A man of steel from the fields of Hissar

Om Prakash Jindal was perhaps the least visible of the 12 Indians who made it to the Forbes' annual list of billionaires this year. Media shy, he was known to give his counsel only when one of his businesses would run into a spot of bother.

Over the last ten years or so, Jindal had gradually distanced himself from his $3 billion business empire, leaving it to his four sons "" Prithviraj, Sajjan, Ratan and Navin "" to run it. Much if his time was taken up by politics.

He was elected to the Haryana Assembly thrice, 1991, 2000 and 2005. He was even elected to Parliament from Kurukshetra in 1996. His youngest son, Navin, now represents the constituency in Parliament.

But this was a business Jindal built from scratch. Born to a rich farmer near Hissar on August 7,1930, Jindal was not highly educated. In fact, he was only a matriculate.

But he had a nose for business. Early in life, he set up shop in Kolkata trading in steel pipes. Photographs of those times show a stockily built Jindal in a shirt and trouser, sporting a gun on his waist.

But trading wasn't good enough for this son of the soil. He soon set up a pipe mill at Hissar. Over time, it was to become India's largest stainless steel producer. In the early 1970s, the Jindal family split and he got the Hissar mill. From there, Jindal's rise was steady.

Over the next few years, his group diversified into hot-rolled steel, cold-rolled steel, rails, power, sponge iron and pipes. And his reputation for putting up projects at low cost gained strength.

But in the early-1990s, politics caught his fancy. Earthy and slow talking, he started wearing khadi. Jindal started shunning the corporate limelight, though he lived in style in downtown Delhi and owned a fleet of expensive cars.

"His favourite pastime was to acquaint himself to the latest knowledge in the field of industry and farming. A music lover, he also took keen interest in horse riding, kabaddi, wrestling and walking to keep himself fit," a release put out by the Haryana government said.

The O P Jindal group might not be impacted by Jindal's death. All the companies are doing well, thanks to a sustained boom in the international steel cycle. His third son, Ratan, has drawn up an ambitious plan to become one of the leading stainless steel players in the world.

But today's helicopter crash has brought to an end a fascinating journey of a self-educated man who rose from the dusty fields of Hissar to the Forbes list of billionaires.