Rags-to-riches stories are found mostly in fiction, but the partition of India in August 1947 was the reality that created a large number of such real-life stories. Mahashay Dharampal Gulati, founder of MDH, India's leading spice brand, started with a shop in Karol Bagh, Delhi, before gradually opening 15 factories which now supply 1,000 dealers in India and over 100 countries. Apollo Tyres founder Raunaq Singh sold his wife’s jewellery for a few thousand rupees to start a spices business in Kolkata before becoming one of India's most famous first-generation entrepreneurs.