Modern Story of Siddhartha

This is the story of modern Siddhartha - Late Shri V. G. Siddhartha – the man who owned Asia's single-largest coffee estate, the man who built India's largest Coffee chain Cafe Coffee Day, who ran a company which was the biggest exporter of green coffee in the nation.  He has been hailed as one of the most successful entrepreneurs of his generation in our country.

V. G. Siddhartha

He dreamed big, since childhood, he wanted to become 'super rich'. And he did succeed. He was conditioned for hard-work and success;and his business acumen took him to new heights. As far as outside appearances went, his life was enviable in the eyes of most Indian youngsters who share his aspirations of acquiring respect through great wealth.

But his end, his unexpected suicide, has shocked and saddened the entire country to the core. How does one explain what lead a successful billionaire to such a tragic end?

Few facts about his entrepreneurship acumen and his success story:

V. G. Siddhartha established a successful coffee business in Karnataka. He grew coffee in Chikmagalur, exported about 28,000 tonnes of coffee annually and sold another 2,000 tonnes locally for about Rs 350 million each year.

His coffee growing and trading company, Amalgamated Bean Company (ABC), has an annual turnover of Rs 25 billion. Siddhartha had 200 exclusive retail outlets selling his brand of Coffee Day powder all over South India.

ABC is also India's largest exporter of green coffee.

With his 12,000 acres of coffee plantations as foundation, he bought an ailing coffee curing unit in Hassan for Rs 40 million and turned it around, building it into a company which has a curing capacity of 75,000 tonnes - the largest in the country.

He was the first entrepreneur in Karnataka to set up a café in 1996 - Café Coffee Day, popularly known as CCD - a chain of "youth hangout" coffee parlors.

Today, there are over 1550 CCD Cafes in India, across 209 town/cities, attracting at least 40,000 to 50,000 visitors a week. CCD has become India's largest and premier retail chain of cafes.

Now, here are some more facts:

This man was suffering from unbearable emotional and psychological issues.

This man did not get the help he needed, and was in so much pain that embracing death seemed to be his only resort. Indeed, like most men in our society, seeking help was more deplorable than taking his own life.

This man who had all the possible resources available to him, could not bear to face failure and financial losses. 

Financial troubles and constant harassment from Lenders/Income Tax department were triggers enough for this man to succumb to suicidal thoughts.

In a letter purportedly written by Siddhartha to the directors of Coffee Day Enterprises, a company he founded, he 'apologised' for letting down people and cited pressure from private equity investors and harassment by tax authorities.

                                                 V. G. Siddhartha's fateful last letter

Different explanations of his suicide are being given by various people. Some are calling it the failure of political/economic system who could not save a brilliant businessman from perils of money-lending and harassment of Income Tax Department. This 'tax terrorism' is indeed deemed as a new peril for Indian entrepreneurs.

Then there are Industry leaders who feel that post demonetisation and GST there has been a huge impact on businesses, especially small enterprises. They think that government needs to engage with businesses and look at how they need to tackle India Inc.’s fiscal health.

Ananya Srivastava from firstpost.com opines that Siddhartha was one of the 'leaders who fell prey to high-pressure job'. Shrija Agrawal from livemint.com writes that his death exposes the dark side of entrepreneurship, ending her op-ed saying, ‘entrepreneurship while highly rewarding is not for everyone…’ 

Indeed suicide is almost always a multi-faceted issue with many factors which need to be looked at, but when will we, as a country, begin to talk seriously about men's mental health? How many more innocent lives are to be lost before this becomes a topic of public discourse? 

According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB 2015), 133,623 suicides in India were reported, of which 91,528 (68%) were by men. This means almost 70% of all suicides deaths in India were of male.

In fact this trend is a global one, in most countries, men are 3 times more likely to die by suicide than women. 
Moreover, this pattern goes back a long way. For as long as psychologists have been recording it, they have seen this gender disparity.

Why are these statistics not staggering enough for us to take note? 

The NCRB data classifies reasons for suicides as family issues, debt, unemployment, etc, but it fails to identify the structural drivers which lead men to take such a drastic step. 

Across cultures, all societies have encouraged men to be 'strong' and definition of strong is 'not to admit' that they’re struggling.

We mindlessly tell our sons, 'boys don't cry'. We condition boys from a very young age to not express emotion, because to express emotion is to be 'weak'. This gender bias has to change. 

                Boys Don't Cry - unrealistic and biased standards like these need to change 

It is time to ask questions such as what can be done to help men suffering from mental health issues; how do we create platforms where men can seek help without feeling ashamed.

This modern day Siddhartha needs to know that it is okay to fail, that there is nothing unmanly in asking for emotional help, that it is not weakness to cry or to share one's feelings. Mental Health, especially among men is an issue which needs to be addressed in all public debates and discussions. 

This modern day Siddhartha needs support and understanding in his journey to success and failure.

More awareness needs to be created, we need to save our sons, our brothers, our fathers, our friends, our colleagues - who have long been suffering in silence.