Looking at the title of this post I am sure you must be wondering, what is this woman talking about? Does she even know what recession is? Guess she must not be working at that time, otherwise, she would have known what Recession really is.
Well, FYI I am well-aware of what it is also how it had a significant impact on our life because I have had a firsthand experience with it. I clearly remember how the dark cloud of Recession had covered the human race, shattering many lives in its course in addition to bringing along with it depression, frustration, lost of hope, heartaches and much more.
To be more specific I even looked through the dictionary to know what recession meant – “A period of temporary economic decline during which trade and industrial activity are reduced, a widespread decline in the gross domestic product (GDP) and employment and trade lasting from six months to a year.” That means a fall in economic activity or prosperity is associated with lower levels of production and employment.
I still feel the pain I felt when one by one all my colleagues, my team members with whom I had spent 3 years, who had become like a family to me, were given the letter of termination. Reason – Recession. Every day when we went to work, there was this dreadful question seeping through our mind – whose turn will it be today? Is it going to be me? And we were all hoping against hope that we would find a way out. However as Months passed by, things started getting from bad to worse, then our hope melted away. What's more in front of our eyes a tight-knit company of 100+ employee was reduced to merely group of 5, by God’s grace we two were among the survivors.
Now, imagine the state of those who are going to be married, and are either jobless or their salary deducted. We were in that boat – going to be married as well as salary 50-60% held back. Things didn’t seem good for us and the worst was yet to come. Since, ours was “Love – Marriage” we both had decided that we will do our marriage with our own money, won’t take a penny from our parents; moreover, we wanted to buy a house too. Hmm Great! Now this was easier said than done, and some of you might even say “ Wake up kid, this is no time for being modest and all, put your pride aside, be practical – you have to start a new life ahead, besides with no bank balance and no stability how are you nearly going to do this.”
Since, we were both working in the same company the risk was high, then my husband Sushant decided to start looking out for a new job. At this point companies were getting stable, but the recession was not yet over, and vacancies were less while the rate of unemployment was high. But we would have to sacrifice something, and that is, remember I told you our salary was held back. Well it was done so with an assurance that we will get it back once the recession was over and the company’s economic condition comes back to normal. Now there is a catch, you get your money back only if you Stay. So if we leave on our own terms, we will not get our withheld money, which was being deducted over 9-10 months now. But you might say “So why not rather stay here, at least you have a job besides the condition outside is anyway bad.”The problem was1) I was tired of working also I didn’t want to work after marriage,2) My husband's salary alone wouldn’t suffice – for we were planning to buy a house too, 3) we were not sure about the time period the company would take to be stable again.
So weighing all the pros and cons we started a job hunt along with a house hunt . At that time, Sushant lived in Dadar, but buying a house in the suburbs of Mumbai was merely impossible even in time of Recession. So we thought of looking out where I lived, Vasai. However we met with disappointment even here. Our budget was around 20 Lac, and even 1 BHK was costing us nearly 30 Lac. Whoa! Now that’s a huge sum and we just couldn’t afford it. Also there was this question at the back of our mind how will Sushant do the travelling, he was not used to having a journey either standing, squeezed getting massaged everyday nor he liked hanging on the door. He simply couldn’t live with the idea of travelling in a Virar local. Since so far he’s always had a hassle free travelling, as he would be travelling opposite the crowd. Also he had an option of commuting by bus too. Aha! So now we were in a tight fix.
Marriage is just round the corner, no job security, and buying a house is just beyond our reach.
So why am I calling Recession to be a blessing?
Because I know a Table Turner...His Name is Jesus....
"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat, or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!" ( Luke 12:22-24)
During this dark phase, we got time to re-evaluate our lives and make better judgement and decisions concerning our destinies. Sushant had been working in that company for 6 years. In addition to it work had become monotonous, there were no more new challenges, no excitement, he had lost his passion and he never realized this before. And even when he was told he dismissed the idea because he didn’t want to leave his comfort zone and start fresh. Anyway recession changed everything. For you see, God knows how to turn tables around... He turned our fear to
faith and our sadness to joy.
Do you want to know how God Turned the Tables for us!
“God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” Hebrews 11:40
1)One phone call changed our life.
Sushant had tried at two places so far , walk-in-interview but at both the places there came an issue of either low salary package or work on contract basis. And somewhere he was not having peace with those jobs, his heart was not agreeing to it. Then one fine day Sushant got a call from a placement agency that they have found his résumé online and there is a job in Pune in Tata Steels. Now let me tell you that Sushant had not placed his updated resume on any of the job sites and the résumé that they found was 4 years old. So though amazed to hear this, somewhere in his heart he felt that this has to be from God and since he was anyway looking for a job, besides, we all know that Tata is known for its name and stability, he thought why not give it a shot. Before this he had never been to Pune also this was the 1st time he was going somewhere outside Mumbai. We prayed. As much as we were happy we also were scared. New place, new surrounding, far away from our family how will we survive etc. But amidst the fear there was a ray of hope and happiness. And we knew in our heart that this has to be from God, for there was peace.
“The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.” Nahum 1:7
He got selected with a fairly decent hike in his package. Later when he had joined work his boss told him twice, that he is the only person so far for whom all the three Seniors who took his interview were impressed and were in agreement for him. Furthermore, he is the 1st executive – checker that the company had hired from outside. Now, Sushant always had a desire to work as a programmer, and God fulfilled that too, within 1-1/2 year of working as a checker, he got transferred to Software department.
2) We tied knots..
But now we had to hurry our dates for marriage as there was only a months time left for him to join in. But God took care of it all. We had limited resources, with mine and his savings together we had approximately 50k. What! Marriage in 50k, in this era, it’s literally impossible? But Is it? Not for my God.
"I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:27".
By God’s grace, in that money, we had not only our church marriage done but also a very good reception, inclusive our different bridal wears for each function, decorations, food etc. Also at that time God granted us favor, and softened the heart of our boss, and he gave us back all our money, every single penny that was held back during the time of Recession. Can you believe that, we were the only two who got their money back even though we left work. Also Sushant got his gratuity amount too
.
3) Roof over our head
“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.”Philippians 2:13
Since we were shifting to Pune, and both of us were new to that place we decided to go for a rental house first, so that we get time to explore plus save money too before buying our own house. Now this was a real task, since we didn’t know anybody in Pune, we were totally dependent on the mercy of the estate agents. Already we were tight on budget and these horrible agents were asking us for 2 months rent as their fee. We saw a couple of flats however nothing seemed to work for us – if the flat was good then the rent was high and if want to look out for low rental places, they were either far from Sushant’s office or were in a bad state. With just a month’s time on our hands and marriage on our head we just didn’t know what to do.We were really exhausted. Time was slipping, by the way we had already come here 3 to 4 times now, and every time we met with disappointment. By now we had taken our wedding vows and were done with our honeymoon, but we were still without a house. And when all doors were closed Voila! Just 3 days before we had to move to Pune God blessed us with a nice and spacious 1 BHK flat on a low rent and to add to it guess what No Brokerage fee. Also, this place was hardly 10 mins away from his workplace. Isn’t my God good. Now we all know that starting a new house is not easy, there is loads of work involved, lots of things to be taken care of. Also we were obviously totally naïve at that time. But we didn’t have to worry about that either, God helped us set our house too. How? Sushant’s parents have two houses, so they asked us to take the entire kitchen stuff including gas cylinder since it was extra, and my parents helped us with the other accessories needed in the house – cupboards and bed etc. So in just a day before joining, our house was all set.
4) God made a Way
Now Shifting is not easy and when it comes to transferring entire household from Vasai –Dadar– Pune, it becomes all the more tedious, and this was going to cost us a bomb. But hey no worries since my God had made a provision for this too – Sushant’s new company was going to pay for the relocation. Plus he also got the benefits of 1) money for buying a new phone 2) Phone bill is paid by the company 3) Petrol money – yes you heard right, today when petrol price is rising, he does not have to worry since his company takes care of it. In addition to this, for the initial 1st week he got a company car to pick and drop. That really eased us, in addition it gave us time to familiarize ourselves to our new place. Later on Sushant used to go by the company bus. Now all said and done, commuting in Pune is Bad, for you will be spending half of your monthly income in rickshaw fare. And as far as the government buses are concerned neither there is proper bus stops nor good bus frequency. So initially for some time he had to face real hardship coming home, if he were to wait back and as a result miss the company bus. But my God knows our needs and almost after 6 months God put in the hearts of my in-laws to give their car to us, instead of giving it to their elder son. The car was his father's gift for their anniversary, and since there was parking problem and my in-laws wouldn’t drive, so consequently the car came to us.
5) A God sized Dream:
After getting settled in our new life, a few months later we started house-hunt. Now since we were low on fund, we had decided to take a home loan. But you don’t get a 100% loan, You have to give in 20 % of your own and the remaining 80% the bank gives. So with Sushant’s salary package we will have to give at least 3 Lac as down-payment. Now where do we get so much cash from. Therefore, we decided to chuck the plan, we thought that first we will save and collect the down payment amount, then look out for the House. Now Imagine if we had done it like that , we would have collected the money by now but would have been still without a flat, Why? Because though Recession would be over, inflation rate’s are always high. So we would be back to square.
But remember what the Bible says in Isiah 55-8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the LORD. "And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.”
How did God provide money from the fish’s mouth: the down-payment amount
1) We had saved the money that our boss had paid us back – the withheld amount
2) Provident fund
3) God softened his parent's heart and they blessed us with the balance amount that we were short of.
And so, finally after months of hunting, God took us to the right place and we booked a house, and guess what our budget was permitting us to buy only 1 BHK but because of Recession God blessed us with a 2 BHK terrace flat. Yippee! We had booked it at ground level of the construction phase. By the way, this year January we have moved to our home. It’s a beautiful house. What’s more you don’t feel the summer here. How much ever be the heat outside it's always cool inside. Not just that God also saw to it that we get a nice open view as well as see the beautiful sunset from our 7th floor terrace.
At that time I had an obsession with No. 9 ( not with respect to numerology or anything just that mine and Sushant’s birth dates add to 9) and so I was keen on getting a house whose digits add to 9. But because there were no flats remaining we had to book this one. And thank God , because the flat with no. 9 was garden facing, besides what garden view will we be looking from the 7th floor. Not only that, after a year of our booking, there came up another construction in the neighboring plot, that too a tower. My heart sank, with this building all we would be able to see is our neighbor's room. No privacy, now what, we are stuck. But God took care of it too. None of the building comes in front of our house and we will be getting to see their garden instead. Hooray!
6) God moved the mighty waters:
Now before we move to our new house, we had a long list of things to buy and in the priority was a modular kitchen and a 40” LED TV. In addition to this we had to pay 3 yrs maintenance in advance which came to around 80 grand, also we had decided that we would pay back 3 months EMI in advance so that our interest rate decreases plus our tenure goes down. Now with our savings over the year we would have to chuck either LED or Modular. I was very upset as I didn’t want to let go of either one of them. Because for almost a year we had our eyes set on the price radar for LED TV also it was my dream to see that on my wall and I couldn’t live with the idea of bringing our old TV, which had already gone for repair twice and now was in such a horrible condition that its color had reversed, so the grass was seen red and apple was seen yellow. Also, I had to have a modular, because I had an open sort of kitchen and the builder had provided us only a granite kaddapa. So I didn’t have a place to store my kitchen appliances and if kept in open, Trisha would perform an open-heart surgery on them.
a) Is there a problem too big for God?
Along with that we had to face another problem. The builder wrongly charged us with Late fees, which was 2 Lac saying that we didn’t make the payment on time. Now we had taken loan from LIC Housing and as per their rules they issue money only after they see that the stage mentioned by the builder has reached its completion. At that time, the builder happened to have some government issues due to which there was a delay in completion of the project by almost 8-9 months. Now when we 1st came to know about this, Sushant had had a telephonic conversation with them, where when Sushant informed them that due to their delay in submitting the papers to the bank, our loan period expired and we had to again apply for a loan, they had asked us to ignore the Late fees. And so we had left the matter to it. But then when the time of possession neared, the Late fees issue again re-surfaced. We were very anxious, but didn’t let our faith waver. We decided to hold on to our side along with that prayed that Lord if it’s not our fault please waive the Late fee. Finally after 3 months of arguments the amount came to 20k from 2 Lac. We were happy but not yet content, as we still didn’t find it justified, as in why should we pay even that much when we are not at fault. And then there were only 2 weeks remaining in our possession, moreover everyone who heard this asked us to pay off 20k as it’s not a big sum, and not to take “Panga” with the builder. And we told them this is not about small or big amount, this is about justice, and we are not going to pay any amount that is charged unfairly at us. We will fight.
The Lord answered, "If you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, 'May you be uprooted and thrown into the sea,' and it would obey you! Luke 17:6
Now Christmas was just round the corner and I cried that “Lord You are bigger than this builder, Bigger than all my problems, bigger than any mountains that I can or cannot see. And Lord, I want to enjoy the Birth of my Savior with gladness and joy.”
b) I entered my promised Land:
Then 3 days before Christmas with faith and God’s strength we went to meet the builder personally at his Pune office. We went with full preparation with the list having the dates and amount of each and every disbursement asked by the builder and paid by the LIC. In that only once from our side there was a delay and we were ready to pay for the due penalty. However when we reached, to our dismay the builder was not there. So we had to meet another person in charge, and we had a heated argument with him, when we confront him with the facts we were so pissed off because he said that since the company from whom the builder took the loan has charged him late penalty due to the delay in work, this amount will obviously be obtained from us. Finally he said, he is not in a position to take any action in this matter and asked us to come some other day when the builder is available. But we had already decided that no matter what we will not leave without having this matter resolved once and for all. Then when he saw our adamancy, he went and spoke to another person who had the authority to take decision in place of the builder. Sushant was asked to wait outside, but somehow God asked him to go straight inside and speak directly to that man. And when he did put forth our case, God granted favor and he waived the amount to 6000.When Sushant came and told me this, I could not control the tears flowing through my cheek, because I was very worried in view of the fact that Sushant was all alone and how would he stand up to 3 people against him. But theBible says in Psalms 121
“I lift up my eyes to the mountains—where does my help come from?My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.”
God gifted us our Abode as a New Year Gift. We acquired the possession of our flat on 31st Dec 2011. And as for my other needs, he heard my prayer and fulfilled them too. We got enough fund to take care of all our needs. We had a hard time finding a reliable and genuine kitchen maker, for the reason that Pune is filled with thugs, and all of them were quoting an exorbitant price. At this point my Modular kitchen seemed to be only a dream. But finally God brought us to a right person. Today I have my modular kitchen, my 40” LED TV, other accessories like Dining Table and Deewan, my home loan tenure is reduced to 16 ½ yrs from 20 yrs and also I don’t have to worry about paying maintenance for the next 3 yrs.
God's Abundant Provision.
“ And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others” 2 Corinthians 9:8
God did not stop at this, because when God blesses, he blesses in abundance.
1)After completing the probationary period of 6 months, Sushant became a permanent employee just a month before the Annual Salary Appraisal, due to which he was entitled for the annual increment. If he would have joined even a month later, he would have missed it, and would have had to wait for a whole 1 ½ year for his next annual appraisal. In addition to that he also got a Bonus, which as per the company’s rule one is eligible only if he completes a year. By the way, the company that very year had doubled the bonus limit. What a perfect timing God has, Truly God’s plans are way too high from ours. Also let me tell you, that year his company had given the highest percent of increment since the time it was established.
2)Then again 6 months later, there was a change in the company’s policy, wherein, they decided to give out extra bonus, and so he received another 15% increment. This was nearly 3 months after God blessed us with a baby girl.
3)Now it still does not stop here, again 6 months later, the time came for another Annual appraisal where he received another good raise plus a huge amount of Bonus.
4)Then again 6 months later all the heads of engineering department of various branches all over India had listed down the names of their team members which that thought were eligible for the raise. Now this was done in order to bring their salary on a level with others. But the management didn’t find all of them worthy and they again shortlisted it and only two people from Pune branch got raises and one of which was Sushant. So in 2 yrs span Sushant was blessed with 4 increments and 2 bonuses.
5)And now last but not the least again after 6 months it’s time for his 5th increment and 3rd bonus. We are now waiting expectantly for his Promotion. And am sure God will bless him too in his perfect timings.
Does God have something new in store for us? I am totally convinced that the answer is “yes!”And, to whatever God is calling us, God will make a way for us to accomplish that task.
What will God do next?
