From Struggle to Success: The Inspiring Story of a Village Plumber
A real-life family story from Malakpur Semli, Moradabad
There are some stories that you read in a book. And then there are stories that you grow up hearing inside your own family.
This is one of those stories.
My grandfather, Shivnath Singh, comes from Malakpur Semli, a village in Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh. He was born into a simple family and spent a large part of his early life doing the kind of work that rarely gets noticed.
He worked as a plumber.
He sold plumbing material from a small shop. He travelled from village to village to repair taps and water connections. Sometimes, he had to travel 40 or 50 kilometres for work.
Today, at around 90 years of age, he lives a completely different life. His family is settled, his children are doing well, and the business and properties built over the years have grown into assets worth crores.
But the money is not the most interesting part of his story.
The journey is.
Table of Contents
- A Childhood Marked by Loss
- Starting a Family With Very Little
- The Small Shop That Became the Beginning
- Three Children, Three Different Paths
- The Long Road to Education
- My Father’s Struggle
- When Everything Went Wrong
- Five Years That Changed the Family
- Starting Again After Jail
- From a Small Business to a Bigger Empire
- A School Named After My Grandmother
- Finally Living the Life He Had Missed
- What My Grandfather’s Life Taught Me
A Childhood Marked by Loss
Before talking about my grandfather’s success, it is important to understand where he came from.
My grandfather had four brothers when he was young. One of his brothers died because of an illness.
For years, my grandfather carried a feeling of guilt about that loss.
He felt that perhaps he had not done enough to save his brother.
Of course, he was only a child himself, and there was nothing he could have realistically done. But sometimes childhood experiences stay with a person for decades.
That loss became one of the early experiences that shaped him.
Life, however, did not stop.
He eventually married my grandmother, Ramwati Devi, who was also from a village background. Together, they started building their family.
They had three children—two sons and one daughter.
Their eldest son was my father, Braj Mohan Singh. Their younger son is my uncle, Chandra Shekhar Singh, and their daughter is my bua, Neeraj.
My grandparents were simple people. They were hardworking and, like many parents, strict at times.
But one thing was always clear in their family:
Their children had to have a better life than they had.
The Small Shop That Became the Beginning
My grandfather started with very little.
He worked as a plumber and also ran a small shop selling plumbing-related material.
It was not a big business.
There was no large office, no big investment and no ready-made success waiting for him.
He earned money one job at a time.
He would travel long distances to repair taps and water systems. Sometimes he would leave home in the morning and travel tens of kilometres for work.
This was a time when transportation was not as easily available as it is today.
There were no smartphones to find customers.
There were no online payments.
There was no social media to advertise a business.
If someone needed a plumber, they had to know someone who knew someone.
My grandfather slowly built his name through his work.
And he kept looking for ways to improve his family’s situation.
Three Children, Three Different Paths
My grandfather understood that his children had different strengths.
My father, Braj Mohan Singh, was not particularly interested in academics.
He spent more time around practical work. He was involved in farming-related activities and different kinds of small jobs.
My uncle, Chandra Shekhar, was different.
He was more focused on education and had a clearer goal.
My grandfather noticed this.
Instead of forcing both sons to follow the same path, he encouraged my uncle to prepare for a government job.
He supported his education and pushed him to work toward that goal.
Eventually, that hard work paid off.
Today, my uncle has a government job and is in a good position.
That is one thing I find interesting about my grandfather.
He didn’t simply try to make his children copies of himself.
He tried to understand what each child could become.
The Long Road to Education
Education was not easy for the family.
My father and uncle had to travel considerable distances to attend school.
There was no convenient transport system like the one students have today.
My father would travel around 10 kilometres to study.
My uncle also travelled long distances.
My grandfather himself had spent years working with his hands, so he understood the value of education.
He wanted his children to have opportunities that he never had.
That became one of the biggest investments of his life.
Not just money.
Time, effort and belief.
My Father’s Struggle
My father’s journey was also far from simple.
Before eventually building a successful school and other businesses, he worked several different jobs.
He worked as a driver.
He was involved in selling petrol and diesel.
He also worked as a cashier, including work involving transporting cash between places.
None of these jobs became his final destination.
He kept trying different things.
Eventually, my grandfather decided to take a bigger risk.
He gave financial support to his sons so they could build something of their own.
My father eventually started a school.
That school became one of the biggest turning points for the family.
When Everything Went Wrong
But success did not come easily.
At one point, something happened that could have destroyed everything the family had built.
My father was falsely implicated in a criminal case after people he knew allegedly blamed him for something he had not done.
He ended up spending around five years in jail.
Imagine what that does to a family.
A person who is trying to build a future suddenly loses years of his life.
A family that is trying to move forward suddenly has to deal with fear, uncertainty and financial pressure.
This could have been the point where my grandfather gave up.
But he didn’t.
My Grandfather Didn’t Give Up
This is probably the part of his story that stays with me the most.
My grandfather continued to support his son.
He visited him.
He encouraged him.
He told him that if he had not committed the crime, he should not allow the situation to destroy his belief in himself.
He believed that life could still change.
And eventually, it did.
After my father came out of jail, starting a school in his own name was not possible at that time because of the circumstances surrounding his case.
So the school was established in my grandfather’s name.
Later, it became Ramwati Devi Inter College, named after my grandmother.
That name is important to our family because my grandmother played her own part in holding the family together through all those difficult years.
From a Small Business to a Bigger Empire
The school became an important part of the family’s journey.
Over time, my father continued to work and expand.
The family also moved into property-related work, including buying and selling property.
There were investments.
There were risks.
There were successes and failures.
My grandfather had provided the initial financial support, but my father and uncle also worked to grow what they had been given.
Eventually, the family acquired properties and developed businesses and other assets.
What had started with a small shop and plumbing work had grown into a family with assets worth crores.
But I don’t think it would be fair to say that one person built everything alone.
My grandfather created the foundation.
His sons took that foundation forward.
One generation started it. The next generation expanded it.
A School Named After My Grandmother
One of the things that makes this story personal for me is the school.
Ramwati Devi Inter College carries my grandmother’s name.
It isn’t just a school building with a family name on it.
Education was one of the biggest things my grandparents wanted for their children.
Today, the school continues to serve children in the village.
The family has also been involved in a trust that works toward helping children with education and support.
That part of the story matters to me because the journey did not end with making money.
Some of the opportunities that my grandfather wanted for his own children are now being made available to other children too.
Finally Living the Life He Had Missed
My grandfather spent most of his younger life working.
He didn’t have the kind of childhood or youth where he could travel around India and simply enjoy himself.
Work came first.
Family came first.
Survival came first.
Only after his children became settled did he finally start travelling.
He visited places across India with friends, relatives and people close to him.
He travelled to places such as Jaipur, Chennai and Gaya, along with various pilgrimage sites.
It was almost as if he was finally giving himself something he had postponed for decades.
He had spent his youth building a future.
Now he could finally enjoy some of it.
At 90, He Still Doesn’t Like Sitting Still
Today, my grandfather is around 90 years old.
Age has naturally slowed him down.
He doesn’t travel as much as he once did.
But one thing hasn’t really changed.
He still doesn’t like sitting around doing nothing.
For most of his life, he has been used to working.
Even at this age, he likes being involved in things happening around the house.
Maybe that is one reason he has remained active.
His body grew up with work.
His mind grew up with responsibility.
And perhaps when someone spends an entire lifetime moving forward, sitting still simply doesn’t feel natural.
From a Plumber to a Family Legacy
If someone only looked at the final result, they might say:
“He became a crorepati.”
But that doesn’t tell the real story.
The real story is about a man who started with a small plumbing shop.
A man who travelled kilometres to repair taps.
A father who wanted his children to study.
A grandfather who supported his sons financially when they needed a chance.
A parent who stood beside his son during one of the darkest periods of his life.
And eventually, a man who reached an age where he could look back and see that the sacrifices had built something much bigger than money.
They built a family.
What My Grandfather’s Life Taught Me
I have heard many motivational stories.
But this one is different because I have seen the person behind it.
My grandfather never started with a big plan to build an “empire.”
He simply kept working.
When one opportunity didn’t work, he tried something else.
When money was limited, he took calculated risks.
When his children needed help, he supported them.
And when the family faced its worst period, he didn’t walk away.
That, for me, is the biggest lesson.
Success doesn’t always begin with a big idea. Sometimes it begins with simply refusing to stop.
My grandfather’s journey from a small village and a small plumbing business to a financially settled family is not a story about becoming rich overnight.
It took decades.
It took mistakes.
It took sacrifices.
It took the efforts of more than one generation.
And most importantly, it took patience.
Final Thoughts
Today, my grandfather can live with the comfort that he once worked so hard to provide for his family.
His children are settled.
His grandchildren have opportunities that he could only dream about when he was young.
The family has businesses, property, a school and a trust working to support education.
But when I think about his story, I don’t first think about the money.
I think about the man travelling 40 or 50 kilometres to repair someone’s tap.
I think about a father sending his children kilometres away to study.
I think about a grandfather standing beside his son during five extremely difficult years.
And I think about a man who, after spending most of his life working for everyone else, finally started travelling and enjoying the country he had never had time to see.
From a small village shop to a family legacy—that is my grandfather’s story.
And for me, it will always be more valuable than any number written on a balance sheet.
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