From losing his job to starting his own business: How COVID-19 lockdown changed Koparkairane resident Sagar Kelkar's life

After losing his job and getting infected with COVID-19 virus, Sagar Vijay Kelkar, 40, a resident of Koparkairane fought back and re-established himself by setting up his own business. Now, he starts his day at 8 am and remains busy with his clients till late evening. However, it was not easy for him as the lockdown imposed on March 24, 2020, changed his life completely.

Kelkar, who was in the sales team with a company providing construction materials lost his jobs soon after the first three weeks of lockdown ended. The company with overseas business had not received payment since January 2020 due to COVID-19 situation world over. Unable to pay the salary, the company decided to lay off many of its employees and Kelkar was one of them.

“I was not going to office since March 14 due to COVID-19 fear and by mid-April, I was jobless as the company was troubled financially due to COVID-19,” recalls Kelkar. As he has an 11-year-old son and his parents are old, he avoided going out during the lockdown.

By August 2020, he decided to start his own business, and for which he travelled to Pune a couple of times. He was about to start his business when he was tested positive for COVID-19. Other members of his family were also infected. “There was a complete fear especially after I tested positive. It was a very traumatic phase of my life,” says Kelkar, adding that many of the people the family knew died due to COVID-19 and this had added to their fears.

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They recovered from COVID 19. But sitting at home was not a solution as there was a need of money to run the family. “By end of November, I decided to start the business and started going out of the home,” said Kelkar. He added that by first week of January, he finally set up the business of construction materials. “I got the first order in February and now, I have a good number of clients,” said Kelkar. He added that there was a time when he hardly got a call. Now, the situation has changed. “My mobile starts ringing in the morning and I am on call with clients till late evening,” added Kelkar.