Monday 21 May 2018

Journey from slums to a fancy bunglow

Today, Kalpana Saroj is known as a female Indian entrepreneur born in Roperkheda village in Maharashtra and she is Chairperson of Kamani Tubes, Mumbai. Today she is having a great time. Her life is now full of luxuries and lack of struggles. She lives a respected life and enjoys a renowned name in today's date. But, was her life this easy always? Was she born with a silver spoon? Her struggles are also real and known to many. Her struggles count. Things she faced in her past make her life worthy to be written in history.
Everyone has written a lot about her. People write about her life and her success. Today, I'm trying to give a different colored light to her story and I'm trying to figure out what made her successful.
Today her net worth is $112 million which equals to Rupees 7,614,000,000 in Indian currency.
What made her count this big?😕
Was it her circumstances or her spirit that never let her give up? These questions need to be answered as soon as possible.
Her life as a child was never easy.She was born in 1961, in a Buddhist family. She was a Dalit by birth. 1961 was that time of our country when Dalits faced a lot of problems. They were the backward communities and our upper castes made their lives difficult in every possible way.
They lived poor lives and their own beliefs also contributed them in making them poor and backward. It was the environment of our country which was against them.
But Kalpana's father served as constable at Repatkhed village, Akola. There were 5 siblings and Kalpana was eldest.
Because of their communal beliefs and the so-called society Kalpana got married at the age of 12. Her father was against this but was unable to go against his family and community.
Post marriage, Kalpana moved to her husband's place. They lived in slums in Mumbai. There she received physical and verbal abuse from her husband and in-laws. That small girl, aged 12, used to do all the household chores and then got beaten by her husband.
What can a small child do in such circumstances? Yes, she was a child when all this happened to her. Today we can't even think of a twelve-years old child doing all household chores. At this age children play and study, they don't cook and wash clothes.But 1970's was the time when all this happened to her and everyone around her considered it as normal as breathing.
But, this was not her fate. Luckily, she was rescued by her father. When he visited her after 6 months of her marriage, he discovered the truth. At that time, he brought her daughter back home with him.
But, this was not the end of her sufferings.
You all know beautiful and lovely Indian Society. Also, all of you are aware of what our society does. If you don;t know our society's job then I will explain. The job of our society is to make a victim's life hell. And this happened in 1970's, so you can estimate how ugly was our society's face at that time. What they could have done to that little girl and her family. Instead of helping them to make their life stable again, Kalpana's neighbors made a hell for her. Yes, they made a hell on the earth for that little girl and her family.
People used to say that it was better for her to die than coming back home after marriage. Kalpana, twelve-years old child, can we imagine what ran through her mind after listening all this? A small child who suffered a lot of physical abuse and was just rescued from that, her mental state was already not stable and she encountered such an environment just after being rescued. What she did? She consumed poison. A bottle full of poison.
Congratulations to her neighbors for succeeding in their mission. They were such good people that they were helping Kalpana's family from getting any kind of defame. They were trying to protect their community from any kind of badnami.
Wakai laajawab the vo bhale log.
But they never thought of that girl's life. Ab kya kar sakte hai , har koi ekdum achcha to ho nhi sakta, thodi bahaut buri adate sabme hoti hai. Itna to chalta hai na? Life of a girl doesn't matter when it comes to the defamation of the society.
But, there was a person who cared about her, who loved her through bottom of his heart, her father. He took her to hospital. Her father never gave up. I believe that the courage she had came to her from her father. A poor man who had the balls to fight against entire world for the sake of her daughter.
She was saved and got a new life. From that moment, she got a direction for her life.
That child decided to do something in her life.
Now the success story starts. 😉
She moved back to Mumbai when she was 16 and lived with her uncle. She started working in a garment factory to support her family. But then her sister fell-ill and died. Due to lack of money her sister did not receive proper treatment. From then Kalpana Saroj decided that if she wants to live a peaceful life then for that she has to earn a lot of money. Life can never be easy without money.
After that she never looked back. She worked and worked and worked and made her worth Rupees 7,614,000,000. 
Initially, she managed to start a tailoring business and a furniture store with the help of government loans for scheduled caste people.
Then she started KS Film Production, she built up a successful real estate business, and came to be known for her contacts and entrepreneurial skills. She was on the board of Kamani Tubes when it went into liquidation in 2001, and after taking over the company, restructured it and brought it back to profit.
Moreover, she never overlooked her happiness and got married to Samir Saroj at the age of  22(in 1980) but he died in 1989. Now, she is married to Shubhkaran.
Now, the questions whose answers I was looking for are to be answered. Circumstances made her strong. Behind her success I think many factors lie. But, one strong factor I believe is her father's support. Had he not rescued her, how was all this possible? Had he not supported her and stood against society, how was all this possible? Next, I believe is her luck, due to which she survived even after consuming the bottle of poison.
And last and very important is Kalpana Saroj, her spirit, her strong determination. Her presence of mind and her entrepreneurial skills.
She is hero of her own life and her father is her angel. Both of together kicked the butt of society and proved themselves.
She was awarded the Padma Shri for trade and industry in 2013.
Now my dear reader, if you are an entrepreneur then compare your circumstances with her. Most importantly being an Indian female is a struggle in its own. Secondly, her child marriage, her caste, poverty, society , everything was against her. But she did it. If she can do it then you can also do it.
It maybe possible that you have better resources than her. If this is true then it is also true that you can perform better. 
Think and decide this yourself.💖
Thanks for reading and ignore grammar mistakes.

4 comments:

  1. WOW....Amazing.
    You are really amazing.We need girls like you in our country to motivate and encourage our youth.
    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete

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Journey from slums to a fancy bunglow

Today, Kalpana Saroj is known as a female Indian entrepreneur born in Roperkheda village in Maharashtra and she is Chairperson of Kamani Tu...