This is the life story of isher judge ahluwalia, one of the leading indian policy economists of her generation. born into a family with eleven children and limited means, where she was one of the first to attend university, she takes us through her journey to presidency college, delhi school of economics and massachusetts institute of technology. she chronicles her career as a young policy economist fighting against the indian economic orthodoxy that underpinned the license-permit-quota raj, as an institution builder leading the indian council for research on international economic relations (icrier), one of india's leading economic think tanks for over a decade, and also her most recent role in focusing attention on the challenges of urbanization in india.