A Day with Kamala and Bubul Who Spin Hope in Adversities

????????? Story of Bubul. He is Dwaneswar Deka, and?with affection, he is called Bubul. This is again a great story of an entrepreneur who struggled with every inch of life that appeared like cotyledons in the village Khatar Kalakuchi, West Nalbari, Assam, of whom hardly anyone?was?aware. Son of a police constable Kanteswar Deka and Jamuna Deka, a sudden severe stroke snatched the life of Kanteswar when Bubul, born in 1978, was just nine and his sister was seven, both in lower primary classes, pushing the family to navigate through a long dark tunnel. The jerk was unpredictable.

?????????? On the one hand, the pain of losing someone very near and, on the other hand, pressing hardship pushed Bubul’s mother into merciless consequences of life; the only income is a monthly pension of Rs.245. That happened in the year 1986. Bubul moved out of the village to Guwahati at nine, testing his luck; if he could get a job, he could earn little. A day came when he got a menial job in Guwahati in a private company. A few years later, her sister married in a nearby village, and her mother had to live alone in the village. Staying in Guwahati was challenging; it had been crushing. Bulbul narrates his days there to me with tearful eyes. But?he?could gain experience and good people’s affection. He got a contractual job at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), Guwahati Centre, as a Guard, earning a scanty wage. He continued his studies until appearing in the class XII exam. His mother was alone in the village, and she needed someone by her side. Bubul also realised that his job would not be regularised, and there were no future prospects in this job. A bold decision was awaiting for Bubul to take.

??????????? One day, he moved back to his village, where he thought of starting a business there. He had been trying to establish him against all odds. ?In 2005, he married Kamala, a village girl who read up to class XI and was entrepreneurial-minded. Both Bubul and Kamala rededicated together to a new journey of life. They had been struggling with hardship. Their first two children, both sons, could not survive. Kamala narrates that they could not afford to provide food and medicine to their children to save their lives. Incidentally, they were test-tube babies. ??????

???????????? Their entrepreneurial journey took off thereafter. In their village and nearby areas, mustard was produced. Bubul started buying raw mustard, just 40 to 50 kgs at a time, and took the stuff after drying it to the village oil mill for crushing and extraction of oil and oil cakes. He started carrying the pure mustard oil and cakes from door to door in the locality to sell. The couple started earning a bit. Their third child, a girl, was born in 2012; she got promoted to class X a few days ago. The couple are now parents of a daughter and a son. The son is eight years old and reads in class II.

???????????? In the village Khatar Kalakuchi, the villagers created a fund, a small corpus, through savings of the villagers; the fund so created is loaned among the villagers who contribute to the fund. Bubul, during his days in Guwahati, used to contribute small amounts to this fund.? In 2017, Bubul took out a loan of Rs. 10,000 from this corpus. He purchased an old mini mustard oil extraction machine and a DG set with this capital. He started buying mustard from the villagers in larger quantities, processing it, and selling the products oil and the oil cake immediately visiting house to house and the local grocery shops. An entrepreneur born out of a school dropout, a journey took off in a remote village. With the couple's enduring commitments and entrepreneurial zeal, they gained goodwill, and people started appreciating the products, their prices, and timely delivery. With the incremental income, he set off to produce more, buying mustard in bulk; his mother, now seventy-five years old, stood by them, guarding them so the couple could walk steadfastly.

????????? In 2020, they shifted their production unit from the thatched house in the village where there was no electricity to Kumarikata, the nearby small town, on a rented premise. They own two sets of new oil expellers now and employ five more persons, but both continue to do hard work passionately. They procure bottles in bulk from Barpeta, Assam, 46 km from Kumarikata. Pushpam is a famous mustard oil brand now. I was with them for a couple of hours at their factory. I could see grocery shop owners coming to the factory to buy their products in bulk. Kamala reports to me with pride and satisfaction that their net monthly profits are not less than seventy thousand rupees. Bubul said that Pushpam oil is now sold in Nalbari and Barpeta towns, and he fortnightly visits IGNOU and Assam Government Press, Guwahati, where Pushpam Mustard Oil has a great reputation, and most of the employees use his brand.? Bubul tells me, I have a Maruti 800 car, I carry mustard oil in this car and drive myself. Our marketing has been expanding every day, we need to scale it but for capital.

?????????? As a part of my mentorship assignment offered by the IIM, Calcutta, Kolkata for their North East Project, I visited them on April 24, 2024. I have been mentoring eleven startups and rural enterprises in the districts of Nalbari and Baksa. All these carry their incredible stories in silence. As seen in a photograph here, I am fortunate to be with five amazing women entrepreneurs, including Kamala; they constantly inspire me to live with hope. Bubul is constructing his pucca house, which is uncommon in Khatar Kalakuchi. We all ate together on the day with Bubul and Kamala; fish, chicken, curd and sweets were all on the menu, cooked in Pushpam oil with unbridled affection; this defines my Assam. Bubul’s mother insisted I stay a night with them, while his son wished me to take a round in the village in the evening. ??????