Everybody waits with bated breath as the unmistakable baritone of Mr. Bachchan pauses in heightened suspense before he makes the announcement. Is this it? Is the contestant going to achieve what millions of Indians glued to their TV screens every night aspire for? Will he become a Crorepati? And if he does, will it solve all the problems in his life?
A lot of people could easily envision this jackpot as the solution to all their problems. Yes, money does go a long way. But is it really ‘happily ever after’, once you’ve proved your worth on the hotseat? Sushil Kumar has been there and done that, and has a very different tale to narrate. Sushil hit the jackpot when he won the fifth installment of the series, bagging the five crore prize money on offer. Everybody who heard about it must have thought that Kumar had changed his life for the good with this pleasant twist of fate. Maybe he himself thought the same at that point in time, though things have turned out in a very different fashion.
A large chunk of his prize money was apparently spent in support of the joint family he is part of – a house, some agricultural land, businesses for brothers, etc. He also purchased a few cows, and today makes a living out of selling the milk from his cows. His wife feels that the two of them have been short-changed, and their lives haven’t improved the way it should have. They made over three and a half crores after the taxman took his dues, and all that money has seemed to vanished in double-quick time.
The fame of being a KBC icon proved to be short lived, and his dreams of training for IAS at New Delhi never really took off. Now he hopes to fall back on his B.Ed qualification, and become a teacher. Money is strange in that sense – though most people like to think it can bring happiness, there are many who would claim otherwise.
