Since he was a child, Santipada Gon Chaudhuri had sought ways to help India s rural poor, so when the electrical engineer was invited to visit a co-worker s home in the Himalayan village of Herma in the early 1980s, he saw his chance. I was appalled to see how local communities were living in darkness after sunset, remembered Chaudhuri, 71, who then worked for the government in the north-eastern state of Tripura. Some used kerosene lamps, but even kerosene was not always easy to get. Since I had both the skill and position to try and provide power to them, it made me act, he said.