Our family comes from a little town called Karad where my grandfather began his life in a humble manner — walking 10 miles every day to collect letters for a rich zamindar. But thanks to his entrepreneurial zeal, from a scratchy start in the early 1900s he went on to become the turmeric king of the Sangli market. However, after my grandfather died in 1954, my father closed down the trading business as it proved to be too risky and instead focused on building the sugar cooperative movement in Maharashtra.