Distributors build more than a dream home

Abu Dhabi: While landing at the Dubai airport in December 1985, they were thinking of their dream houses which they planned to build back home in India.

But the sandstorms and heavy wind in Dubai offered them a challenge, said five Indians who came to work as newspaper distributors.

"I had got married just six months ago, and marked the space for my dream house for my wife and kid in a plot in my ancestral home," M. Ramakrishnan, 55, said. While flying, he was planning the interior of the house. The picturesque thoughts were spoiled when they reached Abu Dhabi next day.

It started raining heavily, which went on for a week, making the streets flooded.

"We all though that we would not stay here for long," Ramakrishnan said.

But he and four of his colleagues: Chandrashekhar Banjan, 50; Aboobacker Moideenkunji, 52; Sandeep Patel, 44; and Mohammad Abdullah, 49, completed 25 years of service with Gulf News recently, witnessing the history of a newspaper which grew up with them to be the largest circulated English daily in the country.

Unusual hours

The newspaper distributor's job begins around 1am everyday. When the whole world was sleeping, they had to work and it was difficult in the beginning.

"The empty streets and closed shops made us feel that we were the only living beings on the earth and we started enjoying it!" Chandrashekhar Banjan, said.

Their lives turned other way round, their sleeping habits, too, chaged. "We started sleeping during the day time to be awake at night," he said.

Banjan's dream was to renovate the ancestral home which was in a dilapidated state. "As the eldest son of the family, I had taken it as my responsibility," Banjan said.

After completing 25 years with Gulf News, they happily say it was not only a house back home in India they gained — they gained many more things in life through the experience.

Ramakrishnan was able to provide a better education for his daughter who completed a professional degree in education and became a teacher.

"I purchased some more land also," he said.

Banjan completed the renovation of the ancestral home and constructed his own house also.

Children's education

"Now I have made savings to give education to my kids," he said. "But we did not know how 25 years passed," all of them said.

They remembered their initial days with Saeed Ebrahim, 59, a senior staff member at Gulf News' Abu Dhabi office who recently completed 29 years of service.

Ebrahim, an Indian from western state of Maharashtra, joined Gulf News on October 3, 1981.

Ebrahim also knows the thrill of working at night while the whole world is sleeping.

"I also joined as a distributor but later became an office boy," he said.

Aboobacker Moideenkunji and Sandeep Patel also said a quarter century of life in the UAE gave them a good fortune.

But Mohammad Abdullah, said he could not prosper much as he had to support an 11-member family. "Still I am happy that I was able to give much-needed comfort to a large family".

Javed Malek, distribution manager in Abu Dhabi, said he depends on those five men. "Because they are passionate about their jobs... I am proud of them," he said.

Growing with Gulf News

During 1985-86, while they were struggling to sell Gulf News on the streets, some distributors of another English newspaper which was the most circulated daily, used to express their sympathy.

"When customers rejected us, somebody ridiculed me and I retorted that our paper will be the number one and you will be envious of us," Chandrashekhar Banjan, 50, a Gulf News distributor, said.

He said it emotionally but it became a reality very soon.

Gulf News was first launched in tabloid format on September 30, 1978. The format was changed from tabloid to broadsheet size on January 1, 1980. Following a change in management, Gulf News was re-launched on December 10, 1985 initially as a free issue. From February 8, 1986, the public was charged.

"Then, apart from home delivery, we had to sell the papers on the streets but it was little bit difficult because Gulf News was not so popular," M. Ramakrishnan, 55, said.

The situation started changing, and their life too, since 1987- 1988 as Gulf News circulation started growing up fast.

"To give the paper freely, the management wisely instructed us to survey the English speaking residents in a building," Banjan said.

It was not practical to knock at every door to check the English speaking residents but they found a way.

"We befriended the watchmen of the buildings who would tell us the flats of the English speaking residents," Banjan and Ramakrishnan said.

They came to know from the subscribers how they started liking the daily newspaper. "Subscribers used to tell us about the interesting reports and articles, entertaining news in Tabloid! And the use of classified and appointments pages," Banjan explained.

With those positive feedback, their life also became easier.