Mind-full

When I was really young, my mother used to say, 'money buys money'.

And I used to always ask her how did the others who didn't have this commodity, ‘buy’ money then?

This statement stayed within me.

I have always run my business with my heart more than either my brain or the money-churning trend. Last year we got hit by the C word. Just as we all thought the worst was behind us, the zameen under our feet shifted again. Unlike last year where I supported the PM Cares fund, volunteered willingly as a Covid warrior with the Govt of Karnataka, this time has been numbing with situations which seem absolutely unreal. On the ground - the hopelessness with a very small percentage of our own people that require medical aid, and in the hawá - with the leaders busy with their own priorities.

In between the businesses take a dip – though this seems to be a second priority somehow this time round. Because most of us are busy on whatsapp and digital groups helping whatever can be done for our own and our known, because of the anger and despair, because one realizes that ‘us’ are the ‘ones’ that have to step in. This period of numbing has been long and unproductive for me, because I work best under pressure. Besides the fact that my business is completely closed and obviously no scope of WFH, there seems to be no other stress- you see I am one of those who can boast of rotikapda and makán.

This week we hear the virus is now slowly seeping into our villages. Now the deal is, the poorest of the poor live in our villages. In my industry, the Kárigars come from backward places- those who weave, who sew, those who dye and those who embroider – the main fulcrum of any garment supply chain. All of us are aware that we have enough and more in our country, who fall below the poverty line.

Common sense says that if the disease is infiltrating the smallest of inhabitation, work for-a-living in those areas will stall. The population in such areas survive on a day to day basis, hand to mouth. Small businesses suffer in uncertain and unprecedented situations and thus the amount of chaos in a daily wage worker is going to exponential very soon.

I go back to where I started, Since with our villages, money is not the base which will buy the money, how do we as business owners and entrepreneurs, as a community that is proudly on LinkedIn, ensure this mass is protected, stays afloat, ensures a comeback, can regain enough monetary bandwidth to return back to the supply chain and definitely be proud to flourish.

I invite generous comments and suggestions. This is a topic close to my heart and the base of my second startup chhotabaccha.

Anjali Sharma on LinkedIn 2021