This story of true grit traces the amazing courage with which a young boy, Madhavan Pillai,
shakes off the shackles of poverty in 60's India, to rise like a phoenix, out of the dirt and squalor
of a slum in Madras, to achieve his dreams in the US. With unwavering determination, he
turned that serendipitous entry into the hallowed portals of Loyola College, into a path paved
with only success, never forgetting his responsibility to his starving mother and siblings.
Driven by his belief that education was the key to extricating himself out of the morass of
poverty, he achieved top marks in chemical engineering at IIT Madras, which led him only
onwards and upwards. Persevering and triumphing against all odds, rising above every curve
ball that life threw at him, Madhavan Pillai finally fulfills his dream of flying to the US on a
graduate scholarship and that's where he lives to this day after a successful career.