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		I received the most exclusive and expensive education India has to offer. I went to the Doon School (1956-1962) at the same time as the late Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. I did my graduation from St. Stephens College (1962-1967) in Delhi University, a College known to produce eminent personalities in polities, science, culture, art sports and diplomacy. By 1971 I was 4 times India National Squash Champion and had a future laid out for me in banking, public life, diplomacy or administration. I went to an India village for the first time during the terrible Bihar Famine in 1965-1966 when thousands of people died from hunger and starvation. It was the first time I was exposed to such acute poverty and helplessness. The visit changed my life. Soon after College while I was still the Indian National Champion I started living and working in the villages of Rajasthan trying to find drinking water by deepening 100ft open wells through hard rock and worked as an ordinary labourer. For 5 years I worked, talked, slept and ate in small remote villages in the desert. It was during this period of hours of listening that I formulated the ideas that eventually became the Barefoot College. It was not out of reading Marx or Gandhi.