A friend named Suresh.

“Doctor sahab, I cannot face my family anymore. I lost ₹18 lakhs in 6 months.”

Suresh was 42. Software engineer in Bengaluru — a quiet, simple man who didn’t drink, didn’t gamble, didn’t gossip. Two daughters, ages 8 and 11. A wife who taught at a government primary school in Whitefield. They had been saving for 12 years to build a small house in their hometown — Tumkur.

In April 2023, a younger colleague showed him NIFTY options on his phone during a coffee break. “₹15,000 became ₹47,000 in 20 minutes, Suresh anna — see this!”

That evening, Suresh opened his first F&O account. He started with ₹50,000 — a small experiment, he told himself.

The first month, he made ₹62,000. He bought his daughters a tablet they had been asking for. His wife smiled at dinner and asked, “Konde, where is this extra money coming from?” He laughed and said, “Bonus from office. Don’t worry.”

The second month, he lost ₹40,000 in two trades. The voice in his head said, “Just need to recover. Increase position size — be smart this time.”

The third month, ₹2 lakhs gone. He took a personal loan from HDFC. Told his wife it was for a new office laptop the company was making him buy.

The fourth month, ₹5 lakhs lost. He started skipping family dinners — locked himself in the bedroom with three monitors, telling everyone he was on a “client deployment.”

The fifth month, he sold his wife’s gold mangalsutra chain — the one her mother gave at the wedding. Pawned it secretly. Told her she had misplaced it during Ugadi cleaning. Watched her cry for three nights, searching every corner of the house, blaming herself for being careless.

By the sixth month, the entire house fund was gone. His daughter’s school fees were pending. ₹18 lakhs in personal loans across three banks. EMIs piling up. He could not look his wife in the eye anymore.

One Tuesday night in October, after the market closed at minus ₹3.2 lakhs that single day, Suresh stood at his apartment window for two hours, the city lights blurring through his tears. He could not see tomorrow. He could not face it.

At 11:47 PM, he called me. We had been in the same Sai Baba bhajan group for 4 years. “Doctor sahab… I cannot do this anymore. I am ready to leave everything. I am sorry.”

I drove to Bengaluru that night. I sat with him on his living room floor for two hours, his wife asleep in the next room, his daughters dreaming peacefully, none of them knowing how close their father was to disappearing. He cried. I cried with him.

Then I told him the only truth I knew — the truth Saibaba had taught me after my own losses many years ago:

That night, Suresh deleted his three trading apps. We talked until 4 AM. He took his first deep breath in six months.

Over the next 9 months — with structured discipline, paper trading for the first 60 days, honest backtesting, slow re-entry with 1-lot maximum, and most importantly, weekly bhajan with our group — he recovered ₹11 lakhs of his loss. Not by trading aggressively. But by trading almost not at all. Quality over quantity. Patience over panic.

More importantly, he saved his marriage. His daughters never knew. His wife found her gold mangalsutra in a velvet pouch under their puja shelf one week later (I had bought it back from the pawn shop the day after our talk; he placed it where she would find it during her morning prayer).

Suresh is one of thousands. Maybe you. Maybe someone you love.

This page is everything I gave Suresh that night and the months after. It’s free. It’s yours. Take what serves you.