New Delhi, July 26 -- "Pick yourself up and dust yourself off, get back in the saddle."

-from Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)

Shakira's 2010 FIFA World Cup anthem, which celebrated Africa's rising spirit, is a fitting metaphor for Harpal Singh Randhawa's audacious journey from the plains of Punjab to Zimbabwe's volatile mining fields.

Unlike most other global Indian entrepreneurs chasing Western markets, Randhawa carved a $5 billion fortune in Africa, a continent often overlooked by his peers. His story, marked by calculated risks and resilience, ended abruptly and tragically in a plane crash when he was just 60. But he leaves behind a complex legacy that invites both admiration and some scrutiny.

Born on 9 August 1963, in ...