Best of Luck Mr. Bhatti

Today I met a real victim of Demonetisation. Let us call him Mr. Bhatti. Riding in a taxi in Delhi, a small piece of conversation with Mr. Bhatti made me realize that he is not a stereotypical taxi driver. Something in the first few words made me shift from the back to the front seat and engage Mr. Bhatti in a conversation.

Mr. Bhatti, it seems was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. His dad had a factory in 1979 which supplied AC to DC (Or is it the other way around?) switches to a television company.  Mr. Bhatti enjoyed his childhood and his father owned a hotel in Manali where they would spend their vacations. There was never a need for education for Mr. Bhatti. After Class 12, Mr. Bhatti’s father opened another factory for him. Life was excellent and the Bhatti’s were rolling in money.

But then televisions moved from black and white to colour. Technological advances made the Bhatti’s factory redundant. They had to sell everything to pay off their dues and start back from scratch.

But our friend Mr. Bhatti was made of sterner stuff. He borrowed a small amount and set up an office of a real estate agent. He started with thousands, made lakhs and turned them into crores. He converted himself to a builder and started implementing real estate projects in the NCR region. Life was again back to normal… or so it seemed.

2008 brought a global crisis and a slowdown in the housing market. Mr. Bhatti lost money and was cheated by his partners. He lost everything. Another riches to rags event – another setback

He then started working with a real estate developer. Someone who was once the owner was now an employee. Salaried people will never ever understand this transition. I am amazed at Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. He started cutting down on his expenses. Someone who spent in lakhs per month, was now working at a salary of Rs. 55,000 per month. Try doing that my friends. Try explaining to your wife and children that the outings, shopping, toys, movies, dinners or any other spending which was once normal is now to be curtailed.

Then comes November 2016. It is an open secret that demonetization has hit the real estate sector extremely hard. Mr. Bhatti lost his job, as the real estate company he was working for downsized their costs and in turn their employees

Today  Mr. Bhatti drives a taxi. Some one who  once owned 5 cars, drives a rental taxi. He earns upto Rs. 25,000 per month. He now has to downsize his expenses by more than half. I shudder to think how he is dealing with a 12 year kid’s aspirations. Mr. Bhatti is unhappy with the hand that fate has dealt him. But he is not completely bitter about it. He goes about his work hoping for a better tomorrow.

What Mr. Bhatti is unhappy about is this. His friends who did all kinds of unscrupulous things thrive today, while somebody like him, who hasn’t had any wrongdoings (as he says) is suffering. His aunt is a sanyasi. She says this is the result of the karma of his previous life. He says he is not bothered about previous life or future life. He is bothered about his aspirations, his family his current life. My heart goes out to Mr. Bhatti. That 45 minute ride taught me quite a few lessons.

The first setback in the Bhatti’s life was the development of technology, which took away their living. Is this a sign of things to come? While one may be pardoned for not being so forward looking way back in the 1980s, the situation is different today. The pace of development of technology is rapid and the day is not too far away, when quite a few of our jobs will be taken away by technology. If today we do not anticipate the change, and live in our cocoons and comfort zones, we are idiots.

Secondly, let us not undermine the value of education and upgrading our skills. The one regret Mr. Bhatti has, is that he does not have a qualification. But with a silver spoon in his mouth and factory under his belt, he didn’t need it; or so he thought. Today thinking like this is committing suicide. The quality of education is a different matter, but education is an entry barrier.

I would like to end this by paying a tribute to Mr. Bhatti’s resilience. If growing up in poverty is tough, a riches to rags story is tougher. The mental make up and adjustment required to bear the humiliation from family members, questions from children, accepting and living through failure is not at all easy.

Salute to you Mr. Bhatti. Some day our paths shall cross and I hope you will see better days and we shall have a drink together. Best of luck for a better future.