He taught MBA students before lockdown, now runs general store

  • | Friday | 26th March, 2021

Greater Noida: Alok Mohan’s MBA degree and years of teaching experience didn’t quite prepare him for his new job. But Kumar isn’t one to complain, diligently manning the counter of his general store, where he now sells groceries to earn a livelihood. The lockdown, which came into effect on March 25 last year, altered drastically the course of many lives. Kumar’s was one such. But he has remained pragmatic. “Over the past few months, I saw myself unlearning a lot.

Greater Noida: Alok Mohan’s MBA degree and years of teaching experience didn’t quite prepare him for his new job. But Kumar isn’t one to complain, diligently manning the counter of his general store, where he now sells groceries to earn a livelihood. The lockdown, which came into effect on March 25 last year, altered drastically the course of many lives. Kumar’s was one such. But he has remained pragmatic. “Over the past few months, I saw myself unlearning a lot.

That whatever we teach students in theory is not what actually plays out on the ground,” says Mohan (40), who was coasting along in life when the pandemic struck. Mohan was head of the department for integrated MBA at Greater Noida Institute of Technology (GNIOT). After the lockdown came into effect, Mohan says his earnings took a big hit as the salary dried up. The EMIs didn’t, nor did the fee for his daughter’s education. Mohan quit, and hoping to cash in on his business background, started what he could with his own resources. He started the store at Bougainvillea Shopping Centre on June 16 last year.

“For years, I taught my students how to prepare a customer base. But it was only when I started a business that I found everything was actually cost-oriented. Here, the customer is only concerned with the price of an item,” says Mohan, who has also studied LLB and cyber law. “A friend of mine, who is a scholar-turned-chemist, suggested it was a good idea to put to use entrepreneurship lessons that I had been teaching at college,” he adds. But setting up a business — that too when everything around was either shutting down or getting downsized — was easier said than done. Funds were an issue. But support from his family and friends saw him through.

“I had to quit my college in July 2020 as it had become difficult to meet expenses without a salary. My friends and relatives helped me raise Rs 6 lakh. That is how I started my general store here,” he says. Not just grocery items, Mohan started stocking vegetables, fruits and milk too.

There were initial hiccups and mental breakdowns, but Mohan says his wife Nitu, a former copywriter with a news channel, stood beside him like a rock. “This would not have been possible without her support. She wanted to work, but I insisted she stay at home because we have a six-year-old child to take care of. It was during those days that I realised one should be mentally prepared for anything. When you enter a field, backing out is difficult,” Mohan says.

He would, however, like to return to his teaching job in a year or two. “I will definitely go back to my previous job, but after some time. I have thought of appointing a manager here. That will only be when my business is a little more established,” he adds.

For Nitu, Mohan is still a “professor”, rather than a businessman. “We were not the only ones who faced hardships during the lockdown. But our case was rather different because we were totally dependent on the salary he got from the college. Neither of us knew anything about running a business. We did not have any experience. In fact, no one in the family does. But we didn`t have an option,” she says. Savita Mohan, director of the integrated MBA course at GNIOT, says the college was making part-payments to its employees. "Salaries were delayed by three months during the lockdown, but they were never stopped. We are clearing all the arrears slowly,” she adds.


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