Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh agarwal was born in bissam cuttack, in odisha state, india and brought up in titilagarh. At the age of 13, he started selling SIM cards.He graduated from St. Johns Senior Secondary School and moved to delhi in 2011 for college.He dropped out of college, and was selected for the Peter Thiel Fellowship in 2013.Agarwal started a budget accommodation portal, Oravel Stays, for booking budget hotels.

It was accepted into the accelerator program by Venture Nursery in September 2012, and later was one of the winners of the 2013 Thiel Fellowship program, receiving a grant of $100,000. The company was launched as OYO Rooms in May 2013.

He is the founder and CEO of disruptive hospitality business and app - Oyo Rooms - a network of 2,200 hotels operating in 154 cities across India - with monthly revenues of $3.5m and 1,500 employees. It also features among the companies which are tipped to become the next start-up unicorns according to CB Insights research's findings, published in The New York Times. It has raised a total of $125million of funding in 4 rounds from 7 investors. Agarwal has won many awards and accolades for his work including the Business World Young Entrepreneur Award. He is a regular speaker at entrepreneurial conferences and institutes across India and the world and a fellow of the Thiel foundation. Agarwal holds a high school degree from St. Johns Senior Secondary School.

By September 2018, the company raised $1 billion. In July 2019 it was reported that Agarwal purchased $2 billion in shares in the company, tripling his stake.His net worth in 2020 was estimated to be approximately $1.1 billion (INR 7253 crore) according to Hurun Rich List 2020. He is currently the youngest self-made billionaire in the world.

“The reality of startup is you have failures very often.”

Patricia Narayan

Patricia Narayan

Patricia was born into a conservative Christian family from Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu. The eldest of three siblings, Patricia’s parents were both government employees. Her childhood was a bed of roses with her parents providing for all her needs and wants. She was a student at the Queen Mary’s College, and it was here that she met Narayan, her ex-husband.

Much against the wishes of her family, she decided to marry Narayan, a Hindu-Brahmin boy in 1977, when she was all of 17. This led to both families cutting ties with the couple.A few months into the marriage, Patricia found that Narayan was addicted to drugs and alcohol. He also abused her regularly. A year of looking after her inebriated husband, fending for their finances, and caring for their two kids, Patricia decided to walk out of the marriage.

She was only 18 years old then.She had absolutely no support from her family. Eventually, though, her father took them in and gave them refuge.A passion turned into a livelihood After leaving her husband, Patricia had to re-invent herself.She remembered that she enjoyed cooking and experimenting in the kitchen while growing up. Her dishes were also well received by many people.

She realised that she could use that skill to support herself and her kids.In an interview with Passion Connect, she said, “It was a question of survival for me. I knew I should either succumb to the burden or fight; I decided to fight my lonely battle.”Her earliest memory of cooking on order was making squashes, jams, and pickles. She had borrowed money from her mother to make these and sold them to her colleagues. When all her preparations were sold out on the first day, she grew more confident about her culinary skills.

A kiosk at Marina beach The next step was to sell to a larger group. It was then that she decided to take up a kiosk at one of chennai’s busiest public spots Marina beach. She started making and selling cutlets, samosas, bhajjis, fresh juice, coffee and tea: food items that people would like when strolling by the beach.She did this for a few years.

What kept her going was that she was making enough to sustain her small family. The maximum amount she earned from her kiosk, she recollects, was Rs 25,000 a day.Looking at her dedication to her work and the quality of the food she made, the Chairman of the Slum Clearance Board offered her a run at the office canteen in 1984.This was another turning point in her life.

The opportunity opened many more doors for her, and soon, she was handling the catering for the canteens at the Bank of Madurai and the National Port Trust Management School. She was serving 700 kids at the school each day.From a kiosk to a restaurant In 1998, with her first monthly payment of Rs 80,000, she decided to enter into a partnership with the Sangeetha group in Chennai, a well-established restaurant chain in the city.

Things seemed to be on the right track when in 2004, tragedy struck and Patricia lost her newly-married daughter and son-in-law in a road accident.Establishing Sandeepha Named after her late daughter, Sandeepha, the restaurant is very dear to Patricia’s heart. After the accident, Patricia spent close to two years in mourning. Finally, when she was ready to return to work, she was far more resilient.

Patricia told Passion Connect, “Everybody should have a motto in life to succeed. At that time, mine was to stand by my son. I started my business with just two people. Now, there are 200 people working for me in my restaurants. From 50 paise a day, my revenue has gone up to Rs 2 lakh a day.”

"Struggle makes you even more mature to retain the success for a long time"

sai prasad vishwanathan

Sai Prasad Vishwanathan

Sai was born in Lalgudi tiruchinapally in tamil Nadu, India with some physical challenges and compelled naturally to use crutches for walking. As a child, Sai bounced from one school to another due to his disabilities. His mother constantly reassured him he was inferior to no one. With all his hurdles and stigmas, he made such blocks of confidence that resulted in him to burn as a hard working intellectual and in 2002 August, got the chance to study Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) in Hyderabad.

After that, there was no set back for him and upon graduation from CBIT, won a gold medal for academic achievement in 2006. A new country was actually writing a script for his life at that time. His fortune paved such a way for him that he bagged a research scholarship to attend the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and work toward a master’s degree in engineering. It was not that much easy for him to be compatible with such an environment far from the warmth of his home town always been snowy and cold at UW, Madison. But with all his physical challenges, he adjusted and thrived on and on towards changes and adaptability. All he said about the United States is that “The most important lesson I learned while studying in the U.S. was that education and life are not just about being the best,” he says. “They are about constantly becoming better.”In the US, he came to know about those tangible modes by which he can visualise some opportunity to make something better for all disables out there in India.

Despite being challenged, he pushed himself for a skydive some day in the year 2008 and uttered that he is willing to see that how far he can push himself with his odds. He muses right from his heart that "I also realised that this jump was a way I could also make a lot of noise for those with disabilities across India, plus the thrill and fun of it all almost defies description.

Once he got back to India after gaining a graduation degree from UW in April 2010, he then went to take an MBA degree from coveted Indian School of Business (ISB) in Hyderabad and worked a lot to develop a business model to promote disables in India.there. His efforts were highly appreciated in 2010 for which he received the Helen Keller Role Model Person of the Year Award. The award is all about an Indian way to honour and felicitating someone who has promoted employment opportunities for the disabled. It was recognised as one of the top 10 business plans submitted to the Global Social Venture Competition held at the University of California, Berkeley. 

Vishwanathan lost sensation in the lower half of his body when he was a kid. But he was not one to let a disability take over his life. He became India’s first skydiver and has his name registered in the Limca Book of Records for being the first Indian with disability to skydive from 14,000 feet. He has co-founded Sahasra, an organization that provides scholarships to financially disadvantaged students with great potential, to pursue higher studies. He currently works as a risk consultant at  Deloitte U.S. in India.

sadhna dhand

Sadhna Dhand

Sadhna, who is born with osteogenesis imperfecta, which makes bones fragile and susceptible to frequent fractures, managed to overcome her physical limitations to pursue art. Though she stands at 3.3 feet and has lost her hearing at the age of 12, her spirit is indomitable. Her condition has resulted in close to 80 fractures so far and a hearing disability, making movements outside her home restrictive. She was encouraged at an early age to pursue art by her mother, Late Rajkumari Dhand, as a way of avoiding inferiority from creeping in.

Despite her limited mobility, she is an expert in different kinds of arts and paintings and has received several awards at state level.In 1998, she received an award for best art of the year for experimenting with pictures of Lord Ganesha in All India Fine Art exhibition.

She was awarded for excellent photography by Photographic Society of Chhattisgarh in 1999 and with 'Stri Shakti Samman' in 2005. The state Chamber of Commerce and Industries felicitated Sadhna with 'Mahila Shakti Samman' in 2011 for her achievements in the field of art.

She also likes to impart her art to others and runs art classes at her residence. During the past 30 years, she has trained over 12,000 students in various art forms.

Sadhna's father S P Dhand, who is in Raipur, said, "I am very proud of my daughter. Despite all odds, she has brought fame and accolades to her family. She is very hard working and intelligent."

Sadhna's exhibitions showcase the works of a woman who has transcended pain and suffering to come up with beautiful creations. She has organised exhibitions in Raipur, Bhilai, Bhopal, Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune and New Delhi.

An artist with extraordinary calibre, Sadhna, is a member of various art societies including Shilp Varsha Art and Research Society. She is equally involved in charity work and gives donations to various organisations working for mentally and physically challenged children.

Sadhna Dhand, suffering from brittle bone disease did not come in the way of pursuing her favourite art form of painting, for which she has won a national award. The 55-year-old Sadhna, a specially-abled artist from Raipur in Chhattisgarh, has been chosen for 'National Awards for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities 2012' under role model category (female).