They are doing fine in the Gulf, thanks to disci

DUBAI: “Life is comfortable and pleasant here’’, says T Rashid, sitting in the  spacious drawing room of his centrally airconditioned villa in an exclusive  Arab locality in Al Barsh
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DUBAI: “Life is comfortable and pleasant here’’, says T Rashid, sitting in the  spacious drawing room of his centrally airconditioned villa in an exclusive  Arab locality in Al Barsha, Dubai. His journey from a relatively economical apartment in Sharjah to this five bed-room posh house with a lawn and a rent of `2 lakh a month has been rather quick after he landed in Dubai three years ago at the invitation of his son-in-law, running an insurance broking company.  Rashid  with his legal background joined it as a director and now does business worth millions for big firms.  The recession has untouched him and he is going strong though he is in his late fifties  and had been leading an uneventful life after retirement from government service in Kerala. Now his entire family is here with him. Asked whether he has any plan to  go back to Kerala soon, he laughs away the suggestion saying, ‘’Not to the place where the quality of life is so low compared to what I am experiencing now:  discipline and rule of law everywhere, no hartals, strikes or political action,  no  garbage, mosquito or power cuts, clean water, no pollution   and virtually no crime, especially towards women.’’ He also revealed a fact:  Arabs construct beautiful  villas, houses and flats using the millions of interest-free loans provided by the government for a 99 period on lands provided free by the rulers and then rent them out  to wealthy expatriates.

Like  Rashid, there are hundreds of thousands of Malayalis who have become successful  entrepreneurs,  executives,  businessmen and professionals.  Mathew  Sam came to Dubai in 1987 after marriage to Saramma working in a hospital.  He joined a company as assistant but his entrepreneurial skills made him eventually a  leading  business man of furniture.   Now he lives in  a posh villa  at Ramlah in Sharjah, an area once occupied by  Westerners. He has a  fleet of  costly cars and has invested  crores of rupees in real estate back home in Kerala.

But they pale into insignificance before industrialists and businessmen like Yusaf Ali of Lulu fame, Galfar Mohammedali, Ravi Pillai, Sunny Varkey and Toyota Sunny, all of them with a background no different from the ordinary Malayalis.  Sunny Varkey of Kumbanad, Tiruvalla, for example runs a chain of reputed Indian schools in the Gulf with assets worth billions. But the path to his growth was laid by his mother who as a teacher took English tuitions for the Abu Dhabi ruler. Even now, the Education Minister of Abu Dhabi occasionally visits his home in Kumbanad.  The Lulu supermarkets compete with the best in Dubai and is a meeting point for Malayalis.

The Malayalis’ desire to make their fortunes in the Gulf has not dimmed a bit,  which is evident from the packed flights to these destinations. One of Emirates’ most profitable routes is Dubai-Kochi despite it being an expensive airlines. And the clientele range from the unskilled and skilled workers, carpenters, painters, masons, barbers, waiters in restaurants, maids,   to executives, professionals and businessmen.

While walking one evening along the tourist spot of the  creek at Dera lined with the world’s biggest dhows and also skyscrapers, I was approached by a hawker selling groundnuts. And he turned out to be a Malayali, Ashraff from Kannur, earning a few dirhams  thus and also doing other odd jobs during day time.  Eventually, he dreams of  becoming  another rich Malayali.

Seema  whom I met there is a  maid working part-time for several Malayali households. She was actually employed by an Arab who brought her there through an agency, but his torture, without giving proper food or wages,  forced her to flee the house and join the company of several  others living without passports. They manage to evade the police, but if caught they are either jailed or deported. They don’t mind the risk for they have dependants back home awaiting their  remittances.

Every Malayali in the Gulf understands only one language-that of money. The moment he lands in any of the Gulf countries,  he  sheds all his political affiliations, rivalries and activities and willingly undergoes the harshest conditions of climate, lifestyles, rigours of local rules and regulations and becomes overnight a hardboiled pragmatist and efficient worker bowing before authority without the slightest protest.  

(To be continued)

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