New Delhi, June 6 -- Long before Xerox became synonymous with photocopying or Google with search, a young Parsi in Bombay created a product that would become inseparable from his name. That inventor was Ardeshir Burjorji Sorabji Godrej, and the locks and safes he forged in a modest Bombay workshop would go on to guard the secrets, savings and heirlooms of generations of Indians.

Born in 1868 into a Parsi-Zoroastrian family in Bombay, Ardeshir was sent, like many affluent Indians under the British Raj, to study law. He graduated and started working as a lawyer but soon became disillusioned with the profession. In 1894, he set down his brief and never looked back.

After a short stint as a chemist's assistant, Ardeshir borrowed Rs.3,000 fr...