As soon as I graduated from college, I fought with my parents to allow me to go full-time with my start-up. They didn’t approve of my choosing an uncertain course over the secure path of campus placements and there was an unsaid tension between my parents and me. I turned taciturn during that phase and would answer in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ over the phone to my parents’ anxious questions, evading most of them. Since they lived a thousand kilometers away, they were understandably concerned about my well-being. Most of their questions, were directed at my company and its ‘certain’ futility and I would hang up, frustrated. Fighting it out with abject poverty, I painted a rosy picture of my life to my parents saying, ‘I am making a decent half a lac rupees a month,’ so that I would be relieved from at least one end, while figuring out a revenue model that worked for my venture.
It was the end of the second month of full-time entrepreneurship. It was a very difficult time for me. I had rented a 2 BHK apartment in Malviya Nagar, made one room the office and the other, the living room. The rent, shared between my business partner and me, was fifteen thousand rupees per month besides an additional three thousands for electricity. My partner’s parents knew his dismal financial condition and they supported him, whereas my self-respect forbade me to ask from my parents’ help. As the date of paying the rent came closer, tension in the house grew. My partner started pestering me to arrange the money, and I retaliated by asking him to generate money from the venture instead. As a result of my indifference the rent was delayed and my landlord, an astute Delhi businessman, came over to give us a notice to pack our bags. We begged him for one more day and my partner stopped speaking to me for a day so that I knew it was entirely my fault. I decided it was time to let go of my ego and ask for my parents’ help. But before I dialled the number, there was an unread message in my inbox. It said, ‘Rs. 60000 credited in your SBI account’. It was my father.
My eyes became wet as I dialled my father’s number. He answered on the third ring and said, ‘It’s your birthday next month. You always wanted a two-wheeler. Allow me to gift you one. With the money transferred, buy it for yourself a month early, since it would help you in your business.’ Unable to say anything without giving away that I was crying, I cut the call and sobbed uncontrollably. The money he credited sustained me during the next four months of pathetic poverty, after which I was in a condition to buy a scooter for myself. A year passed. When my father came to Delhi last month to see me on my birthday, I made him sit on the pillion of my six-month old scooter while going to the venue. He said to me, ‘You have maintained it really well. It does not look like it’s a year old.'
I gingerly returned his smile, unable to tell him how much I prized his surprise sent a year ago.
My eyes became wet as I dialled my father’s number. He answered on the third ring and said, ‘It’s your birthday next month. You always wanted a two-wheeler. Allow me to gift you one. With the money transferred, buy it for yourself a month early, since it would help you in your business.’ Unable to say anything without giving away that I was crying, I cut the call and sobbed uncontrollably. The money he credited sustained me during the next four months of pathetic poverty, after which I was in a condition to buy a scooter for myself. A year passed. When my father came to Delhi last month to see me on my birthday, I made him sit on the pillion of my six-month old scooter while going to the venue. He said to me, ‘You have maintained it really well. It does not look like it’s a year old.'
I gingerly returned his smile, unable to tell him how much I prized his surprise sent a year ago.
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