As Plato would say, neither Mani Bhaumik’s inventions, nor his good life, came by accident. He’d to work very hard for it, and he loved working so.

DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD, STUDENT DAYS

Mani Bhaumik was born in famine-ridden Bengal, in undivided colonial India. Most of the days he’d go to sleep with his stomach less than half full—-the family that included Mani, his parents, and six younger siblings, had to actually scrounge for food with the famine claiming over three million lives. He first got to wear shoes when he was all of sixteen. Growing up, rags on the floor constituted his bed. In 1942, 11-year-old Mani witnessed his grandmother die in front of his eyes. It was a tragedy that filled up every corner of his heart, for she was the lady who would constantly give up her share of the family’s frugal meal so that young Mani could put some food inside his belly, and survive. His father, a school teacher, was almost always not available, for as a freedom loving citizen taking on the force of the British Empire, he was constantly on the run, and mostly underground. But in the little time he would spend with Mani, his father would teach him the values of learning, and the importance of being the best he could ever be. Those lessons were emblazoned in Mani’s heart for ever, and enabled him to dream big. He would eventually go on to turn his mud hut existence into a life inside a Beverley Hill mansion, and buy many more houses in Los Angeles. Rags to riches—that is what Mani Bhaumik’s life is all about.