In the hot summer of Saudi Arabia back in 1985, I had landed in Riyadh during the month of May. Being away from my family for the first time onto a strange land far away was really worrying. The very next day an unknown group of Mangaloreans visited us at our camp which was far away from Riyadh city. A charming youngster was talking to everyone as if he knew them well. That was Abdul Khader. His confident smile made us feel that we have someone who cares for us. Others in the team were, Br Parvez Ali, Br Muhammad Belchar, Br Shamshuddin Mulki, Br Ahmed Padubidri and a few others. This team used to visit if any one lands in the region, to inquire about their wellbeing and to know about any difficulties people face and if they needed any assistance. In those days in Saudi Arabia, finding people from Mangalore wasn’t common, especially to seek help or assistance. Br Abdul Khader’s concern of "we do care for them as our own" really connected everyone to him.
Ever since that first visit, I had been in constant touch with him, almost on a daily basis. I would visit him at his office at King Faisal Foundation, which was the grievance reporting center during those days. He was a single man social organisation in those days when social organisations hardly existed. We used to gather on weekends at Euromarche, visit the Alkharj garden, travel together for Umrah, and these engagements made us feel like family. We used to visit RAKA camp in Dammam, and a couple of camps in Jubail and Jeddah. Sometimes I feel like during those days we were far better connected, through merely landline phones, than most are today with mobile phones and multiple social media apps.
A few years later, we started staying together at Hara, at a rented apartment (although we had our company accommodation) and this apartment was a shelter for many. Br Abdul Khader was well known as 'Emirates Khader', a name he got due to his earlier tenure in Dammam.
Many used to approach him for various reasons and mostly with issues related to conversation with their sponsors, Iqama issues, salary issues, lack of proper food, lack of bare minimum facilities, transfer of sponsorships, postal address to receive letters from home, coins to call home from telephone booth, travelling letter for umrah and other cities within Saudi Arabia to meet relatives, Chamber of commerce attestations, to transfer money back home, to get treatments at govt hospitals (there were no low budget Indian clinics during those days), to trace missing sponsor (literally needed to travel to lots of surrounding villages to trace without any proper contact numbers). His command on conversational Arabic has really helped thousands of people to communicate on various occasions. His undying confidence, strong communication skills and more importantly his time, was all well utilized to help others, going to any extent, anywhere, to help people. This beautiful character of his earned him the title of a brother in a strange land.
He may not be very rich financially, but was always there to REACH out to those who needed help. He went through lots of hardships and struggled in the later part of his life.
Gulf is a region where lakhs of youngsters from our region have sacrificed their youth, staying there for 30 to 40 years to support their families, be it getting their sisters married or to feed their families back home. They may smell good during their vacations, but the fact remains that they have squeezed their sweat in the hot deserts without proper food or facilities during those days. These days, most of them are back home after losing their jobs, most with zero bank balances even after working hard throughout their life. The consoling factor is that some of their educated children have replaced them in the Gulf.
The present generation may not know him very well but people living in Saudi Arabia during the 80s and 90s know him very well for his service of REACHING OUT THE DESERVING. In 1979 He started when he was in Governer's office and when he shifted to Riyadh in 1983 and then 2005 he moved to eastern province. Almost 40 years of relentless service he gave to deserving ones. I used to discuss with him whenever I was free at his KFF office about the overall development of the community. We really Brainstorm on what need to be done for empowerment to make really a respectful community. During those days though we hardly had wealthy individuals from our community, there was no jealousy, no rat race and no competition. Instead we enjoyed supporting each other, irrespective of our level of income, which also included many of our brothers who earned very little salaries.
Today , we have more multiple social organizations and hundreds of wealthy individuals. Much more funds are raised but somehow we lack strong coordination and support. Rather , we notice a keen struggle for fame, power and leadership. Factors such as Ego, Arrogance and blame games are rampant. Almost all places of worship are point of conflict, organisation has leadership conflicts and business establishments lack honesty, mutual trust and collaborative efforts.
My opinion is that during those days, with small earnings, people made better investments, but today, with far more resources, we collectively lack the vision for smart and long term investments for the betterment of the community, which is what will in fact benefit us in the hereafter. We are thinking of strong long term investments for our kith and kin but not so much for the community at large.
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Jaipur, Mar 28: Young Riyan Parag showed why he is considered a precocious talent as he struck a stunning 84 not out off 45 balls to set up a 12-run win for Rajasthan Royals against Delhi Capitals in their IPL match here on Thursday.
Sent in to bat, RR were reduced to 36 for 3 in the eighth over but the 22-year-old Parag single-handedly took the home side to 185 for 5 with a magnificent unbeaten knock studded with seven fours and six sixes.
Parag, who was promoted to number 4 by the team management this season and made 43 in the previous match, took 25 runs off veteran South African pacer Anrich Nortje with scores of 4, 4, 6, 4, 6, 1 in the final over to hit his highest T20 score.
Chasing 186 for a win, DC could only manage 173 for 5 in 20 overs though South African youngster Tristan Stubbs (44 not out off 23 balls) kept them in the hunt till the final over from which they needed 17 runs.
Avesh Khan conceded just four runs to help RR win their second consecutive match.
South African pacer Nandre Burger and Yuzvendra Chahal took two wickets apiece to also contribute in the RR win.
"Definitely disappointed. The best thing to do from here is to learn from it. The bowlers did well through the 15-16 overs. But the batters did well at the death, hopefully we do better in the next game," DC skipper Rishabh Pant said.
DC were reduced to 34 for 2 in the fourth over with Burger taking two wickets in three balls in a fine display of fast bowling.
Burger, who was brought in as Impact Sub for Shimron Hetmyer, dismissed opener Mitchell Marsh (23 off 12 balls) and Ricky Bhui (0) in the fourth over.
DC captain Rishabh Pant came out to bat at the fall of Bhui's wicket and along with senior batter David Warner built the innings without taking too much risk. Delhi were 89 for 2 at the halfway stage.
Warner was the more aggressive one as he got the boundaries to keep DC in the hunt. The senior Australian batter fell one run short of his fifty courtesy a brilliant diving catch by Sandeep Sharma off the bowling of Avesh in the 12th over.
Warner and Pant were involved in a crucial 67-run partnership for the third wicket.
Playing in his 100th IPL match and 14 months after a horrible car crash, Pant tried to build the innings with occasional boundaries. But he got out for a 26-ball 28 as Chahal induced a faint lower edge for Sanju Samson to do the rest behind the stumps in the 14th over.
The asking rate shot up to more than 13 runs an over and DC needed 66 from the last five overs.
Stubbs kept DC in the game with two consecutive sixes off Ravichandran Ashwin in the 17th over, but in the end the Delhi side were short by 12 runs.
They needed 34 runs from the final two overs which they could not get. It was DC's second consecutive loss.
Earlier, Parag shared 54 and 52 runs respectively with Ravichandran Ashwin (29) and Dhruv Jurel (20) after RR made a shaky start.
Royals captain Samson struck three consecutive boundaries in the fourth over bowled by pacer Mukesh Kumar before nicking a Khaleel Ahmed delivery two overs later to Pant to get out for 15.
RR were 30 for 2 by then as Mukesh had given DC their first breakthrough with the wicket of Yashasvi Jaiswal (5).
The Royals were in more trouble after wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav literally forced his captain Pant to take a review, which later proved to be successful, to dismiss Englishman Jos Buttler for an LBW decision.
Ashwin came out to bat at number five and he lofted a Kuldeep delivery for a six to help RR reach 58 for 3 at halfway stage. He gave Nortje even a harsher treatment with two sixes in the next over that yielded 15 runs.
Ashwin, however, holed out to Tristan Stubbs near the boundary ropes for a 19-ball 29.
Parag then made his presence felt, striking two boundaries and a six off Ahmed to take RR past 100 in the 15th over.