AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 7 – Panorama CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 280 of 332 As I entered his office, the Developer Ashokji somewhere in his mid-fifties, surrounded by 4-5 of his staff was kind enough to rise and welcome me. The tea-boy was hurriedly called in to offer me a cup of tea, which I graciously accepted so as to have the opportunity to make small talk followed by my standard fund-raising story. I went about my routine pitch but I could sense Ashokji getting a bit uncomfortable as he glanced towards the others in the room with a touch of embarrassment. While being appreciative of our efforts, he profusely apologized for not being in a position to make a contribution. I was frankly surprised by the unexpected response from a man of his stature and prepared myself to exit gracefully. However, my curiosity still alive, I asked him about the crowd outside as a parting question. Suddenly, overcome by a torrent of emotions, he sighed deeply and broke down with a suppressed whimper. I expressed my apologies, just in case I was the cause of his anguish in any way. He gathered himself and made me sit down and requested the others to vacate the room while he shared his absorbing story with me. Starting his life as a small time building contractor, he had slogged over three decades to become one of Gorakhpur’s leading and trustworthy developers. Many had invested in his latest mega-housing project which unfortunately ran into extremely rough weather because of the land mafia. With his business model literally collapsing, losses had mounted rapidly and now he was in no position to pay back the majority of investors. Reaching that terrible state of literal bankruptcy, he had concluded that the only option available to him was to come out clean with the people who had trusted him. He had made his book of accounts transparent to his clients along with a vow to make amends in the best possible way by liquidating the left-over land parcels and pledging all his personal assets as well. The people waiting outside were just a subset of the affected customers who would come every day with hopes of any possible good news of land sales. Any money coming from such random deals was being distributed equitably to them through a reconciliation team consisting of staff and client reps. I cannot forget Ashokji's mid- conversation words, “Sir, I have lost everything in life. The least I can do is to protect my goodwill. With that intact and with God’s grace, maybe my days will change once again.” Overwhelmed, as I got up once again to take my leave, he put his hand deep into his table drawer and took out a fancy bag with a dozen or so very large silver coins. Embedded with his company logo, these used to be his ‘ once upon a time’ executive gifts on booking a property. He had no more use of these shining coinages. Much against my wishes and