Travelling from Pune to Mumbai is always pleasant especially when winter is about to set in. A man, in his mid-forties, holding two handbags, one clinging to his shoulder and the other in the firm grip of his hand, rushed into the Volvo looking for his seat number. Tense but not worried, he placed his one bag on the seat while pushing the other into the overhead shelf. Making sure that his handbag is safe in the shelf, he lifted the one on the seat and seated himself, next to me. We exchange smiles. “Are you going to Mumbai?” he asked me very politely. “Yes.” Making himself more comfortable, he asked me again, “Are you living in Mumbai”. I answered “I live in Delhi,” and questioned him back “what about you?.
 

“I live in Mumbai. I have a shop there.” He said it conveniently. “What kind of shop you have?” I displayed interest unnecessarily. “I deal in artificial jewellary,” his smile was more obvious. At this stage I thought of knowing more about his business in these hard times.

“Your business must be booming with more and more people turning fashion-conscious these days,” I ddrove him into discussion. He retorted, “No, no. It is not like that. Our main customers are people with less purchasing power and more over in the present times more and more people are turning to artificial jewellery,” and he was quick with his explanation, “You see there is so much of crime everywhere who wants real jewellery.” I went into thoughts and asked him, “Is this the only reason? May be people everywhere are facing hard times now. He burst into a comfortable laugh, as if protesting to my comments, he quickly added, “Where are the hard times? People have tons of money. Every other person is rich today. Look at the amount of money they spend on marriages.”

He gave me enough food for thought. I continued with my comments, “But the fact remains that the economy of the country is facing a slowdown; this is a time of economic recession; thousands and thousands of people are losing jobs; industries are facing closure with no work literally; markets have scant customers; malls are closing down. Don\'t you think it is a difficult time for everyone?” I try to enlighten the shopkeeper. “What hard times, my friend. People have enough money. It is another question that they don\'t like to spend it lavishly now. May be they are fearful,” his comments had sense, I thought.

I said to myself, this is the first businessman I met recently who was unnerved by the economic crisis. I immediately recalled my recent meeting with Mahtre, an auto component manufacturer in Pune, who was frustrated to the core as a result of his nearly-closed factory left with no liquidity.
 

I was also reminded of the comments of senior official of a nationalised bank. “A small businessman, whom we lend money for business, eventually spends a larger chunk on infratstructure and other unproductive assets. Today I can\'t afford to run my own car whereas a small businessman affords big cars but has no liquidity reserves to carry on in hard times.”