Gobar Chowki to Taj Mahal

(Penguin Petit)

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Gobar Chowki stands close to the Taj Mahal in Agra. The Mughals had white marble loaded on to beasts of burden and carried to the monument. Over a period of time, animal dung got accumulated here and the area came to known as Gobar Chowki—gobar meaning dung.
Twenty-five years ago, Devkinandan Son’s home was in Gobar Chowki. Now, barely half a kilometre away from the Taj Mahal, he is the owner of the Taj Plaza. Forced to quit school at 14 due to poverty, Devkinandan’s first salary was Rs 2 per day, packing shoes into boxes. The government did play a major role in taking Devkinandan’s life forward—first through a degree in shoe design and then through the Uttar Pradesh government’s Leather Development and Marketing Corporation.
As a designer, Devkinandan impressed Thomas Bata of Bata shoes, going on to make shoes for global brands like Florsheim and Bugatti.
Fighting against an internalized sense of caste-inferiority along with numerous external barriers to success, Devkinandan built his business on sheer hard work and strategic thought. Find out more about the grit a true businessman requires in this story.