BOUND FOR THE GULF


For millions of poor Indians, if you want to hit the jackpot the answer isn't the lottery -there isn't one. It's a few years working in the oil-rich Gulf states. As a domestic servant, a driver or a simple laborer.
Among the pavement dwellers of Byculla, almost everyone seems to know someone who's either just left or just returned from the Gulf. Like Rehmat's husband - Kamar Ahmed - who's just received an offer he won't refuse in to go and work in the Gulf.
~
It's early afternoon in the old garage that serves as an office for Mahila Milan in Byculla. Jockin’s teasing Rehmat and her husband Kamar Ahmed.
“Kamar Ahmed - Indian Servant, Bombay - 47 - Mohammad hal Shaikh - employment visa.”.
They've just received an official-looking document in Arabic and English. And they want to know what it says! Kamar Ahmed’s finally got a visa to go work in Dubai. As a private servant in a rich man's house. Jockin says he’ll earn at least 10,000 a month
Good money, very good money! Kamar leaves this Sunday.
Kamar Ahmed's going for a very simple reason.”Can't earn much over here. One can earn better over there. Here, I get enough. But I can't save anything. I get, I eat, and that's it!”
The employment visa says he'll be getting ten thousand Rupees a month. Two hundred dollars. Sounds a lot for a pavement dweller.
“No, no! That is not true!” Jockin interrupts: “He's earning really good money here. This is not a very big difference, but it's in bulk. Now he is earning equal to that. There's not a very big difference in money as such.”
That really does surprise me!
“He's already earning six to seven thousand a month here, also....now, he earns 100 - 150 a day.”
Kamar Ahmad does Zari -fine embroidery work for fancy boutiques. He earns well, when there's work. And that's the problem. When there's work! So, to make ends meet, he does a little something on the side.
“For four months, in the rains, I don't get any work. So, at that time, I've opened my own ayurvedic dispensary.” Jockin cracks up with laughter. Kamar Ahmed’s been helping his uncle in Dharavi, running a little stall, dispensing medecines. And not just any old medicines. Kamar’s reluctant to explain. Jockin has no such qualms.
“Aphrodisiacs!”
“Then why do you need to go to the Gulf to make money!?” 7
In fact, he does. He's broke. His entire stock - 20,000 Rupees - was confiscated by the Police because he didn't have a permit. And even when things are going well, there are expenses!
“The major expense is advertising. We give it in all the local Hindi and Marathi papers.”
I want to know more. “What is this wonderful aphrodisiac made of?”
Kamar explains that’s it’s made from “ a combination of various herbs, which are all Indian herbs. We buy them separately. We process them. We grind them and make it into some kind of a potion with the base, and it is very effective for men.”
The price varies according to the customer. Or how much they think they can con them for. To use Kamar Ahmad's expression: Depending on the size of the goat!
Kamar says most of his customers are South Indians or locals. But very rarely Muslim men.
“So you've never tried this wonderful potion yourself?”
Of course I have. Otherwise how could I sell it?
“And you find it really effective?”
“Yes, absolutely!”
So working in the Gulf could solve a few financial problems for Kamar Ahmed. Rehmat, of course, will also be expecting Kamar to bring back a long list of goodies.
Celine says Rehmat will want a gold chain. She'll want clothes for the children,
“A television?” It would seem logical to me. “She already has a color television at home. I remember an old black and white set from two years ago. Jockin says she sold that one last year and bought the colour set. “See, She’s borrowed money here and there.” explains Jockin., “they have to spend 12,000 Rupees now in cash to go to Gulf”
Just to get out of India will also cost Kamar Ahmed a little something extra. He needs an exit permit stamped in his passport. Somebody will get paid baksheesh - maybe two or three thousand Rupees, to turn a blind eye when Kamar Ahmed gets to Passport Control at Bombay airport.
So now the total just to get to Paradise is already more than 22,000 Rupees or the first 10 weeks' salary, and counting, and this is all assuming his new boss is honest and will pay him what he says he'll pay him on this piece of paper!. And then there's the problem of the existing debts. Kamar Ahmed and Rehmat like the Good Life.
“On Sunday, he would like to take her, go and stand somewhere, go and take her out, go for a movie. They borrow 100 Rupees and go for a movie, which is too much. You pay 100 Rupees ten Rupees or twenty Rupees in interest a month.”
To show she's a good Muslim, Rehmat's been known to invite everyone on Apna Jhopadpatti to a feast that set her back 2,000 Rupees - two weeks wages - and then go out next morning and borrow the money to pay the bills. Just yesterday, Jokin paid off one of Rehmat's debts, a 3,000 Rupee loan for which she had to pay the moneylender almost 4,000 Rupees interest over eighteen months.
Jockin says Rehmat’s counting on Kamar Ahmed making 10,000 a month and sending half of it back. “But unless the money directly to Mahila Milan and Mahila Milan places certain conditions it’ll simply run through her fingers and non one will be better off.”
Somehow Rehmat's spending habits have to be brought under control. Rehmat's a classic case of somebody who’s desires really do outstrip her. Nevertheless, Jockin defends her: “But she's very smart also. See, the beauty of Rehmat is that she can dress up so beautiful. After ten minutes she can be as dirty as much as possible also. She can also be a lazy bitch. You find after ten minutes she will be working very hard to earn that ten paise....she is a toughie. She can do anything. She can go anywhere.”.
“You think she'll survive the absence quite easily.”
Jockin is certain: “Oh yea. She don't need him. She may miss. That is there. You cannot say that she does not have that affection and love for him. She'll miss him. But not the extent what he is going to miss her.”
Kamar Ahmad's got the hots for Rehmat. He'll make any excuse to come home for lunch, no matter where is. “So I tease him. Bloody bugger! “ Jockin adds,”You've not come to eat lunch! You've come to see your wife! Don't try to pretend!”
Jokin says Kamar will send Rehmat photos and clothes, and write sweet nothings. And if Rehmat doesn't respond in kind all hell will break loose! It's already happened once before.
“Earlier, one day, without informing, he went to Delhi. They’d a petty quarrel. She cried and wept and we packed her in the train within eight hours, to go and find. She took Mahila Milan money and rushed to Delhi within twenty four hours to find him out. And that kind of a pair, which we know very closely, how they going to be separately living for two years? So I'm saying: to please her he has to send so many things!”
Jokin's got a bet on that Kamar will get so desperate he'll ask Rehmat to send a fake telegram to his new boss in the Gulf saying his mother is ill. The boss will give him the ticket and Kamar will get back here well before his leave's due.
Later that afternoon, Celine and I talk to Rehmat alone. But two years is a pretty long time for any couple to be separated. Celine asks Rehmat if she'll cry when he leaves.
“Why should I cry? I've got all of you!”
Rehmat's playing it very cool. No outward show of emotion. “I'm happy that he's going. At least he will earn something and come back. Because here he doesn't have a regular job. He earns for four days. He may not earn for the rest..So, at least he will save some money and come back. He's going for the first time. So I don't know whether I'll be sad or happy. After he leaves I will know.
Shehnaz pipes up: “Of course you'll miss him! Who's going to cuddle you at night?” Jokin sees his opening. “Shehnaz husband so good. The minute she goes from the office, returns back from the job, 5'o clock, everybody teases Shehnaz..her husband runs to buy a tea for her.” Shehnaz giggles. “In Indian tradition it is the other way round. The women will go, make a tea, give the husband.”
“This really lucky woman. eh? She's very lucky. Husband is very gentle. There's no hanky-panky business, accounting money. If she shouts at him he will go anywhere and loot, get the money for her.”
Conventional wisdom says that if you're poor - whether you're Hindu or Muslim - it's a man's world. But quite a number of the women here on the pavement have a lot more power than they let on.
“If I said this openly, the Feminists will kill!. Me. But it’s the key understanding Shehnaz.”
Jokin's risking his neck but he’s probably telling the truth.
“I really accept sincerely women as a quality. But still she knows how to twist the husband. She knows very well, she uses all her charms - sex and everything. In Indian society, if a woman decides to get certain things done, it is done!
Celine agrees. “You’ll get the goodies. But what are you going to do for sex?”
But Indian women prefer to keep up the fiction of themselves as subservient! Reality here in Byculla is different.
“Many of our Indian lower-class women are the decision-makers. But they will not come out and say: I made a decision. For a daughter son-in-law has been selected by her. But all will be said is that he did everything. He made the decision..like Sakina manage the house, Banoo twist her husband the way she want. Like Medina's husband is absolutely a slave. He's a slave! Medina will make him to sit down. And he will sit down”
Jokin thinks Kamar and Rehmat haven't really totted up all the costs of going to the Gulf.
“He is with the family. Now, he has to be without family. And his expenditure would be around 3,000 Rupees. And he definitely have to send 4,000 - 5,000 to Rehmat every month. It's about 8,000 Rupees. What is the big difference?”
Kamar will also have to leave Rehmat with enough money for the next month, before he gets paid and can start sending something back. Iit means that they are already in debt of about 20,000 Rupees..
Kamar Ahmed simply doesn't know how to say No to Rehmat. The reason in one word is sex.
“He’s very attracted to her, and he is a very genuine simple guy. He's not a male dominant person.”
Rehmat knows the power of her charms and she uses them. One obvious example: instead of living with Kamar's family, as is the Indian custom, Rehmat's made Kamar Ahmed come to live with her family.
“She decides everything. In fact, I don't think he has any decision-making at all. See Banoo's husband supposed to be the decision-maker. But he wants her all the time with her...see, some of these things you cannot in the Indian society openly talk. We have a lot of things to say: the decisions are made at bedrooms.”
Sex isn't something Indians feel comfortable talking about, though the Mahila Milan women can tell some pretty dirty jokes when they let their hair down. But in public even the Byculla women prefer to keep up the fiction that they're slaves to their husbands.
Jockin’s voice suddenly becomes high-pitched: “He's my God. My husband is my god. I cannot overpower him!”
But I can seduce him! To get my way! I wonder how many other development projects explicitly use sex as a strategy?
Kamar Ahmed left three days later. A month later the riots broke out and Mumbai was in flames. I went to see Rehmat.
“You've talked with him?”
“Last Monday I spoke with him on the phone “
”And is everything there as he thought it was? is his work as good as he thought it was going to be?”
“He says - his work - whatever he was expecting his work, job is according to expectation and he is very happy. But he is very worried about what's happening right now in Bombay, because he keeps seeing it on TV and listening it, hearing it on radio.”
Afterwards, things settled down. Every so often Rehmat would tell me he'd phoned, everything was going fine. And then one afternoon in the rainy season, it must have been eighteen months later, Rehmat came into the office ponging like an ad for Chanel Number Five. She positively reeked perfume. That could only mean one thing: Kamar Ahmed was back.
Next day, I went down to #79 Apna Jhopadpatti. Kamar Ahmed has just left. Rehmat was in, preparing the food on the kerosene stove, film music blaring from a color TV somewhere above me. The hut was bigger than last time.. Rehmat had raised the roof, added a mezzanine. That's where she slept. That's where the TV was. Rehmat now had cable! All above board. Someone local had a dish. She’d paid 300 Rupees deposit and a monthly charge of 75.
“Recently, I have built this upstairs.”
“All with Gulf money?” I teased her. Rehmat laughed. “There are are ten of us and the space was very little. So we built this. All of used to sleep outside. Now all the children sleep upstairs.”
Kamar Ahmed had been as good as his word. He'd sent back 3,000 Rupees every month to Rehmat and the two kids. “I have cleared all my debts with whatever money he brought from there. I only now owe some money to Mahila Milan
Later that afternoon, Kamar Ahmed himself came to see me in the Mahila Milan office.”Was it as good as you'd imagined it would be before you went? I asked him.
“I was a bit apprehensive before I started. But when I went there it all got evened out and I was fine. I mean, my fears were not so.”
“And the work was what you thought it was going to be? And you got paid what they'd promised you?”
“When I went there, the pay and the promise was as good as what I had heard here. And when I reached there the pay was OK and the Arabs were very nice to me. I mean, it was nice basically.”
This first trip has basically got them out of debt. Kamar Ahmed signed on for another two years. He left again at the end of the month. This time he and Rehmat had decided to save towards their eventual house. And then there's the children's education back here in Byculla. It doesn't come cheaply.
“My children have a cost of about 500, 600 RS in education. So I can't do that staying in India. I can only do that when I'm there. “
Kamar thinks he'll probably stay in the Gulf another four years, and then return here for good. Eventually, he wants to save enough to start his own business in Bombay. Whether it's the making and selling of aphrodisiacs, he wouldn't let on just yet!
He came back alright. But a year later, he had a massive heart attack while walking down Apna Jhopadpatti. Rehmat was widowed before her time. She’s never remarried but has become an entrepreneur within Mahila Milan, constructing communal toilets from A to Z.

Essay
Episodes 1 - 4
Episodes 5 - 8
Episodes 9 - 12
Episodes 13 - 16
Episodes 17 - 20
Episodes 21 - 24
Episodes 25 - 28
Episodes 29 - 32
Episodes 33 - 35

Main Episode List
Cast of Characters
Credits
MP 3

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