“We impart knowledge, but we are a roti-driven model”

One finds heroes in the most unlikely of places and amongst the most unlikely of persons.

The unlikely place – “a little-noticed corner of India, in the Bulandshahr district of western Uttar Pradesh”

The unlikely person – “Virendra (Sam) Singh”, belonging to a male dominated family of zamindars and who was at a point of time, DuPont’s South Asia chief.

Mint has profiled Mr Singh for the pioneering work he has done towards the education of the girl child. His work holds special significance considering he has achieved it in a state which suffers from its own share of prejudice against women, where the average female literacy rate is 41%, as against a national average of 54%. The article itself is very well written and reads like a story.

Singh’s pragmatic approach and his untiring resolve which led him through problem after problem is worth emulating – and this exactly is what many of us should try to do. After all everything that we do is actually the result of a choice we make. I was particularly impressed by two of Mr Singh’s observations.

“Why are we not the doers? Why are we passing the buck to an inefficient government? We need to put our damn feet, mouth and everything else there”

“No amount of pity was going to solve the problem. It is a business problem that only business can solve.”

Do ensure that you read the article.

The article in focus here is part of a series, Sixty in Sixty, that Mint came up with to commemorate 60 years of Indian independence. They profiled 60 people who were quietly working to make their country a better place. We, on our part, will try to mention some of these commendable efforts in subsequent posts.