Anupam- The Dreamer

The story of an old lady entrepreneur

The resolute old lady “entrepreneur” selling guavas

On my afternoon stroll during lunch hours, I often see an old lady sitting under the hot sun in the open walkway area near the Patel Chowk metro station. In summers, she sold jaamun/Indian blackberry and today she was selling guavas/amrood/jaamphal. At the first instance, she looks very frail and weak. She must be over 75 years, at the very least! Yet she is resolute. She comes at the same place every day to make her living. I am afraid she must have lost business during the protests at nearby Jantar Mantar, which is just a stone’s throw away from this place, as the whole area was converted into a garrison for a few days. Nonetheless, here she is again, doing her daily routine hardwork, unflinching and carefree.

The spirit of hardwork and never-giving-up is remarkable, which reflects on her innocent face. When you talk to her, she does not complain about sitting under the hot burning sun. She does not complain about anything for that matter. As a professional entrepreneur, she tells you the “bhaav”(rate) of the fruit. And if you order something, she immaculately measures the fruits with the old and rusted weighing scale, which might be of the same age as her business. Earlier generation people cared for their things as they cared for their life! Because this weighing scale might be one of the very few “assets” that she owns in the Balance Sheet of her business. Nonetheless, then you give her the money and she lifts the jute sack slowly searching for the change/khulla. And if you say that “rakh lo aap, koi baat nahi” (you can keep the change, no issues), then also there is same innocence on her face. She didn’t even became happy, when once I said her that. Maybe, the life has been so tough to her that she never had enough time to be happy and celebrate during her work hours!

Life, you see, is not easy for many people like her in our country and in many poor countries across the world. What inspires me, is the resilience and toughness of such people, who refuse to give up and work hard to make their ends meet. This old lady has decided to become an “entrepreneur”. She buys guavas from the wholesale market (capital), puts in her manual labour (labour), fortunately she doesn’t need own land (she can sit on public land), and then she takes risk by her entrepreneurship. Risk, because some days she may not sell enough, some guavas can rot, fear of being stolen or get cheated upon etc. So, she is a complete entrepreneur in some sense.

Back in the old days, I used to see many such entreprenuers who used to sell different small stuff in the lanes of localities. Now-a-days, they have become very few. Still some can be found in the haat bazaars of towns/cities, some in melas, and some owning small makeshift wooden shops or hand-held carts. These people cannot compete with the big retail giants like Walmart, BigBazaar etc. They cannot fight with the FDI, neither they can stop the reforms that are being undertaken in the capitalistic market economy. They don’t have enough capital to do that. But, they have one thing that cannot be taken away from them- that is their hardwork and their never-say-die attitude! You can break their jhuggis, you can demolish their makeshift shops, you can threaten them with lathis and ask to vacate roads, you can turn their carts upside down, but you cannot take away their willpower and determination at any cost!

They will fall, and they will rise again. You may plan for months and years ahead in your life, but they plan only for their today! They don’t have the luxury to feel safe about tomorrow! Yet they are content and hopeful that someday their destiny will change. I have come across quite a few individuals in my life who have made it from rags to riches and their story raises goosebumps everytime I hear or think about them! Maybe, we cannot do much to change the lives of such people, but atleast we can support them in their endeavours by whatever little we can do- by buying their stuff, by supporting them with little money, by our smile and kindness. And most importantly by giving them hope- because apart from responsibility towards their families and themselves, hope is one of the major things that keeps them alive. And no one should ever rob them of that. Our little act of kindness may not make them rich, but surely it will make their day.

For hope ✌