India, April 5 -- Author : Gunjan Veda

Publisher : Yoda SAGE Select, Rs 525

Gunjan Veda's book seeks to celebrate the everyday heroes, who have, despite all odds, managed to change not just their own lives, but the lives of those around them. An excerpt:

Ten kilometres from the Pratap Singh High School, on the road to the famous Kaas Plateau, Maharashtra's very own Valley of Flowers, is the picturesque campus of the Bhartiya Bhatke Vimukta Vikas Va Sanshodhan Sanstha (Indian Institute of Research and Development of Nomadic and De-notified Tribes). Inside, there is a School of Social Work, a junior college, hostels and an Ashram school with 250 students from classes 1 to 10.

At 2 pm on a weekday, the place is abuzz with activity. Stude...