The school that Daya Nayak built

The school has 280 students, they tell us without much urging. And their academic achievements have been quite good, too - a pass percentage in the upper 90 percent.

If they are to be believed, the Trust has no say in the day-to-day running of the school. But whenever Daya Nayak comes to town, he addresses the students - telling them to study hard and about the virtues of getting a good education.

He should know, he ran away to Mumbai as a kid, worked as a waiter and got an education doing night school before joining the Mumbai Police and then building his formidable - and now infamous reputation - as an 'encounter cop'.

We learn that out of the 60 students who passed SSLC last year, 34 have gone on to join college - in the town of Karkala about 10 kms away. Bhat tells us that without the school, most students would have dropped out after the seventh standard and gone to work at one of the several cashew factories dotting the landscape, or taken to rolling beedis or gone to work in the fields.

Image: A framed picture of Daya Nayak alongside a Husain canvas occupy prime space in the principal's office.