UAE | Media
Always there in support of a busy newsroom
Mohammad Ukkayil is the second longest serving staff member at Gulf News. Fondly known as Mamu at work, he joined the paper on October 22, 1979.
- By Mariam M. Al Serkal, Staff Reporter
- Published: 01:20 November 2, 2007
Dubai: Mohammad Ukkayil is the second longest serving staff member at Gulf News. Fondly known as Mamu at work, he joined the paper on October 22, 1979.
"I came from Kerala to Dubai when I was 21," he said. "I decided to visit Dubai after my brother-in-law spoke about it so much whenever he came home," he said.
His father had passed away, his mother was not well and he had two younger brothers and two sisters to look after. He joined the paper as a typesetter. "My salary was Dh1,200 at that time," he said.
His boss asked him to go out and drum up business by getting subscriptions. He would go to people's houses on his bicycle over the sandy roads to leave a free copy of Gulf News on their doorsteps and try to encourage them to subscribe. But he had to give this up as he started getting nose bleeds due to the heat.
"When I first landed in Dubai there were mostly industrial areas and a few villas."
Not many people had heard of the paper. "I only managed to get one subscription every two months," he said. There were not many residential areas at that time and his usual spots would be the apartments near Al Ghurair Centre, Deira, and in Al Ghusais.
Columnist Joe Senior had eulogised Mamu as the "prince of newsboys".
The newspaper was in a tabloid format then and as a typesetter he would prepare advertisements for the Classifieds section.
There were 50 people in circulation when he joined in 1979. "It was a friendly atmosphere, but now there are so many people and I don't know many of them."
Mamu now works at the Central Support Desk, downloading texts and pictures.
Mamu is happily married to Ayeesha Bi and his son is studying at the New Indian Model School. When he completed 20 years with the company, a party was held in his honour and he was presented with a gold watch.
Mamu remembers he got a job with Gulf News by simply walking into the office and asking for one. Mamu does not feel that 28 years have gone past. " I enjoy my work," he said smiling.
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