Beyond the Street

Sharma shares his philosophy about return on equity — in life and markets — with Puneet Wadhwa and Veenu Sandhu

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Give a man a problem, and if that man is Shankar Sharma, he will find a solution. "I've never been short of solutions," he tells us as we hop across time, between yesterday and today, and then to what tomorrow might look like.

He doesn't say it pompously. Rather, the belief comes from how he has dealt with life's blows, starting from when his father suddenly died in 1981. "He went to sleep and never woke up. I was just 17 or 18," says Sharma.

We're sitting at The Imperial's 1911 restaurant in New Delhi, overlooking a rainwashed lawn. The hotel, with its colonial art and heritage, is fitting for a man who moves fluidly between the past and the future. The Dubai-based stock market investor, in town for work, has ordered 'Indian breakfast' — scrambled eggs, potato patties, toasted bread — and pork sausages, besides cappuccino with almond and soya milk. We ask for a platter of artisanal sausages, and hot chocolate.

He was the only son, with three sisters, and the family wasn't sitting on great wealth. "My father worked in Coal India. And while he was in a senior position, he wasn't paid anything fancy. We had a good lifestyle, but money-wise, not much."

Yet, even in the immediate aftermath, Sharma's mind went into solution mode. He went to the State Bank of India, where the family's savings were kept, and asked the manager for advice. "He told me, 'Son, I think you should move the money into gold'." He did, but that trade didn't work out very well.

He also didn't allow the tragedy to derail his studies. "My college exams were four days later. Everybody said, 'Stay with your mother, you're the only son'." But he decided that dropping a year wasn't an option. "For all my life, I'd have to explain why I lost a year. Nobody really cares for your personal losses."