Sudalai  is a young 15-year-old teenager raised in the slums of Tirunelveli.  He was a Karate aficionado from an early age. But watching his family struggle to get money to even eat and support his family didn’t give him many options. Sudalai lives with his mother and sister in a one-room house on a dangerous suburb, a humble small dwelling clogged between other crunched thatched roof,  where our Karate champ can hardly stretch properly.

Sudalai wanted to become a champion. He wanted to thrive through a sport. Karate was Sudalai’s first love. And he had talent. He dreamed about doing it professionally, imagining himself playing India at World Karate Championships, Madrid one day. Sudalai’s mother couldn’t give her son a great life. She provided them somewhere to sleep and food to eat, but Junior wanted more. Sudalai’s mother made an earnest call to JKF prompting us to piece together the phenomenal growth story of a young boy who single-mindedly pursued his aim of becoming a karate champion despite all odds.

Sudalai always told his mother he would see the ocean one day. “You’re a dreamer,” she would respond. And he definitely was, though he knew how to make his dreams come to reality.

Martial arts helps you move forward with your goals instead of being paralyzed by fear of failure. Sudalai got an opportunity to fight for a better future through sports.

“It has been a struggle. My father died, my mother sews for a living. Food at home is short. But my family always told me to work hard and I did. Thanks JKF, without whom nothing would have been possible,” said Sudalai.