Due to jet lag, I got up early. It was 4.30 a.m. I was sitting in front of my desktop facing the window. The window was facing Arce street in Union City in the bay area. It was all dark outside. There was pin- drop silence all around. I was anxiously awaiting dawn.
I do not know how I remembered Kumar at that early hour. Thoughts about him started making rounds in my mind.
Kumar is an ex - police man. How & why Kumar got retrenched & was an ex-police man.I don't know. Every man has good & bad. I used to meet him often in Sahakar Nagar. He was about 50 years old. He was well built like a policeman but not tall. His talk & behavior were not like that of a policeman. He was kind & polite.
Self employment is an honest way of living to one who lose their job,or who do not get a job. If all is well one is a monarch in it. One is a boss as well as a servant in it. However , it isn't all that easy at all.He was doing several jobs for his livelihood. He was looking after a nursery. He was a broker for purchase & sale of sites, houses. Whatever might have been his past. He was trustworthy & hardworking . He was in service of Sahakar Nagar people whenever there were functions in their homes. It did not matter to him whether it was death or celebration.
Policemen are not well paid in India. They resort to other means to enhance their income. In the process some get retrenched also. Here is an instance how they extend their income .
A shop in a prominent place always bears a high rent. It in fact bears a rent of thousand of rupees. A vegetable vendor, fruit vendor,flower vendor or any other roadside vendor hardly could afford that abnormal rent. They are at the mercy of a policeman. In busy areas police allow hawkers to occupy footpaths & collect from them say Rs 40/- per day. It works out cheaper to poor vendors than paying abnormal rent . It is live & let live policy of policemen.
In these days when prices are spiralling it is impossible to live with a meagre income at all. Rupee value has been depreciating day by day. At the same time standard of living has been going up too. What isn't expensive? School vans, uniform donations are all exorbitant. Both husband & wife are working for their livelihood almost in every house in a city nowadays
Bengaluru is a metropolitan city, there is scope for everyone to lead a comfortable life there. It is a city where one can make his living in one or another way. There are not one or two options, but where there are numerous options to make a living there. A city is an ocean. One who falls in the water must learn to swim otherwise they would be drowned.
Real Estate business is a lucrative business in ever growing Bengaluru. Real estate boom has been going on Bengaluru. Number of crorepati is on the increase Litigations are also the increase. Sites values , house values, & rents are all moving up only.It is making middle class people opulent . I remember one Vanaja.She was finding difficult to make her both ends meet. She disposed of her property which she acquired for a lakh or so to 1.60 crore. She invested sixty lakhs in a flat & rest invested in bank deposits. She is having a comfortable living now.
One need not be well educated for real Estate business at all. No capital is required for it. However, contacts knack, intelligence, energy & patience, etc. are essential to thrive in it. It is also very, very competitive. It is a business which depends upon individual capability. Tax evasion is more in this business than many other businesses. A jeweller if one sells or buys gold makes profit . Similarly, a broker gets brokerage from buyer as well as seller in every deal. There are rates fixed for every type of transaction. However , it is not well organised & controlled as in western world.
Opportunities do not come where one is . One has to be after them. Kumar was roaming from A block to G block in vast Sahakar Nagar looking for vacant sites & vacant houses on his moped.
One of my hobbies is walking. I go daily both in morning & evening for walk wherever I am. As such, I go around Sahakar Nagar daily. It is my habit to make acquaintance with whomsoever I come across too. That is how I came to know Kumar. A charming personality.
Mr Kumar came to know that my friend Gopalakrishnan wants to dispose off his property . It was a palatial bungalow . It would have fetched him lakhs of rupees of brokerage. Kumar had a marriageable daughter. It is duty of every parent to look for a suitable bridegroom to their daughter & marry her. It would have been of immense help for her marriage expenses. Mr Gopalakrishnan quoted for his property some crores of rupees. Kumar was on look out for purchasers for it .If he were successful in clinching a deal he would have certainly had a booty.
I was anxiously waiting for the good news from him everyday. Days passed no news came. One day I met him as usual during a walk. When I enquired about prospective buyers, he intimated me that his daughter has been married & is in Australia. A software engineer, married her & took her to Australia. No expenses whatsoever.
Kumar might not have dreamt even that her marriage would have been so easy. Definitely, one of the reasons for it is education. Formerly people were not giving much importance to education. Nowadays people have realised importance of education. Whatever may be their financial difficulties, labor class devotes a chunk of their earnings to education of their children.
Marriages are made in heaven.Caste system & arranged marriages are slowly disappearing in India.I recollected marriages which I witnessed when I was in Kerala. They were very simple. They were exchange of garlands in a temple.
This incident is one which reveals how times are changing. The old order changeth, yielding place to new. It is not imaginary. It is really what has taken place.