Apart from Dhirubhai giving the middle-class the opportunity to dream, his own life-story served and continues to serve as a beacon of hope to many.
He shared the same childhood as millions of other little village children of the pre-Independence era. Any one who has run around barefoot as a child because his parents could not afford to buy him footwear, walked to school, owned only two sets of clothes, would find a kindred spirit in Dhirubhai!
But with a unique combination of determination, extreme hard work and an unbeatable optimism in his own abilities to make his drams come true, Dhirubhai rose from his middle-class beginnings to create an empire that is not only India's No.1 private sector company to appear on the Fortune 500 list.
Dhirubhai was extremely proud of his roots and would make it a point to bring it up in any conversation that lauded his success. Because as he put it, his life was the best proof that lineage and a privileged background were not mandatory requirements for success.
Anil Ambani with wife Tina Ambani, Kokilaben D Ambani, Mukesh Ambani with wife Nita Ambani at a function to mark the release of the book Dhirubhai Ambani: The Man I Knew, written by Kokilaben, in Mumbai recently.
Photograph, courtesy: Reliance Industries
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