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Santhosh Chandran
Doha
Indian expatriate Karandoth Moosa Haji, who lived more than half century in Qatar, died in his home state Kerala on Friday.
Eighty-three-year-old Moosa is perhaps one of the earliest expatriates to have set foot on Qatari soil. Karandoth Moosa Haji’s journey to Qatar 65 years ago, as an 18-year-old, is a tale straight out of a Hollywood movie. He braved the desert heat, lost some friends during the desert trek and evaded arrest by Iranian forces to reach the shores of now gas-rich kingdom.
With no flights to the Gulf region those days, it took him 20 months to reach Qatar from Villiappally, a hamlet on the outskirts of Kozhikode in the south Indian state of Kerala.
He arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras) by a train. After a couple of days’ stay in the city as a help in a restaurant, Moosa proceeded to Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
Mumbai (it was called Bombay then) was his next stop. Mumbai was a destination for those wanting to make a fortune. It was the first stop for Indians migrating to the Gulf.
He spent a few months in Bombay working in restaurants and markets. “The stories that I heard about the Arab countries got me pumped up. I met many Indians who were dreaming about going to the Gulf,” he is known to have said.
Since there were no flights to the Gulf, commercial dhows were the only option.
Six of his friends handed the money required for the journey to Moosa, but it was stolen at the Bombay railway station just before they set off on their journey. They illegally boarded a train that set off to Karachi. The Jodhpur police arrested them for travelling without tickets.
With the help of some Muslim devotees at a mosque, they managed to reach Karachi.
Moosa and his friends offered traders whatever money they had, imploring them to “take us to some place in the Gulf region”.
Finally, 14 people, including Moosa reached Gwadar, the township at the Pakistan-Iran border by walking and began the challenging journey towards north-west through the desert of Iran.
They lost their way many a times.
From 14, the group’s size reduced to six. “Our feet cracked and skin burned.”
After 17 harrowing days, they reached a small port on the south-east coast (Kuhmobarak) of Iran and crossed the Gulf of Oman by a commercial dhow to reach Khawr Fakkan, UAE.
Later, they moved to Dubai, and from there to Mesiaeed in a dhow.
Qatar was still under the British, and Doha was a small market town. Sea had extended up to the present-day Souq Waqif. There was no proper power and water supply.
Moosa’s first job was that of an assistant manager and a cook at a restaurant called Zama, which was close to the present-day Doha petrol station.
His first salary was 150. Not Qatari riyals, but Indian rupees. The currency in circulation then was the Indian rupee and the British pound.
Nine years into Qatar, Moosa was contemplating visiting India. He had no passport and Qatar didn’t have an Indian embassy or a consulate at the time.
With the help of a friend, he applied for a passport at the Indian consular centre in Muscat, Oman. In 1963, a passport was issued in his name.
Moosa visited his village for the first time in 1964.
After marriage to Fatima and a six-month break, Moosa returned to Qatar via Mumbai by sea. After six months in 1966, Moosa fly back to India for the first time from Doha.
His sons Nasar and Ismail, who live in Doha, and three daughters, who live in Kerala, make up his family.
Doha
Indian expatriate Karandoth Moosa Haji, who lived more than half century in Qatar, died in his home state Kerala on Friday.
Eighty-three-year-old Moosa is perhaps one of the earliest expatriates to have set foot on Qatari soil. Karandoth Moosa Haji’s journey to Qatar 65 years ago, as an 18-year-old, is a tale straight out of a Hollywood movie. He braved the desert heat, lost some friends during the desert trek and evaded arrest by Iranian forces to reach the shores of now gas-rich kingdom.
With no flights to the Gulf region those days, it took him 20 months to reach Qatar from Villiappally, a hamlet on the outskirts of Kozhikode in the south Indian state of Kerala.
He arrived in Chennai (formerly Madras) by a train. After a couple of days’ stay in the city as a help in a restaurant, Moosa proceeded to Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh.
Mumbai (it was called Bombay then) was his next stop. Mumbai was a destination for those wanting to make a fortune. It was the first stop for Indians migrating to the Gulf.
He spent a few months in Bombay working in restaurants and markets. “The stories that I heard about the Arab countries got me pumped up. I met many Indians who were dreaming about going to the Gulf,” he is known to have said.
Since there were no flights to the Gulf, commercial dhows were the only option.
Six of his friends handed the money required for the journey to Moosa, but it was stolen at the Bombay railway station just before they set off on their journey. They illegally boarded a train that set off to Karachi. The Jodhpur police arrested them for travelling without tickets.
With the help of some Muslim devotees at a mosque, they managed to reach Karachi.
Moosa and his friends offered traders whatever money they had, imploring them to “take us to some place in the Gulf region”.
Finally, 14 people, including Moosa reached Gwadar, the township at the Pakistan-Iran border by walking and began the challenging journey towards north-west through the desert of Iran.
They lost their way many a times.
From 14, the group’s size reduced to six. “Our feet cracked and skin burned.”
After 17 harrowing days, they reached a small port on the south-east coast (Kuhmobarak) of Iran and crossed the Gulf of Oman by a commercial dhow to reach Khawr Fakkan, UAE.
Later, they moved to Dubai, and from there to Mesiaeed in a dhow.
Qatar was still under the British, and Doha was a small market town. Sea had extended up to the present-day Souq Waqif. There was no proper power and water supply.
Moosa’s first job was that of an assistant manager and a cook at a restaurant called Zama, which was close to the present-day Doha petrol station.
His first salary was 150. Not Qatari riyals, but Indian rupees. The currency in circulation then was the Indian rupee and the British pound.
Nine years into Qatar, Moosa was contemplating visiting India. He had no passport and Qatar didn’t have an Indian embassy or a consulate at the time.
With the help of a friend, he applied for a passport at the Indian consular centre in Muscat, Oman. In 1963, a passport was issued in his name.
Moosa visited his village for the first time in 1964.
After marriage to Fatima and a six-month break, Moosa returned to Qatar via Mumbai by sea. After six months in 1966, Moosa fly back to India for the first time from Doha.
His sons Nasar and Ismail, who live in Doha, and three daughters, who live in Kerala, make up his family.
