Namita was working at a company in Bhubaneswar. She was earning around ₹15,000 a month, and life felt somewhat stable. But suddenly, things started changing. The company’s sales went down, work got paused and the founders stopped paying salaries to the employees. Slowly, they stopped coming to the office too, and it felt like they had stopped caring about what was happening.
Back then, she was staying in a girls’ PG, with a hall room separated by curtains. The bathroom was bad, the kitchen was bad, but she had no budget to afford a better place. Because of the salary issues at the company, she had already missed paying two months of rent. She had no savings, no backup money and barely enough for food and transportation.
That was all she had. With zero financial knowledge and poor money management, things only became harder. Eventually, the PG owner asked her to leave, basically kicking her out. Namita tried convincing her the previous night, but she did not listen.
She still remembers that day clearly. The next morning, she was standing outside the PG gate with all her luggage. It was not even 7:00 AM. She had no money, no support, and no idea what to do next. She could not tell her family about what had happened.
She remembers how strange that morning felt. Bhubaneswar was just beginning to wake up, people leaving for work, tea stalls opening, traffic slowly building, yet she stood outside the PG gate with nowhere to go.
More than fear, it was the silence that stayed with her. She kept thinking about what to say if someone asked where she was going with all her luggage. For the first time, the city that once felt full of opportunities suddenly felt unfamiliar and distant.
After that, Namita returned home. She told her family about the issues at the company, but never spoke about what had happened at the PG. Looking back, she feels one of the founders sent her one month’s salary only after hearing that she had been asked to leave, otherwise, she believes that money would have never come.
By then, she was already in debt. She had taken personal loans from loan apps just to manage things. She never paid the PG owner back, but with the money she received, she managed to clear all her loan debts from that period.
After months of struggle and uncertainty, things slowly started changing. After waiting for six long months, Namita finally received an offer letter from a Media house. It was a phase of life she knows she will never forget.
In the months that followed, something inside her changed. She became more careful with money, more aware of how quickly stability can disappear, especially in a city where survival often depends on what is in your bank account.
Even today, when life feels stable again, she sometimes remembers that morning outside the PG gate and reminds herself how close she once came to having nothing at all.
Note:
The story above is based on real-life experiences. Certain details and identities have been changed to protect privacy.
