She is a TEDx speaker who regularly participates in wheelchair table tennis tournaments, and an avid driver, driving a customized car.
[3] After her accident in 2007 that left her paraplegic, she had to fight a legal battle in Karnataka High Court (filed on her behalf by her mother) to pursue her master's degree in dental surgery from Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences.
A favorable judgment got her admission into Government Dental College, Bangalore, and in the process, got 3% reservation policy for the disabled implemented across India.
[4] [5] In 2016, she and her mother, who was her companion; filed a case against Air India in Karnataka High Court for misplacing her wheelchair at London Airport during her Europe tour.
[11] In 2007, at the age of 21, Rajalakshmi as the college topper was going to Chennai, Tamil Nadu by road to present a paper, but the driver dozed off and rammed the car into a truck, causing an accident that damaged her spinal cord.
Trained in classical and western dance, and an aspiring model; the accident not only dashed those dreams but forced her to miss one year of her studies.