Founder

You learn it, you earn it

There was a regular visit from officials of the Agricultural Department at home. I grew up watching my father managing local issues such as fights or feuds, like a village Panchayat. Though my mother was educated till grade 5 only, she never stopped reading and writing in Punjabi. She assisted my father in helping people and motivated us siblings towards education.

I attended Nasrala School, some two miles from home and enjoyed my time there. I spent my time studying and playing Hockey, Volleyball and Kabaddi. When I was in grade 7, some boys hit a beehive near the water tap I was washing my hands at. The culprits laughed and ran away – I was stung at some 20-30 places and yet the school authorities took me to the principal. My parents were summoned; my mother too believed me to be the culprit! Luckily, that was the only time I was blamed for something I didn’t do.

In 1969, one of my sisters, Mandeep, got married and migrated to the USA. Visiting us after her wedding, she told us stories about her new world, a life I was fascinated with. I decided I would one day go to the USA. When I expressed my wish of settling there, she told me that life there was earned through hard work and that everyone strove to earn a comfortable living, no matter what the gender was. Could that have bothered me? No! And I started counting days.

Completing high school in 1972, I attended Government College, Hoshiarpur, to study Arts, graduating out in 1975. That year, my family introduced me to Surinder Kaur, who also belonged to our town. We got married on 15 March 1975.

In 1977, Mandeep made the provisions for us and we moved to the USA with $20 in my pocket. We stayed at her place initially and then started weaving our own life. While Surinder took care of our new home, I began my career as a driver, learning to drive heavy vehicles like trucks and also gained some mechanical skills. Time changed but life had not. I realised there was a need of a change so I moved into farming since I had a reasonable experience of farming with my father during college holidays. I knew I could do this.

New happiness embraced us soon. We welcomed our son Jatinder and daughters, Pradeep and Ramneet. I now had three more reasons to work harder. While Surinder gave her best in raising them, I spent most of the times selling rice, walnuts, prunes, etc. A hardworking and honest woman, she took care of the kids and family when I was struggling hard to make money. In the next 12 years, I gained some credibility and decided to start my own business.