BEHBEHANI ? HARAMI !!

It was in the month of October 1990, somewhere on 1^{st or 2nd. two months after the invasion of Kuwait. I was preparing myself to make arrangement to leave Kuwait by the end of that month and since I had some household items to dispose of, I found one Iraqi customer whom I sold my Washing Machine. When that customer took the Machine down on the ground floor he was caught by the Iraqi soldier who took the customer to the nearby Police Station for questioning whether it was robbed or purchased. The Police Chief at the Police Station summoned me to confirm the truth.}

When I told the Police Chief the truth he would not believe me but I insisted on telling the real truth. Then he asked me to show him my ID where it was indicated my employers name as Behbehani. When he saw this name his face became red with anger and catching me by my beard he shouted at me saying "BEHBEHANI? HARAMI !!." For this I retorted fearlessly saying "Sir, Behbehanis are my employers and sponsors and they are nice people and not HARAMI". Then again he shouted at me giving some abuses and commanding me to get out and leave Kuwait immediately with the inssulting words "ella rue".

My entire working career in Kuwait I spent under Behbehanis at their Shuwaikh division "Behbehani Motors Co." where I worked for 38 years and during this long period I found Behbehanis as very good people as human beings and also as employers. They ere humane, very kind hearted and non harassing employers, very systematic and very erect. Unnecessary without any appropriate reason they would not harm any emplooyee nor hurt any employee however small he or she may be. They are highly sophisticated and highly dignified. It was honour for me to work for them. In one word I can rightly say that they are Godly people.

Behbehanis in Kuwait are might and power wielding extremely high influence in all the segmets of the Kuwaiti society. Somewhere in late seventies when the elder son Mr. Ali Morad Behbehani of the president of the company the late Mr. Morad Yousuf Behbehani, got married, the wedding reception was held at Kuwait Sheraton with the attendance even of the entire Kuwaiti Cabinet headed by the Kuwait's premier Sheikh Saad. This was the first time in the history of Kuwait as far as I know such an occasion was held. This was due to the mighty power of Behbehani family.

During the 8 years war between Iraq and Iran in eighties, the economy of Kuwait was undergoing stress and because of this financial stress some companies including some mighty ones started reducing the salaries of their staff. But Behbehanis never followed them, on the contrary Behbehani gave increament to their staff. This shows the might of Behbehanis.

According to their tradition, Behbehanis never interfere in your personals affairs, outside matters they do not link with your work. No expatriate in Kuwait among Goans was involved in extracurricular activities as I was during my residence in Kuwait. Because of my such activities I also received jealousy from some community member. In oroder to punish me for doing such activities, some members of the community sent a fax message to the president of the company Mr. Morad Y. Behbehani against me for writing articles in the local Newspapers and elsewhere and requesting Mr. Behbehani to terminate me from the job. Unfortunately for them and fortunately for me according to my source in our Head Office Mr. Behbehani just threw this scrap into the Waste Paper Basket. If it was somebody else there might have been action taken on me but not in Behbehani.

Accroding to my experiennced observation in Behbehani, I can rightly say that Behbehanis are godly people and not and NEVER HARAMI. In fact the real HARAMI in Behbehanis are the rascal Managers who are manning the Behbehani business empire and who are real responsible persons to tarnish the very fair image of Behbehani. During my long years stay at Behbehani with the exception of one or two,  never I found any Manager worthy to hold managerial position. Not only many of them  were professionally, educationally, wisdomatically and morally rascals but as human beings they were extremely selfish never bothered to do justice for the staff working under them. They were selfish making use of their Chairs only for their own benefit by harassing and neglecting others. As human beings their quality was very poor. They survived there on their jobs as one eyed persons among the blind whom they kept supressed. Some of them were so cruel that the acted like Iraqi soldiers during the invasion of Kuwait.

During my entire tenure in Behbehani I noticied nothing but Nazism, Racism, Narrow Arabism, Maharaja-ism and Regionalism practiced by the managers who are real HARAMI and who for the sake of their job security and easy flow of money will even sell their wives because as per my information a few of them were first class Pimps. And these Pimps and rascals bring bad name for Behbehaniis.

Otherwise Behbehanis by themselves are excellent people, very charitable and NOT HARAMI. May God Bless them.

 

 

A/ Veronica Fernandes,

Goa.  Tel: 7507394349. 

" MANDD " FROM CANDOLIM, GOA..

According to the information gathered from the elders, the formation of the well-known Mandd at Candolim Pintos Vaddo came into being almost a century back. In this Vaddo about 200 metres away from this Mandd situated the house of world renowned hypnotist Abade de Faria. The establishment of this Mandd came thru gradual evolution. And history says that next to the house of one of the renowned village Bhattkars, Chico Bhattkar some persons from this Vaddo after doing the tiring work in the fields and elsewhere as manual workers used to gather there and discuss various issues of their work and other topics mainly related to their problems. Most of them were bare chested wearing just a Kastti and lighting a small fire in the form of a “doktto” to give them warmth especially during the severe winter days. As days and months and even years passed, this gathering became a daily routine where the gathered men started to bring in liquor also there to drink while they gathered in the form of a Mandd to discuss the topics of their interest either good or bad. While dispersing from there they made a habit of saying a small prayer for their wellbeing and that of their Vaddo, Village and Goa. Later on they brought in a small wooden Cross and fixed it on a small piece of Coconut tree called “Korvo” about 2 metres in height and around that Cross they gathered there for their routine. What is Mandd? Mandd means a gathering, it is a place where people get together to discuss their issues of different nature. The word Manddo our traditional song was derived from the word Mandd. Gradually some forward thinking persons at the later stage whom we call “kalsaumkar” because they were wearing short Pant and not a Kaxtti infiltrated into this gathering. They had educational background according to the need of the time and one of them was my father who being very well versed in Konkani reading and writing spent his early youthful days at Arpora School in the boarding. My father wanted to create a fund for the good of the members and this view in his mind he proposed to organize a Tiatro for which purpose he requested his colleagues at Mandd and the then well-known Tiatrist Santano popularly known in the village as “Genno Santan” who staged his Tiatro in 1946 at the Mandd on the second February in aid of Mandd to collect fund for this Mandd. Two of the artistes Mr. Edmund Fernandes and Antonio D’Silva from Pintos Vaddo who participated in this first ever Tiatro staged at Mandd are the living testimony to this maiden event. It would have been a nice gesture to felicitate both of them during the Tiatro on 2.2.14. Earlier, it was customary to hold Zagor at Mandd on this day. Thru this fund raising Tiatro, a fund of Rupees Three was collected to help the dead members to prepare Coffins for them. During those days many of the poor persons could not afford to spend money to prepare Coffins for their dead and as such they had to use Fabrica’s Coffin. Fabrica’s Coffin was the property of the Church permanently lying at one corner in the Cemetry to use to carry the dead body of the poor person from the residence of the dead to the Cemetry. Using Fabrikachi Kas as it used to be called then was a sign of the abject poverty of the dead person and it was also a sign of social humiliation. In order to avoid this social stigma on the poor members, the Mandd allocated a certain amount from the Mandd fund for the purpose of preparing Coffins for the dead members. It was a big relief then for the poor dead person to get a dignified burial and not an undignified burial in a Fabrikachi Kas. To increase the strength of the Mandd Fund, the members of the Mandd from Pintos Vaddo including Araddy annually had to pay a certain amount of membership fee or subscription, initially it was one Anna and currently it is raised to Fifty Rupees; the current amount allocated for a dead member as “Prem” is Rupees 20,000/-. Additionally, with the strength of the current accumulated fund, the Mandd is also helping financially the charitable causes. Because of its good work, Mandd acquired jealousy from some quarters including from some internal elements who somewhere in 1965 in order to liquidate the Mandd complained to the Police that this Mandd is involved in activities against the government rules and regulations. The devilish elements hatched a plan thru their destructive ideas to get arrested some elders in the Mandd and liquidate the Mandd forever. But by the grace of God and with the help of my both the elder brothers and intelligent father the disaster was averted and thus saved the Mandd from extinction. The other facility this Mandd provided was giving loan to the needy members without interest but by mortgaging their gold which was kept in a safe custody in a small wooden box along with the accumulated fund at the residence of one of the senior members. The small Cross at the Mandd fixed on top of the Korvo is known to create living miracles and because of these miracles devotees from different religions throng there in big numbers on every Sunday to pray there and ask favours from God. Because of its miraculous power the fame of this Mandd Cross is spread far and wide. The devotees coming to pray there pour the Cross with Flowers and money in the donation box. As it is customary, this year as usual on the day of the feast of our lady of Candelaria colloquially known as Condoi Saibinn on second of February, the Mandd is going to organize a Tiatro “Hello Uncle” by Tomazinho Cardoso with the participation of his troupe. This Tiatro is written and directed by Tomazinho Cardoso and will start at 10.00 PM. Tomazinho Cardoso is a very good Stage artiste well known all over Goa as a very good script writer based on current topics. He is known to stage his Tiatros for good and charitable causes. In the past he staged his Tiatros to raise funds for the local Church School and other good causes in the village. He is a Tiatrist not to make money but to serve the causes of the society. And for Mandd as a Tiatrist he is very close since he acted many times in Mandd Tiatros during the last 5 decades. A. Veronica Fernandes, Goa. Tel. 7507394349.

Finally into Freedom.

Finally, by the grace of God I reached my homeland Goa and breathing the air freely without any fear of midnight knock at my door by the inhuman Surtis (Policemen) to check my credentials as a legal or illegal resident. The air that I am inhaling now is full of human dignity and independence and not of slavery and fear nor of suppression. Since I have come for good a month back there is no fear in my marrow of cruel Surtis to question me why I am roaming in this side and in that side, no Surti is asking me for my ID (Hawia) to check my identity as if I am a thief, my identity is no more depicted on a small piece of paper but my identity is based on myself as I am seen. There is no calling me by derogatory terms like Hindi Gauvad (Indian Donkey) and Hindi Muskin (Poor Indian). The fear of Surti asking me irrelevant questions and punishing me without genuine reasons are gone forever and I feel I am now free of fear inflicted on me by the fearful system as it exists in Israel for non-Jew Arab Palestinians. Since last one month I am treated like a real full-fledged member of human society in a true sense of Islam and not in mutilated form of Judaism. While pondering over the years I spent in Kuwait living and working in rigid atmospheres, I must thank all my colleagues working with me for their cooperation and it was only thru their cooperation that I worked successfully. Once again I thank them all. On my last working day my immediate management accorded me a very warm farewell which was very rare by giving me a precious gift and presenting me with a memorable Plaque in appreciation of my excellent long term service. I very much value this memorable gesture of my management which gave me a feeling that I was somebody in my company though I always had an impression that I was nobody. I also appreciate Indian Football fraternity under Kuwait Indian Football Federation for organizing a grand farewell function for me at Shuwaikh football stadium in the presence of a large gathering and presenting me with a beautiful commemorative Plaque for my efforts in promoting soccer in Kuwait among the community members. I must similarly admit that it was very nice gesture on the part of Don Bosco School in Kuwait to present me a Plaque as a mark of appreciation for my efforts to promote soccer among Indians in Kuwait. Finally, I thank my colleagues in Kuwait Konknni Kendr to host a dinner party in my honour. While concluding I thank everyone who wished me goodbye and good health in Goa. A. Veronica Fernandes, Goa. Tel. No. 7507394349.