Trading places

Maghanmal Pancholia sailed into the Emirates seven decades ago. Through years of hard work he has made his way from selling goods in Sharjah's port to prominence as a businessman in Dubai. In a newly released memoir he reflects on his remarkable life. Zahraa al Khalisi reports. Not many people today can offer an eye-witness account of Dubai's transformation from modest port to bustling international metropolis, but Maghanmal Pancholia can. Now one of the figureheads of Dubai's Indian community, and one of the city's oldest expatriates, he runs his own business empire, primarily involved in trade. Almost 70 years ago years ago, he arrived as a teenager aboard a Chinese cargo ship from India to work in the marketplace in the small and sparsely populated port of Sharjah, long before the UAE existed.

At the age of 85, Pancholia has compiled his recollections in a recently released book, Footprints - Memoirs Of An Indian Patriarch. While many his age are years into their retirement, he still arrives at his office in Bur Dubai every morning. "If I'm active I'm able to help others; otherwise, I'd require others' help," says Pancholia, who is known by those in his community as Maghaba or Dada, a term of endearment.

His eldest son, Lalchand Pancholia, works with him at their business, the Arabian Trading Agency. "He likes to remain active. He will never retire. He cannot sit at home. He has to do something. I'm telling you, I'm his son and I know him better. To remain active is good for him as well as others." Their office is located across from the Dubai Museum, a bustling area with a visibly preserved heritage. Rather than moving to the newer, more cosmopolitan areas of Dubai, Pancholia decided to stay in the same district of Souq Al Banian, or the merchants' bazaar, where he began trading as a young man in the early 1940s. "This was the area where we were staying, residing and doing business all these seven decades. After all, it was a business area from the very beginning. This was old Dubai."

It all started in 1942, with an eight-day journey aboard the cargo ship Woo Sang, when he arrived on the shores of Sharjah from Karachi. It was the custom for young men from the sub-continent to head there for trade, and the men in Pancholia's family had been in the Gulf for decades before his arrival, diving for pearls and selling them. Although his trip to the Gulf was an arduous one, Pancholia was much better off than his forefathers. "They waited on the shores of Karachi for a sailboat that was headed to the Gulf to take them."

He vividly remembers what today's metropolitan cities were like. "Dubai and Sharjah were small ports where ships used to bring merchandise for local consumption from India and the Far East. Dubai's population was probably 5,000, and Sharjah was a little less." He came from a small town called Thatta, which later became a part of Pakistan after the partitioning of India in 1947. Pancholia knew his fate, like many other young men in his community, was to work in the Gulf. But the headmaster at his school advised him to go to college. "He told me, 'You and your community all depend upon the Gulf, and all of you go to the Gulf and never bother about higher education. But I request you to join college, even if you have to leave in the middle.'"

So Pancholia moved to Karachi, 120km away, to study science at DJ Sindh College. Five months later, civil unrest, sparked by the Quit India Movement, caused educational institutions to be closed. Pancholia left college and moved to the Gulf to join his father and earn a living. When he looks back at his headmaster's advice, he smiles and says: "I think there's a prophecy that became true." Pancholia worked with his father starting a trading business, selling basic foods such as spices, rice and flour. (Today, the supermarket, Jathanand Lalchand, still exists in the same location and is run by Pancholia's nephew, Navin Pancholia.)

There weren't many teenagers his age back then, but that didn't concern him because "life was so difficult", he says. "We were doing everything ourselves. We had no time for activities. It was difficult for everyone." He and his father lived in a house on the Sharjah wharf, and the one event that he looked forward to was a rare field trip, going out into the desert, drinking water brought from wells and dates from the palm trees.

Life existed on empty stretches of sand. Donkeys and camels were the form of transport, and the few cars that were spotted belonged to royalty. Drinking water was a luxury, electricity was unheard of and fridges ran on kerosene. "We can't stay without air conditioning for a few minutes these days. We used to sleep and work without any of these modern amenities," he says. In Sharjah, Pancholia was one of the few men who spoke English. This earned him a job in a grocery shop at the British Royal Air Force base. Pancholia went back to India every year. He married his wife, Kalabai, through an arranged marriage in Thatta in 1943, but returned to Sharjah alone in 1944. Like all the other traders, female family members didn't accompany them to the Gulf.

A year after living in Sharjah, Pancholia was asked by his older brother to work with him in Dubai, so he moved into his two-bedroom apartment and began trading gold while his brother was running a currency exchange business, which is now widely known as Orient Exchange Company. Eventually, they added textiles and food to their trading. He remembers when he waited for almost a month for steamers to arrive, bringing letters to him from loved ones. "I was recently with youngsters who are enjoying the prosperity and high life of Dubai. When I told them this was the life of Dubai, they said, 'We don't know these things'. They don't know how difficult it was to even get drinking water and vegetables."

Being a vegetarian, Pancholia had a hard time. Rice and wheat were imported, but fresh vegetables were scarce, and even then they were only available in small quantities, depending on the season. It was difficult to import fruits and vegetables because they would rot during the long delivery. He and his wife started a family back in India - two daughters and two sons - but they stayed behind because of the lack of basic amenities and education here. He didn't get to see Lalchand until a year after he was born.

In 1957, Pancholia noticed the desperate need for electricity in Dubai. So he formed an unofficial company that supplied electricity to the market and residences along the creek. "It was to fulfil the necessity because we were fed up," he says. "A few rulers had their private generators and were getting electricity. So we decided why don't we buy a generator and supply electricity - especially to the market area."

The company operated for about three years. By that time the late ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, had created the Dubai Electricity Company, and Pancholia was elected director, a post he held for almost 20 years. In the early 1960s, life evolved and more people began migrating to the Gulf, including his wife and youngest daughter, who was one. "Modern equipment such as televisions, radios, fans and air conditioners were imported and modern facilities became available," Pancholia says. "People started enjoying those facilities, and we expatriates brought our families."

As his businesses expanded to include electronics and watches, Pancholia felt it was time to immerse himself in humanitarian work. "Helping others came at a later stage when we had some money to spend. In the beginning everything was difficult, not only for us Indians but for the locals, too. When things turned for the better, we started thinking about doing good work, both here and in India." A cause that is dear to his heart is education. Having had it taken away from him in college, he wanted to make sure that others had the opportunity. "It's something in my mind that education can improve the situation, not only in our community, but all around the world. Without education, somebody with eyes is blind."

In the early days, education was through private classes given to a few students in a teacher's home. One such teacher approached Pancholia, who was then president of the Indian Association, and asked for help. He started a school by renting out rooms, but soon enough, they were no longer adequate. Pancholia visited his friend, Sheikh Rashid Al Maktoum, and asked for land to build a school. "When the number of students increased, I went to Sheikh Rashid for a piece of land to construct a primary school because the classes we had were in a rented place and were costing us. Things were changing slowly. We needed more space and thought from primary school we might probably move to secondary, so the idea came to me."

For 20 years, Pancholia was the founder-chairman of the Indian High School. He was at the foundation-laying ceremony in 1968. Today, the school in Dubai has two campuses and more than 9,000 students. A third school, which will be managed and administered by the Indian High School, is being built. The school is a non-profit organisation and is run by trustees who elect a managing committee every two years. "We don't believe in profiting from our education system. It's mentioned in the school's constitution. The organisers are not entitled to profit a single fils out of education. Whatever is earned should be for the development of the education."

Pancholia has given much to the two countries close to his heart, the UAE and India. He developed clinics and hospitals in villages in India and built community halls for social gatherings. He has also donated to many charitable organisations such as Dubai Cares, which aims to alleviate poverty and create opportunities, but he still wants to reach out to more people. "We've seen the poor. We've been poor ourselves. We've seen that life and we know the difficulties of those have-nots. And if they can be satisfied in any way through education, through financial help, through jobs, through work, that will help not only them, but the economy as well."

Apart from his philanthropic work, Pancholia has served as a board member on several government-run organisations such as the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Al Maktoum Hospital. He is also a shareholder in several local banks, including the National Bank of Dubai. He is pleased that many people can now enjoy Dubai's modernity. "Indians are enjoying the high life of Dubai, the peaceful life of Dubai and the prosperous life of Dubai."

As much as he appreciates technology, he stays away from it. "I can't use modern technology. Mobile phones are easy but I always misplace them. I lost two mobile phones so I never carried one again." He would rather admire nature. While everyone is still asleep in his household, Pancholia enjoys a daily morning walk in his neighbourhood in Jumeirah. He's up at 5am for at least an hour's walk. Sometimes it ends up being a two- or three-hour walk when he stops to pick flowers on the way.

Other life pleasures such as travelling don't seem to interest him as much. He travelled around the world in 1968, visiting 40 countries in four months. "This was my first and last time. I wanted to see the world, so I purchased an open ticket to go anywhere on any flight. I was alone, without a camera, and without any hotel bookings." Dubai has all the things he enjoys, Pancholia says, so he doesn't need to visit other countries. He likes to stay in the comfort of his home and visits hotels only for business meetings. Both his sons and one of his daughters live here - the other lives in India - and he has 11 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

His memories have been recorded in the book, which was inspired by the younger generation. "Whenever I was with the people, especially the younger local people, and expressed myself and my experiences with the prominent people of Dubai, and told them about my interactions with all those people, they said, 'We never knew all those things. Even our fathers and grandfathers never told us all those things. Why don't you write it?' Then came the challenge of writing," he says.

To put his thoughts into words, Pancholia approached a writer, Vasanti Sundaram, and asked her if she would work with him. They met every Saturday morning while he narrated the story of his eventful life. The book took about four-and-a-half years to put together and publish and was launched last month at a ceremony attended by members of the Indian community in Dubai, including the Indian consul general, Venu Rajamony, and other prominent businessmen, such as Ram Buxani.

"He has done so much for the community and the country and the place where he is living," says Buxani, who has been in Dubai for 50 years and is a close friend of Pancholia. "It raises the confidence of youngsters that they, too, can be like him, and I am glad that Maghaba has fulfilled his obligation to the community. We all know what Maghaba did… his footprints are going to provide enough ground for the young to walk upon and learn from his wisdom."

And is Pancholia satisfied with his memoir? "If not 100 per cent, I am happy 95 per cent with the book. I wish I had paid more attention to make it look beautiful. I would've added more photos because I have so many. But I am 95 per cent satisfied," he laughs. "That's very good, isn't it?" Footprints - Memoirs Of An Indian Patriarch is priced at Dh95. It is available in bookstores or online at www.booksarabia.com