Riches to rags -- The world changes for small men with big dreams as shares crash

Riches to rags -- The world changes for small men with big dreams as shares crash
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI/CALCUTTA, MARCH 13: It’s the end of a dream for 40-year-old Zahid Alam Jaan. This science graduate from Jammu University came to Kolkata 10 years ago to earn his living by selling ethnic Kashmiri stuff. In seven years, he had hit the road to a fortune. Soon, he was dabbling in stocks.

It's all over now and he is a broken man. He has lost about Rs 55 lakh since the present crisis began and has been virtually reduced to being a pauper. Zahid, who lives with his wife and three children in central Kolkata, had sold off a prime piece of land in Srinagar and eight cars that he possessed in the city, to invest in shares. Now he has decided to retrace his steps and return to the Valley. He has to start from the scratch and his family back in the Valley has no inkling.

His only refuge now is God. ``Investing in the stock market is a kind of gambling which is banned in Islam. I went against my faith and God has punished me,'' he says with tears welling up in his eyes.

``Now everything is gone but one thing has returned -- peace of mind. Earlier, after returning home I used to watch CNBC and the movements on Nasdaq. Now I am relaxed.''

Lakhs of investors across the country are staring at an uncertain future as what they considered to be their security evaporated in just about 10 days.About 2,000 km away in Mumbai, Devratan Mohta, who is at the same stage in life as Zahid, wrings his hands in despair as he sits in his third-floor office in Crawford Market. It wasn't long ago that 40-year-old Mohta was smiling. Yashwant Sinha was reading out his Budget proposals on TV and Mohta thought at last things would take a turn for the better. ``It is a good budget Sheela,'' he said, turning to his wife. ``Good thing we did not sell off those shares.''

A couple of days later Black Friday struck, sending the sensex on a dizzy dip, making him lose his smile and Rs 8 lakh. If he had sold off the shares, his family would have been able to spend liberally for a puja in May (they had set aside Rs 3 lakh). If he had, his wife and two daughters would have bought new clothes for a family wedding in Pune. If he had, he would be feeling so much luckier to be alive today. Too many ifs in the share market, he says, shaking his head. ``I had so many plans like investing more in PPF and starting accounts in my children's names. All that has gone bust because of extreme manipulation in the market,'' he says bitterly.

Sheela, however, know better. ``I'm comfortable when the money from the stock market is used for enjoying the luxuries of life. For my daily daal roti, I don't trust this gambling game,'' she says. But she did allow herself to dream when Mohta had remarked that the Budget was good. Now she is worried only about her 15-year-old daughter, Rashi, who will enter Class X. ``I want the best for my daughter,'' she says. The best, however, will cost Sheela at least Rs 30,000, but this is one area where there will be no compromise. Her younger daughter, Ruchi (11), is doing her bit by refusing to buy a new outfit on her birthday.

``Fortunately I'm not full-time into BOLT (BSE Online Trading System) like my other investor friends, who may even have to sell off their houses to bear the losses,'' says Mohta. ``The government and SEBI are to blame for this ruin,'' he says.

According to the president of the National Association of Small Investors (NASI), Pradeep Bhavnani, nearly two lakh retail players in Mumbai have lost heavily. ``I personally know a few who have already sold off their shops and family jewellery to pay off the losses,'' Bhavnani remarks.

In New Delhi, about 1400 km away, Brigadier Sunil Bahree is cursing the day he took the plunge after being egged on by his relatives and friends. But he had played safe. When his son's wedding was finalised last year, he hoped that the money he had invested in mutual funds a year back would prove to be handy. The bad news came as early as in February. ``I learnt that the 9 lakhs I had invested was not worth even 25 per cent of that value.'' The crash has just sealed his fate. ``I am only going to invest only in safe ventures like the RBI bonds from now on,'' he says.

Forty-three-year-old S. Subhramaniam, an executive in the accounts department of a private company in Kolkata, is however taking it all in his stride. He has lost about Rs 50,000 but argues that the risk is always there. ``There are fluctuations in the stock market and even a child knows this. But for quite some time the market has become so volatile that it has become a bumpy ride for small investors like us. But I would not like to quit,'' he says.

G. V. Biyani, a veteran tea consultant in Kolkata, doesn't agree. Biyani, who has been investing in stocks for the past 50 years and has lost in lakhs, blames it all on manipulation by big operators. ``They are dacoits indulging in unfair practices to earn money,'' he says. ``It's because of them that we are suffering.''

Lakhs of investors have burnt their fingers, but the stock market, with its promise for scripting rags-to-riches stories, will still attract many when the debris is cleared and new dreams take shape.