Cafe Coffee founder goes missing !

Ilya Zhitomirskiy was a Russian-American software developer and entrepreneur. Zhitomirskiy cofounded  Diaspora social network  and scaled newer heights at a very young age, but sadly  died in San Francisco at age 22.

Read elsewhere that the  biggest predictor of suicide may not be depression or thoughts about killing self (what people in mental health call "suicidal ideation") but the feeling of being trapped.  This subtle shift in understanding about suicide might just save some lives if colleagues, friends, family, psychiatrists, therapists and entrepreneurs themselves pay attention to it. When an entrepreneur indicates one is feeling trapped, it's time for aggressive action --by the entrepreneur himself if he can manage it, or by those who care about him if one cannot.  While mental health care might be essential, it's equally important for the business to take care of the structural business issues that are contributing to the feeling of entrapment.

The Netravati River has its origins at Kudremukh in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka.  This river flows through the famous holy place  Dharmasthala and is considered  one of the Holy rivers of India. It merges with the Kumaradhara River at Uppinangadi before flowing to the Arabian Sea, south of Mangalore city. Earlier in the last century it was known as the Bantwal River; the important town of Bantwal is seen on its banks. .. .. today the web would see many searching on this but would end up leading elsewhere, rather to an incident than the river !!

.. Café Coffee Day – CCD is in news ! for wrong reasons !  .. it was they who designed a new marketing strategy - “lets meet for coffee.” Some called it a coffee revolution. Though not entirely new,  CCD claimed it to be a humble expression of love for coffee that spread like a wave. CCD  earned its place as the front runner in the coffee space, by always making special occasions extra-special and memorable.  Cafe Coffee Day Global limited Company is a Chikkamagaluru-based business which grows coffee in its own estates of 20,000 acres. It is the largest producer of arabica beans in Asia exporting to various countries including USA, Europe and Japan. Café Coffee Day was started as a retail restaurant in 1996.bThe first CCD outlet was set up in  1996, at Brigade Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka. It rapidly expanded across various cities in India.  Later with foreign capital foray, it became a MNC with a different logo.

Yesterday web was agog with news of Café Coffee Day founder V G Siddhartha reportedly  gone missing after he left from Bengaluru on Monday night.  Mr Siddhartha, the son-in-law of former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna, was headed for Sakaleshpur but on the way he had asked his driver to go towards Mangaluru, according to the police.  It was further reported that on reaching a bridge over the Netravati river in the Kotepura area in Dakshina Kannada district, he got down from the car and told his driver that he was going for a walk, not to be seen thereafter – Police officials went on a full search.

"He (Siddhartha) asked the driver to wait till his arrival. When he did not return even after two hours, the driver approached the police and lodged a missing complaint," deputy commissioner of Dakshina Kannada district Senthil Sasikant Senthil told PTI.  News reports suggested that more  than 200 policemen and divers on about 25 boats were carrying out searches for him. The help of local fishermen too were sought.   In Bengaluru, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa visited S M Krishna's residence and held discussion with the family members. Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar also visited Krishna's residence.

Now there is news amidst of speculations that the young entrepreneur had committed suicide.  A letter doing rounds in media suggests that he ended his life unable to hold the business pressure.  “I fought for a long time but today I gave up as I could not take any more pressure from one of the private equity partners forcing me to buy back shares, a transaction I had partially completed six months ago by borrowing a large sum of money from a friend,” he reportedly  wrote in the letter.  He is said to have categorically stated - “My intention was never to cheat or mislead anybody, I have failed as an entrepreneur. This is my sincere submission. I hope someday you will understand, forgive and pardon me,” the letter further reads.

Sad ! ~ someone sort of forced to end his life when everyone would have envied of his lifestyle and having reached the sky ! ~ and as rumour mills have it, hopefully this has nothing to do with the political developments in the State.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

30^th July 2019.