Deepi Singh with her brothers, Air Marshall I.S. Chhabra of Delhi, India and Dr Awtar Singh of Encino, California

She was the first girl in Home Science in the state of Punjab to have earned a B.Sc with a B.Ed. It immediately helped her walk into a teaching job at the Randhir College in Kapurthala. When one day she expressed a desire to study further, her encouraging father immediately let her know how proud he was of her for willing to do so. “He had promised me that he would let me study as long as I wanted to, and said that what I gain through studies will be jewelry that no can steal from me,” Deepi Singh says nostalgically, recalling how it meant moving away from home once more.

She went to Baroda to get a Masters in Food and Nutrition. At the MS University Baroda she met with the dean and said she needed a job to sustain her studies. She got one, as a social worker in Gujarat—working for someone who was doing a doctorate on the dietary impact of lactating mothers’ milk. In order to break through the wall of skepticism about the subject, she learnt to speak Gujarati, wore Gujarati outfits and “became one of them.” Her hard work paid handsomely, she topped the university. She found a job in Chandigarh, and almost immediately after lost her father. “He was living to see me become successful. He left a happy man,” she says, eyes moistening up.