matches against Model Colony. But since this ground had only length and no width we shifted the bigger matches against SR Nagar to the Model Colony Plot no 35 which offered both length and breadth (we combined forces of Sundar Nagar and Model Colony to play against SR Nagar - and beat them). What I am trying to say is that we had so many open grounds to play and we made full use of them.

Cake cutting - the biggest cake I saw

Today the only place to play for children are the two shuttle courts that the colony has. My heart goes out when I see kids playing on the roads. They perhaps give up on their talent or fun just because they have no ground. There is no place for kids to interact either.

Still on it - Dharahas to the left corner in red

In this context, what Darahas has done is a wonderful thing because he gives them all an opportunity to exercise and interact. His badminton coaching now has 30 odd kids of all ages. He is a committed coach and he has them do fitness and routines every day. At one stage he said there were 60 kids playing all of them playing, talking to one another, making friends. In one fell swoop, perhaps inadvertently, Darahas has achieved so much. I am not sure how many people realise the importance of what he has done by providing this space for the kids to come together and play. It will help them immensely in the growth of their personalities.

Dharahas with his wards

On the 31st of December last year I was on my walk as usual in the colony when Darahas suddenly came running and said there was a prize distribution and I was the Chief Guest. I told him I was on my walk and he said that it would only take a few minutes and I should come as I was a sportsperson. I agreed on the condition that they introduce me properly - wrote out my introduction as a first class cricketer and a writer. The prize distribution was a short affair and was well attended by parents and the colony committee members.

I spoke to Darahas after that and congratulated him on his good work. He told me that years ago one kid had asked him to coach him. Darahas charged him 50 bucks a month. Then it went up to more kids and he started charging 100 bucks. A peak of 60 kids was reached and he would charge 500 bucks. Now at 1000 bucks a month he has stabilised at 30 odd kids. He says he will coach until his PG in M Com from Osmania University is completed - another 6 months - and then get into his career. CPA is his backup plan but he wants to direct films. I hope he sets up someone else to continue the good work he is doing.

He shared some videos about his Coaching Academy which is called DV Academy and some pictures of the December 31 program. Good show Darahas. Meanwhile  we are also chatting about another initiative that might work well in his group of enthusiastic youngsters - a resource sharing program. More on that soon. Meanwhile good luck and Goooo DV Academy!