Willpower is something the boy from Chorwad village in Gujarat, who set off for Aden at the age of 17 to seek his fortune and ended up creating a Rs 60,000 crore group, India's largest business house, has in abundance. Venilal Estates Building, 3A, in Mumbai's congested Bhuleshwar, remains the nondescript five-storey chawl—surrounded by saree shops and handcart vendors—that it was in the '60s when the seven-member Ambani clan lived there with a family friend in a tiny one-bedroom flat. The Ambanis moved on. Says elderly Ramchandra...

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