Sunday, January 20, 2002		Life Ties

The ability to bounce back
Taru Bahl

WHEN you see a successful man with a sprawling business empire you are envious. You give him credit for managing it efficiently but somewhere you also think that Lady luck has been benevolent. Rarely, do you look beneath the surface to see that every brick on his walls was laid by him, that he worked by the sweat of his brow and that for every effort that paid off, there were at least a dozen which didn’t.

Balram was one such man. When at the age of 15 his father passed away he had no clear idea of what he was going to do to support his four brothers and mother though he knew he would find out fast. Completing studies was the sensible option but he had so many mouths to feed. His father’s savings would be depleted before the year was out. For one month he travelled by ordinary bus, from one town to the next, meeting relatives, father’s friends and people he remotely knew. His mind was always ticking. He absorbed the advice which well meaning people gave, made a note of help that was offered, dwelt on each idea long enough to see if and how viable it would be. Next day, he would go on another reckee trip to see if he could replace the previous day’s idea with something better. At the end of the month after much thought and deliberation he decided to put his father’s money to buy one truck. He found a bigger transporter and requested him to take him on as a chela. Seeing no threat, the senior well established person took him under his wings, teaching him the ropes of a business Balram knew nothing about. Within five years he had a fleet of trucks running across the country from Kanyakumari to Assam and Amritsar to Bengal. He involved every family member into the business. Brothers, nephews and uncles found suitable employment. Balram believed in sharing his good fortune. Besides his family was his greatest asset and strength, how could he keep them away ?

No work was menial for him. He had endless reserves of energy and a mind which was forever open and receptive. He had a zest for life and was genuinely interested in people. He observed them carefully, asking questions and seeing what made them tick. Since he could not study formally, he made up by reading in his spare time. He was always hungering for more, trying to relate things to his situation and better himself any which way. When he expressed to his family his gut feeling of getting into forest lumbering they told him not to spread his resources too thin. He could expand the transport business further. Balram told them that he was doing that anyway, but was feeling restricted. The business had taken off and was running on its own steam, the need to do something was gripping his insides. It was a completely alien area of work. Balram made a go at it and soon became the region’s timber king.

His fortunes were ticking. He was married and had the most supportive wife. One who looked up to him and also understood his need to experiment and try out new things. She knew he was not the kind of person who could rest on his laurels or reap the rewards of his success. There was a restlessness in him which would always prod him to go that extra step, take another risk, put all his fortunes at the altar of his dreams and ambitions. She loved him for what he was, not what he had amassed, and gave him the freedom to do as his mind and heart dictated. For she knew that curbing him would destroy the very foundation on which he rested. The only thing that hurt her was seeing the way his brothers took advantage of his generosity. The benevolent big brother that he was, he never doubted their sincerity towards him. She repeatedly told him to be careful where they were concerned, telling him that money could corrupt the most loyal. But Balram always told her that without faith he could not move mountains and he had to move them, literally and figuratively.

When his children were barely into school he found his fortunes had dwindled. He had a long queue of creditors and overdrawn bank accounts. His siblings had over a period of time cheated him of all his money. They had got fixed assets transferred to their names and had used his clout to take huge loans from the open market. They were not concerned with his reaction. They had got what they wanted. Balram was not upset about his business going kaput. He knew he would build that back again. But he could not replace his family with another. Even if they had cheated him of his last penny he could not give up on them. He swallowed his hurts and immersed himself in work with renewed energy and hope, leaving no time to brood and dwell on what had happened. The thought of going to a new place and starting afresh arose in his mind, but he decided to stick on and rebuild his future for the sake of his children.

From being a business magnate he was down to being an employee. He had no misgivings. He looked at it as yet another learning lesson. He knew he was going to embark on a new project and one which would be more successful than the last. Along with trading packaged food items, he got into the hotel line. He identified all the loss making properties in his state and negotiated with owners to let him professionally manage it for them, on a fee. He got a team of professionally trained hotel personnel and set about offering services. This was much before the trend of outsourcing came in. After 3-4 years he had enough money to start a restaurant of his own. He pumped all the money that he had made into his new venture. Well wishers cautioned him not to get into any hair brained project but Balram was single minded in his determination. He had to put all of himself or none at all. He made a hotel at a place most people thought it had no future or prospect of doing well and today 30 years later it is his golden goose. He was convinced about its locational advantage so what if access was difficult.

Today Balram is close to sixty. His children keep telling him to settle down to a retired life but he has other plans. He wants to set up a chain of medium budget hotels for the burgeoning middle class in his native state. He wants to bring forgotten towns and villages on the tourist road map by upgrading infrastructure and hospitality services. He has the support of the state government and his plans even if they appear outlandish at the conceptual stage nearly always get implemented. His wife will vouch for that. She knows that this is one man who refuses to take life’s batterings and let downs. He rises like the Phoenix every time he is struck and who is like a child in his eagerness to do something new. His indefatigable spirit and enormous confidence and faith in his abilities has made him get the better of what fate and life offered him.