Encounters with L.I.F.E

I used to be an introvert and a timid guy from childhood with a limited friend circle. We are a lower middle-class family and dad has to settle down for a minimal salary job due to his financial debacle in a business in Hyderabad (1983). I was able to sense his frustration due to the scarcity of funds to meet daily needs. Most of my schooling was done in Vuyyuru (hometown), Plus Two in Ongole and Degree in Gudiwada. Though I made good friends at every stage of my life, SN continued to be my bestie all through my education days.

I slowly started seeing the real/outside world from my PG days (Alliance Business School, Bangalore 2003)! I was one of the first recruits of Google India in 2005 and was with Google/Youtube from 2005 to 2011. I’ve helped a colleague in Google and lost around 4 to 5 lakhs in 2009, and it was my first ever encounter with fraudsters. Later, I’ve resigned from Google and joined my best friend (SN)’s food business expansion in hometown with a 20L bank balance. I ended up investing 90L (20L was initial estimate) in 5 years, out of which 70L was taken from others!

The distress due to huge debts started building and slowly my health started deteriorating too. My 70L debts turned into 1.2 Cr in no time. I managed to clear some of them by selling existing MF/Gold/Assets and moved out of the business for good…

Moved back to Hyderabad for settling down. I’ve tried getting back to my IT career, but failed due to a huge gap of 5 years. Due to the incurred depression, there was a stage where I was unable to eat or digest an idly/fruit too. To repair the health, I’ve tried the nature cure camps as well. But, with loads of stress nothing worked!

With no alternatives left, I’ve moved to USA on H1 in 2016 on my caring & concerning brother’s advise & pressure. With in a couple of years, I started gaining some confidence financially. In the course of four years, I’ve managed to clear remaining debts and started planning to move back to INDIA for good for farming. I wanted my children to spend some quality time with their grandparents and that’s an extra reason to move back to Vijayawada and not Hyderabad. So, I came back to India with a 40L reserve in Jan 2020, but lost them again due to another financial loss (another close friend’s fraud at “New Pattabhi Sweets” business)

I’ve sold my 3BHK flat (Bachupally, Hyderabad) that I’ve bought during my Google days and other remaining properties to keep aside some money for meeting expenses for the next couple of years. Being over sensitive and in an urge to earn more, I’ve helped & lent around 90L to other close friends (70L) and Twitter acquaintances (20L) to realize soon that I got deceived again.

I felt like I’ve lost the whole purpose of coming back to India and unavoidable thoughts of suicide also started creeping in. With a whole family depending on me, I thought of giving one last fight for one last time.

Overnight, the Sweets’ business shutters were down and I’ve permanently moved out of it to farming for good. Stopped responding to helping requests and started to become insensitive to others’ pain/loss! From then, I’ve decided firmly that if I get any income from any of my sources, I’ll donate to JSP or invest in my farm… nothing other than that!

In last few months, I’m slowly getting into the groove and was able to crack the secret of making some money without anyone’s help. I’m happy and content with current progress and will call myself a successful person only after the setup of my pet project #UrbanFarm, complete the construction of my dream resort in Vijayawada and build a couple of dream houses at #AlakanandaRivefront and #AlohaaBeachResort projects!

My solo businesses: Prakruth Foods, Prakruth Farms & Prakruth Properties are my current sources of income (if any) and #URBANFARM will be my source of happiness going forward 🌿

And yes, my family were supportive all along and without them I would have been in another world by now… talking to aliens! Especially my parents, brother & my innocent wife!

Will BLOG in detail… very soon!