Nirmal Kumar was born in 1981 in Risaura, located 25 kilometres from Siwan, a small town in Bihar. Back then his village was untouched by development.
There was no electricity, telephone lines or hospitals. Nirmal's high school was three kilometres away from his village, which he covered on foot with a back affected by polio.
Today, 28-year-old Nirmal, an IIM Ahmedabad graduate, is the CEO of Nirmal Group which owns G Auto, a company he founded a year ago in Ahmedabad. In its first year of operation, his company earned a revenue of Rs. 1.75 crore and made a net profit of Rs. 20 lakhs.
'When you are born in a place with little means, you learn to rely on yourself for everything. You become a fighter,' he shares. When Nirmal was struck by polio at the age of three - he could not be treated in time as there were no hospitals in his village, only 'quacks'. But it never stopped him from playing football in school or taking the cows through the rice fields.
With unsteady fingers, Nirmal learnt how to hold the pencil again firm his grip, and read and write. In the evenings, he would clean up the lantern shade with a dry piece of cloth, oil the w icker, light it, and in its glow dream of a better life. 'Lagan bahut thi.'