SLUG: Heritage
INTRO: The book Oman-India ties: Across Sea and Space takes its readers on a visual journey outlining the rich historical relationship between the two great civilizations of Oman and Indian which goes back more than 5,000 years. Published by Oman Observer in association Indian Embassy Muscat and written by Samuel Kutty (Senior Editor of the Observer) and Sandhya Rao Mehta (Associate Professor of SQU), the book is an attempt to document, archive and disseminate this relationship from its historical past to the present time where these relations have taken new wings.
Extracts from the book will continue to appear on this space every Saturday.
BODY: More than 150 years ago, a young Gordhandas sat in a wooden dhow from Kutch Mundra, with nothing but the clothes on his back, not even a passport or travel papers. All he had with him were 2 gold bangles, which he brought to begin his business in Oman. He landed in Barkha after a long 2-month journey in which he had just one small bottle of drinking water a day.
Gordhandas began his business in trading food essentials and textiles with a bare minimum investment. Over time, he expanded his business, gradually building a small house right under the Barkha fort. He brought his 15-year-old son Ratanshi to join his business. Ratanshi came with his 13-year-old bride and they lent their hands in the family business which was, by then, dealing with dates, and food stuff like rice, flour, sugar, spices and salt. They were also involved with the money lending business, often helping the community in
times of need.
A Gujarati tutor by the name of Kumud Adhikari was brought to Barkha to teach the young children mathematics, and writing letters in
Gujarati, the two necessary skills for a Gujarati businessman. Eventually, Ratanshi came to Muttrah to expand the family business, setting
up a small establishment behind Ramesh Bhavan. Ratanshi’s son, Permanand reminiscences that they would take a boat from Barkha to Muttrah Corniche to complete any official work. The travel from Barkha to Muttrah would take 2 days by jetty. Permanand himself was born in the American Mission hospital in Muttrah circa 1945. By that time, the family had a Landrover which would be used to travel between Muttrah and Barkha, a journey which would take more than 6 hours. By 1955, Permanand came back to Muttrah, having completed his school education in Kutch. He lived in Barkha for some time with his grandfather and in 1960, came back to Muscat where he trained at
W.J. Towell and worked in Purshottam Damodar’s company.
Permanand remembers his main jobs as being cleaning the stores and godowns on most days and when the jetties would arrive with fresh supplies, the next few days would go into offloading (usually lasting 2-3 hours after Fajr prayers), categorising all offloaded items, counting them and making a list (called the parchi or ‘barva’). As he recounts, produce came from different parts of the world including flour and fruit from Australia, spices, oil and clothes from India, coffee from Guatemala and ghee from Holland. He even remembers being told of a British steamer being bombed in the course of the Second
World War.
Gordhandas and his son Ratanshi were closely involved with the community in Barkha, often working with them in times of need and helping everyone through tough times. In fact, Sultan Said bin Taimur had recognized Ratanashi’s generous contribution to alleviate suffering during the famine of 1943 with an official citation. Permanand gradually expanded his business from foodstuff to building material in 1970 and constructed the first 2-floored building in Wadi Kabir. He was known to host the annual Navratri festival involving everybody in the community and acquired a reputation for philanthropy. He speaks more than 8 languages including Arabic, Farsi, Belushi, Kutchi, Hindi,
and ‘a little bit of English’.
