NR Venkatachalam seems like the quintessential upper middle class south Indian in Mumbai. In 2000, at the age of 61, he retired as vice president of Crompton Greaves. Life pre-ordained a comfortable and sedentary retirement. But someone forgot to hand Venkat the script.

He reminisces, “After retirement, I began to work with an NGO based out of Powai — Mutually Beneficial Activities (MBA) Foundation. We worked with mentally and physically challenged children, providing them with early intervention and daycare and life care facilities.”