How to be an Arabpati in Nepal?
 |
| Photo credit: Siarhei Nester (Left); Pavel Danilyuk (Right) |
Today, I will be writing about how to be an Arabpati (billionaire) in Nepal. A special request from our friend, Mr S.
We have all heard about Upendra Mahato, Ajay
Sumargi, the Marwari and Newar Business Houses and many other byaparis like Min
B. Gurung, the Dhakal brothers, and many more. And there are a lot of school,
hospital, and hotel wallahs who have become billionaires in this beautiful land
of ours.
First let's begin with the homegrown Arabpatis. You have to come from an old business house. If we look at the story of many of
the traditional Newari families, then the Shakya, Tuladhars and the same Ason
clans were trading in Tibet hundreds of years ago. And today, their descendants
are Jyoti Group and many Hotel wallahs owned by Shakyas and other Newars.
So, the best option to be an Arabpati in this
land is to get involved with the trading businesses. You buy Re 1 lighter from
China, probably 10 to 20 million pieces and then sell it to a reseller here for
Re 2 , he will sell it to the retailers for Rs 5 and the retailer can sell it
for Rs 10 to the final guy buying the nicotine stick or the religious
person. Yes, not all lighter buyers are smokers. The religious ones need
it to light the dhoop to please the God!
So, my advise would be to ask the Chinese
company to place a Nepali Flag on the lighter as well. This will probably add
some value and your product might sell like hot cakes here in Nepal. You can
also get distributorship for foreign brands and then be the agency to handle
their products here in Nepal.
After all, most of the businesses here in our
land are commission or dalali businesses. The word dalal sounds very bad but it
is what it is. The world revolves around commission from selling machine guns
to the Nepal Army or selling COVID-19 vaccines to our incompetent government.
And we have the Marwarai families like
Chaudhary, Khetan, Golcha and other Agarwals. All these byaparis started with
trading and now are into manufacturing and a whole lot. They have 'byapar' in
their blood and to be a successful byapari, I would suggest one to work or be a
partner with a Marwari to learn the tips and tricks to be a successful byapari!
Bhatbhateni does mint money because most of
the stuff they sell is on credit from the vendors. Bhatbhateni is more like a
McDonald's business now. And even the school and hospital and hotel wallahs are
actually worth more because of the land than their actual business.
Majority of the schools, hospitals and hotel
wallahs purchased the land ten, twenty, thirty years ago when it was like less
than Rs 50,000 per anna. For example, take the LA school model. They probably
have hundreds of ropanis of land now and the appreciation of the land must now
be like 30,000% hola. The land itself is worth billions of Rupees.
These are all hard work businesses. Nobody
though Bhatbhateni would be this big. The school wallahs did not expect their
school to do good and be able to afford to hundreds of ropanis of land today.
If you work hard and you know, luck also helps but you can be a billionaire in
this land if you have a vision and stick to it hola.
And now let us talk about how to be Arapbati
by illegal, shortcut or other methods in this land! First, you somehow become
close to people with shady businesses abroad and then ask them to be partners
in investment in Nepal.
In the West, it is difficult to get a 2%
return on your fixed deposit, but here, now you can get 8 to 9% per annum for
doing nothing. Land prices will always go up in this land. Even Economists who
win Nobel Prizes go crazy trying to figure out the Nepali psyche when it comes
to real estate.
Hospitals are big businesses in our land. If
you get the license to operate a medical school then you are set for life. No
wonder, hospitals get sold for Rs 200 Karod as if they are buying a bora of
aloo. Who the hell has 200 Karod in their backyard except our civil servants,
politicians and fake VAT bill byaparis?
The easiest way to become an Arabpati in this
land is to be close to our netas and hakim sahebs. They are the ones minting
money left and right. The earthquake, blockade and now this pandemic will not
create any obstacles for our hakim sahebs to make money.
Our netas and hakim sahebs can't have
billions of Rupees in the bank. Their near and dear ones, personal assistants,
cousins and cadres use their ill-gotten money to invest in all kinds of
businesses. No wonder, most of our TV channel wallahs, hospitals, hotels and
cooking gas companies are owned by folks who are fronting for our netas and
civil servants.
Our mantris' kids get many government
contracts and it seems that they are the ones with tons of cash. So, the next
option is to be friends with the children of our great netas and be their
financial advisor or business partners to become a billionaire in the land.
But these are all hook, crook and cook the
book formula to be a billionaire. Now, let's talk about how we can be
billionaires if we take our ideas and try to rule the world.
Thanks to YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and other
social media, you really don't have to invest millions or billions or come from
traditional wealth families, or newly rich political or sarkari families.
I sometimes wonder why our people can’t come
up with the cool ideas like instagram and TikTok or other creative stuff needed
for the new digital age. We need to start working towards selling our ideas and
products to the world. Everything is possible now.
At the end of the day, you need to have an
idea, have the vision to stick it out and be sustainable and the day will come
when you will be an Arabpati in this land.
About the author
The writer is a Kathmandu-based senior journalist and
author. Guffadi is his personal blog. He continued writing this blog from 2008 until
2023. The present article is taken from his blog guffadi.blogspot.com. However,
the writer can be reached at maguffadi@gmail.com
Comments
Post a Comment