‘We have sold our Honda City’

NEW DELHI: Anil Singh (name changed on request) was a high-flier until recently. A senior co-pilot with a top airline, Singh’s take-home salary was Rs3 lakh per month. He was planning a Christmas vacation for his family in South Africa when the meltdown hit home. His company asked him to leave.

Singh didn’t know how to break the news to his hypersensitive wife Anamika. Life as he knew it was coming to a standstill all of a sudden: two daughters in a posh Delhi school; two flats, one in an upscale locality in Gurgaon; two cars, including a Honda City.

Till recently he was juggling with offers. Now, suddenly, no one wants him. “I tried renegotiating my employment terms. I even offered to take a salary cut. But it was a firm ‘no’ from their side,” says Singh.

His wife, too, cannot be a breadwinner. Anamika used to be in the hospitality industry, but turned housewife after becoming a mother. She wants to rejoin the workforce, but because of the freeze on hiring in her former sector, she cannot.

“We’ve had to sell off our Honda City,” says Singh. “I don’t know what else we have to go through.”

Singh applied to several Chinese airlines, but nothing came his way. He has also applied to low-cost airlines in the Gulf. The planes are still flying the oil-rich Sheikhs. They are Singh’s last hope.