Agile Entrepreneurships

Vastavikta Bhagat

We at SEA believe that the pandemic has a granularity of meta, non-linear narratives that become useful in making sense of the relational complexities of the pandemic and society. Thus, we set out to collect stories of fears, joys, agilities, fragilities, friendships, networks, collectives, home, work, infrastructures, entrepreneurship, privileges, marginalizations, migrations, desperation, gender, equity, etc. The glossary as a method became useful to reflect on this granularity of experiences and account for slippages during these times. These spatio-temporal stories, when read together or as individual instances produce a new sense of the emergent contemporary. This framework also allows us to speculate on the kind of world we will inhabit once the storm has passed. We draw on multiple readings to bring out the nuances and patterns of social life produced in a pandemic. This we hope would allow us to collectively reflect on the restructured ideas of the self, the collective, society, space, and time. The pandemic saw a series of collapses, especially within the diverse economies. As people went through losses of businesses and jobs, the anxiety around staying afloat led to a series of instances where agile entrepreneurships to emerge.

Nitin bootlegged cigarettes and alcohol in Andheri. His phone number was shared among a wide network of people who were looking for cigarettes. People in need of cigarettes would approach others smoking to ask them where they got their cigarettes from. They would all share Nitin’s number., whose landmark for meeting people was in front of a covid facility as it was the most prominent building in an otherwise labyrinthian urban village setting that Nitin operated in.

AGGLOMERATION

People started using social networking platforms for marketing of small businesses. Which had started either as alternate income methods or hobbies which turned into business.

During the lockdown, I realized how aware one has become of their surroundings, their belongings, their emotions, their life, their work, and most importantly themselves. Priorities for everyone drastically shifted. In this process, there were some entrepreneurial changes in people's lives, there were self-realizations, people didn’t take each other and their life for granted, sympathy towards each other increased. I came back to my hometown just before the lockdown, and this is the longest I have stayed here since the last 4 years which made me notice and realize things. Each day seemed to be the same where I could hear my Dad talking to the office staff about work and ranting about how the clients are not ready to pay their fees, my mom trying to learn how to zoom her friends and video calling her online counselling patients, my grandmother who was bored of solving her newspaper crosswords because her daily serials were not airing anymore, and me who complained about having headaches and a gazillion back problems because of the continuous screen time. Entrepreneurial activities were shifted to a house or just the laptop. People came up with new businesses but at the same time, some businesses faced a loss of their lifetime. Some had to leave what they were doing, or just try to save their business. The entire cycle and the loop were disrupted. In this situation even, people came out and helped one another.

Started taking workshops online in my free time. Made my family and my neighbour create their own masterpieces.

Ashish is a middle class interior designer cum turnkey contractor for interior design projects. In the lockdown, he lost his business. He started making ends meet by bootlegging cigarettes and selling to his friends for a small commission.

NEW ENTREPRENEURSHIPS

START UP

GHARGUTI BUSINESS

CHANGE IN BUSINESS

Losing jobs, starting anew, skillsets driving the work and becoming new ‘jobs’. A locality starts online businesses and promotions through whatsapp groups and a self sufficient colony gets created.

Jewellery

Brunch

Late Sunday breakfast

Cakes,other bakery products,

Oxidised earrings

Nariyal pani from their garden or village home

Sarees and bags homestitched

Cold stored chicken, fish, Bhaji and home delivery

The current pandemic brought in something a lot of us had never experienced, a nationwide lockdown. With that came in a lot of shops being closed down and long queues to buy essential supplies. There was a lot of panic amid the pandemic that forced people to hoard things at home. Many unusual spaces were used for storage such as the space under the dining table, under the dressing table or maybe beside the study table. A personal example illustrating this is the shift my dad's business saw during this time. Earlier, the main focus was on manufacturing perfumes however, with the current situation the focus has slightly shifted towards manufacturing sanitizers and disinfectants as well. This was done to avoid loss of income and help the workers earn a living at the factory as well. Due to this, a lot of spaces at my home were also used to store the samples and each room now had around 5-6 sanitizers. In addition to that, the health-conscious mindset that the pandemic brought in for most people led to this and everyone from home also needed to carry a sanitizer and a disinfectant every time they stepped out.

Sanjana was a contemporary dancer. In the lockdown she started making ends meet by baking cakes and pastries and delivering them.

Ashok Gupta, whose shop attracted a large number of foodies. Relishing the variety of momos sold by him, he became jobless during the lockdown as only essential item shops were allowed to function and people were avoiding street food. He still had to pay the rent of the shop so he resorted to selling all sorts of sanitization products and masks.

ECONOMIC SHIFTS

Pause in the means of financial incomes of individuals led many people to start with new temporary businesses or trades. Similar things happened in the family. Sources of wholesalers selling Sodium Hypochlorite, Sanitisers, Masks, Gloves, and other sanitizing equipment were found and contacted. These products were resold from the home. Information about the new business was passed on through WhatsApp messages. Continuous stream of messages and phone calls kept us all busy, and prevented us from getting bored. Everybody in the house was mobilised to find contacts to buy and sell the products. Eventually, a network was developed of buyers and sellers with their own financial margins. This eventually led to new telephonic non-permanent friendships. Contacts were generated in a manner that if a particular product was demanded by a buyer, the information about the product such as the rates, availability, material, method of use was obtained within half a day. This eventually led to an exposure of how market finances function. For example, a product with an MRP of Rs.1500 as sold in a Chemist shop would be available to us at the rate of Rs.600-700 and sold at Rs.800-900. As the days passed, new contacts developed, a similar product was later available at lesser prices and sold at lesser rates. My house at a time was fully occupied with cans of sanitizers and packets of gloves, masks, and face shields. This new business has slowly begun to be a part of older business. These things are partially merged with the existing Paint shop.

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