Fear Over The City

As the bourse reels, there has been a spate of suicides as well as a spike in the sale of anti-depressants, reports SHANTANU GUHA RAY

Illustration: SUDEEP CHAUDHURI

RAKESH MARIA, Mumbai’s top cop, does not call it a distress signal — yet. But he is quick to admit that if the trend continues, the city’s police force will soon have to open a special cell right outside the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), in collaboration with a NGO. The Mumbai Police Commissioner’s comments came soon after his office got to know about the suicide of a city broker after he lost Rs 75 lakh on the stockmarket. He was the fourth victim in India’s financial capital, reeling under the impact of volatility on Dalal Street.

In Delhi, MBA students resorted to kidnapping after losing money on the stock exchange. “The Delhi example should be a wake-up call for all those tracking the markets,” Maria told TEHELKA. He personally has been distraught on hearing the pathetic tale of stock speculator K Upender, who suffered steep losses: he killed himself, his wife and his two-year-old son. “The way he lit the oven and filled the entire house with gas before lighting a match was gruesome. It also reflects the state of his troubled mind.”

Maria says there has been a spurt in crimes related to investors suffering heavy losses due to the financial downturn. He says it was bound to happen. The benchmark Sensex has crashed over 55 percent from its all-time high in January 2008: total investor wealth, measured in terms of market capitalisation of all the 30 Sensex companies together, dipped from Rs 73,00,000 crore on January 10 to Rs 13, 42,742 on November 21.

As the market crisis shows no signs of easing, with job cuts, lay-offs and pay cuts looming high, sales of anti-depressants have shown a record high. “More and more people, especially stockbrokers, are resorting to anti-depressants. All my friends in the city have it,” says Hemen Kapadia, one of the city’s top brokers and CEO, ChartPundit.Com. He has been calling — as a matter of routine — nearly 50 of his friends and keeping a tab on them. “I talk to them on a daily basis and discuss almost anything under the sun. I call it steaming out. I need it, they need it, we all need it to get out of this big depression.”

Another broker, who did not wish to be named, offered the example of a person who has just retired and invested half his savings in the stockmarket. “The father of a friend of mine picked up Rs 25 lakh as his retirement fund and — at the instance of his son — invested nearly half of it in the market. He picked up 300 shares of JSW Steel at Rs 1,050 each, 600 shares of DLF at Rs 900 each, 300 shares of SAIL at Rs 202 each, 300 Reliance Capital at Rs 1,500 each, 300 Reliance Infrastructure at Rs 1,100 each and 250 shares of HDIL at Rs 1,000 each. He stands nowhere today. In fact, he has become such a popular man today that his story is being quoted across the city.”

Chemists across Mumbai agree sales of anti-anxiety and anti-depression drugs have gone up in the last few months. They corroborate their claims through a study by ORG-IMS, the pharmacy market research wing of the country’s largest research agency, that said India’s intake for anti-depressant drugs in the last 12 months has been at an alltime high in Maharashtra and Gujarat, two states known for their large brokering communities. While Maharashtra recorded the highest growth of 29 percent in sales of drugs used to treat depression and stimulate moods; Gujarat, a state with the highest retail investors in India, witnessed a 10 percent growth in sales of such drugs.

The survey said Mumbai topped the list of cities with the highest sales of antidepression drugs with Rs 26 crore, closely followed by Kolkata with sales of Rs 24 crore and Delhi at Rs 22 crore. The total amount spent on this genre of drugs by Indians crossed a whopping Rs 470 crore, an all-time high. Earlier, the figure stood at Rs 330 crore.

And the suicides are not just happening in Mumbai. Rajendra Gupta, a Haryana businessman from Helimandi hanged himself on November 16, because he had lost over Rs 80 lakh in shares. Gurgaon-based Vikram Bhadwal jumped off his 11th floor apartment’s bathroom window on October 18, shattered after US chain Macy’s rejected his export consignment.

Top HR consultants admit a high sense of fear and anxiety prevailing among executives. “See the trend. All of a sudden, jobs are being cut in hundreds across sectors that were never expected in India. In fact, India never bothered about the US meltdown. But slowly, the impact is being felt all over. It’s a depressing trend,” says Anu Sharma of the Bangalore-based HR People. Tejinder Pal Singh, partner, International Life Science, says simply: “Job losses have coupled with financial losses. Fear is uppermost in the minds of executives and brokers.”

Some members of the Mumbai Police, along with senior brokers at the BSE, it is reliably learnt, have advised people not to live in isolation and plan better ways to deal with the crisis. “I would say it would be wrong to claim that only brokers are picking up such drugs. All those who live in the fear of losing their jobs are also in the queue. It is actually very, very depressing,” says veteran BSE broker Ramesh Damani.

DAMANI FINDS instant support from Max Healthcare’s chief psychiatrist, Samir Parikh, who feels there is an increasing sense of loneliness and helplessness among both investors and employees across the country, something that is even percolating to all family members. “Nothing is happening to make them feel that the clouds will drift away,” points out Parikh, citing the example of Mumbai’s Parag Tanna who would have been a father in a few days but ended his life following losses suffered because of the market meltdown. “That he hanged himself after murdering his wife reflects his totally distraught mindset.”

Parikh said he was worried about those who worked in the financial sector. “I wonder how they lead their lives. Every day at the office must be an ordeal for them. Many, I would assume, would naturally take anti-depressants.”

Many admit it’s a worrisome trend. In fact, both nationalised and private banks have asked their loan agents to go slow on recoveries. “We do not want to aggravate the situation by triggering more deaths. We are actually, going slow on all of them,” said a top official of a private bank, requesting anonymity.

It’s a pea soup fog that lies over the economic horizon, and unfortunately, there seems no lift for the present.