The glistening sands of the popular Goan beaches eventually proved a muse for the young Austrian who came to India as a hippie way back in 1977. He wasn’t the stereotypical long-haired, chillum-smoking hippie, though. He earnestly desired to do his bit for his fellow-beings.

   As an intrepid hiker, he wanted to have the taste of India’s rich culture and heritage which took him to Varanasi, the city dotted with temples along its winding streets. His visit to Varanasi came as a watershed in the life of Werner Dornik, 58, now an accomplished photographer and multimedia artist. “Here, I saw some lepers begging in the streets. That shocked me to the core.

   It made me restless and I decided to help them out” says Werner Dornik. The sight of lepers has today wholly changed Dornik’s life as he then devoted himself to the noble cause of bettering the lives of some lepers in India. “I....