The Dakshana coaching school, which has centres in Khed, Bundi and Kottayam, has over 140 boarders. The centre aspires to train over 2,000 students each year. Pics/Upendra Shah

As a child, Preeti Radhe Banjare harboured only one wish - she wanted to become an engineer and design gadgets. That dream nearly smashed to smithereens when she completed her Class XII exams. Though she scored 90 per cent, Preeti, who had been orphaned as a child, found herself at a crossroads, when her relatives pressurised her to get married. Determined to not let anyone get in the way of her dreams, Preeti went bald in order to kill any matrimonial prospects. Now, 19 years old, she confesses that she would have sunk into depression, had the volunteers of Dakshana Foundation not reached out to her school in Chhattisgarh last year.