Sharjah, 1975: From a settlement with small palm-frond ‘arish’ houses hugging the creeks, the region, no more than a village-like city, was slowly moving towards development. That is when V Damodar landed there. In the 11 years he worked there, Damodar saw the Emirate grow into a centre of culture and industry, a growth in which he had a significant role.
“The Indian population, mostly Malayalis, in Sharjah was hardly 20,000. Only one restaurant there dished out Indian fare, which forced many like me to go to Dubai for lunch every Friday. There were just a few tarred roads and a couple of multi-storied buildings. I had to make adjustments to cope after having relocated from Bombay, a huge city even then,” says Damodar, who rose from humble beginnings to become the vice-president of GGP Group of Companies, one of the major business groups in the UAE.
This was a roller-coaster phase in Damodar’s life - along with success, fame and fortune, he slid down the road to desperation, forcing him to leave the Emirate, destroyed but not defeated.
Like his autobiography titled Fortitude , thoughts flow, unbroken, when Damodar talks. Shorn of political correctness and hypocrisy he allows memories to tumble. “Writing about my life was something I had not dreamed of. If it were planned I would have kept a diary. It was impulsive, the contents purely based on memories, and available records like photographs. There’s no attempt to edit my thoughts,” says Damodar, whose signal contributions include founding the Sharjah Indian School and Indian Association Sharjah.
As Finance Manager of the company, Damodar had to oversee numerous capital projects in keeping with the developments in Sharjah. “Almost simultaneously we were working on the construction of a modern airport and over a dozen high-rise buildings to be called Rolla Square. We had new divisions within the company and our Sheikh, who was the brother of the Ruler, was building a 11-storey tower for himself. Our organisation was also growing, diversifying into transport, aluminium, carpentry and also a travel agency, Sharjah National Travel and Tourist Agency (SNTTA). And all of them prospered.”
Founding the Indian Association Sharjah in April 1979 as a service organisation for the welfare of the community especially in Sharjah and establishing the Sharjah Indian School remain Damodar’s enduring contributions to the Indians in particular and the Emirate in general .
For the people
“We started the school on September 3, 1979 with 346 students and had classes from nursery to the fifth standard. We upgraded it to eighth standard the next year. In four years time the first batch wrote the public examination successfully. We constructed our own building on the land provided to us by the Ruler. The school has progressed steadily and presently has about 15,000 students. The Indian Association Sharjah, as a community organisation, owns and manages the school.”
Getting Air India to commence operations to and from Sharjah in 1981 was possible only through Damodar’s persistence. “It began when I was snubbed by the then regional director of Air India who termed my idea as ‘ridiculous’. I decided to pursue it. Meeting Ravindra Varma, then Minister of Labour and Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India, was the turning point. I managed to convince him to visit Sharjah and took the Minister and his entourage to the airport and met the Director General of Civil Aviation . I also showed him the correspondence I had with the Air India Chairman. The Minister returned to Delhi and did not forget his promise. And soon things fell in place and in March 1981 the first Air India flight landed in Sharjah. It was an unexpected but gratifying moment.”
These were ‘happy moments’ in a life that was punctuated by long phases of struggle and gloom. Like some passages in the book where the prose becomes intimate, Damodar’s eyes well-up, his voice breaks, when he speaks of his life’s struggles.
Damodar relives past events with insightful intent. His writing appears like a soul-cleansing exercise.
“Looking back at my life, it sometimes appears unbelievable considering where I began. Kaipuram, in Palakkad district, was an extremely undeveloped village. I had to walk nearly 15 kilometres every day to school. Childhood was a mix of fun and the constant worry of trying to meet basic needs. Perhaps this made me responsible even as a child encouraging me to do odd jobs to supplement the family’s income. Though I completed my Secondary School Leaving Certificate exam with high marks I could not continue my education.”
After a short stint at a typewriting and shorthand institute, Damodar left for Bombay looking for a job. “When I left home in 1960 the whole world was open before me. And it opened unexpectedly. Bombay shaped my career. I found a job as a typist with a meagre salary, studied part-time, took a diploma in secretarial practice, gained a university degree, Associateship from the Corporation of Secretaries, London and Fellowship from Institute of Company Secretaries of India.”
Joining Nagpal Ambadi Petro-Chem Refining Limited as Company Secretary, Damodar worked from its inception to public issue of share capital and arranging of institutional financing. He then moved on to another major group before moving to Sharjah.
Hard times
“In Sharjah I knew that I was surrounded by people who were envious of my growth. The Sheikh himself had warned me many times that ‘my own people,’ the same people I had employed nurtured, had approached him with complaints against me. A Palestinian/Jordanian and a Pakistani also joined them. They managed to sway the Sheikh’s opinions. When I realised that he seemed to have lost confidence in me , I resigned. I was vice-president of the group but left without getting a penny as the Sheikh refused to settle my accounts.”
Undeterred, but having decided not to work as an employee for anyone again, Damodar set up businesses in the UAE, India, Botswana and Zimbabwe. “The soft drinks company in India collapsed owing to misappropriations. In Botswana, I was part of a business but had to quit owing to ethical differences. I founded the Afroworld Group that grew into five active member companies; started a similar venture in Zimbabwe but had to leave, disillusioned and disgusted, owing to politically motivated difficulties. Right through I was let down by people I considered close to me.”
Damodar is now settled in Coimbatore, where he lives with wife Thankam. Their son Sumod who is the chief of Afroworld Group in Botswana, is an avid cricketer and administrator. He played for Botswana, holds various administrative posts with Botswana Cricket Association and Africa Cricket Association. Last year Sumod was elected to the Chief Executive Committee of the International Cricket Council.
