HE JUST used to sleep in class. That is how Vijay Ghichare, his coach,remembers thebeginning -- a two-year-old deposited at his karate class by a mother who simply needed the child away from themobile phone at home, and who would then proceed to fall asleep on the mat while the older children trained around him.Ghicharewasnot surewhat to make of it. What willakarate class do with a child this young? That sleeping child is Raghav Sahil Bhangde, now 12 years old -- and he has had his name in the India Book ofWorld Records four times. He holds a black belt, Dan 2.Therecords,whenyoulay them out, tell their own story. In December 2019 -- at the age of five -- Raghav broke 125 tiles in one minute, entering the India BookofWorldRecords for the first time. In December 2020, he climbed 102 stairs through chakrasana in 1 minute 51 seconds -- a second record.

 

The following year,at seven,hed escended the same 102 stairs in chakrasana in 1 minute 13 seconds --a third.And then, atnine, he walked bare-handed for 100- plus metres on his hands, and entered the India Book ofWorld Records a fourth time. True, none of this was written on his face in those early days at the karate class. But Ghichare began toshowhimwhatwinning lookedlike --pointing to theolder boys who came back from tournaments with medals around their necks, telling this small, sleepy child that this was what lay ahead if he kept going. Raghav listened. And then, one day, he told his coach that he too would reach heights.

 

The records are milestones -- not the destination. He represented India at the Commonwealth Karate Championship in South Africa, returningwitha silvermedal.He played the South Asian Championship in Colombo, Sri Lanka. And at the age of six, in his very first international competition -- the 2018 World Championship in Bhutan -- he stepped onto the mat and came home with a gold, defeating opponents considerably older than himself in what Ghichare stillrecalls as a very goodmatch. The lockdown, which broke the rhythm of most young athletes,didnotbreakhis.Ghichare wouldgo toRaghav’shome--and trainingcontinuedwithoutinterruption. Through all of it, his motherhasbeenpresent --every early morning, every hard session, every recovery. When asked what message he would give to other children, Raghavdidnotreach for theatre. He simply said,“You just have to refuse to give up. If you are able to keep going no matter what failures you see, you are going to reach the other side for sure.”

 

When asked where he gets the motivation to achieve such difficult feats, he was equally clear. “Motivation is temporary. Consistency, no matter how unmotivatedyou feel,is the only thing which can work. Just keep practicing for what you want everyday and you will not even realisehow faryouhavereached,” he asserted. Who would have thought it -- the morning his mother Trupti Bhangde walked into Vidarbha Karate Association asking the coach to take her two-year-old off the mobile phone, that she was bringing the worlda recordbreaker? Ghichare did not think it then. Raghav did not yet know it. And yet -- here they are.