In 1979, the year he was born, Rahul Mishra's village Malhausi, 80 km from Kanpur, first got electricity. He remembers a childhood spent with his parents and two sisters as a frugal, but not a harsh one - finishing homework under the light of a kerosene lamp because of frequent power cuts, attending a school where the monthly fee was Rs.7 and children sat on durries, not benches. It was the best of times, he says. "My father is a doctor but at the time, he didn't have a job. Every family has its ups and downs," he says. Years later, when he became the first non-European to win a full scholarship to Istituto Marangoni, the fashion institute in Milan, Mishra says it underlined the sharp bends in his journey.
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