Nidhi Goyal, 31
Visually challenged activist and stand-up comedienne

The first two lines of On His Blindness by John Milton, go like this: When I consider how my light is spent, Ere half my days, in this dark world and wide... While many consider the poem a brooding narrative on his loss of sight, for some, the sonnet is also an account of how Milton never completely lost his vision. Warriors such as him come in all shapes and sizes. Nidhi Goyal is one such fighter, although she's more wit than woe. There's hardly any waters she hasn't chartered. A feminist, disability and gender justice rights activist, Goyal is also India's first blind stand-up comedienne.