The power of perseveranc.., p.1
The Power of Perseverance, page 1
For my mother, Savitaba, and my wife, Usha, the two people who had the most impact on my life.
—Sir Mahesh Patel, OBE
Contents
Introduction
Prologue : Queen Elizabeth II in Fiji, 1970
Chapter 1 : Gujarat
Chapter 2 : Fiji
Chapter 3 : New Zealand
Chapter 4 : Papua New Guinea
Chapter 5 : England
Chapter 6 : City Pharmacy
Chapter 7 : Australia
Chapter 8 : India
Chapter 9 : Sydney
Chapter 10 : Worldview
Chapter 11 : Order of the British Empire
Chapter 12 : Giving Back
Chapter 13 : Fires and Ashes
Chapter 14 : Knight Bachelor
Chapter 15 : Business Life
Chapter 16 : Mentor
Chapter 17 : Missteps
Chapter 18 : Where Are You From?
Chapter 19 : Passion and Perspective
Chapter 20 : Port Moresby, November 2022
Chapter 21 : Fate and Karma
Chapter 22 : Tomorrow
Chapter 23 : The Ganges
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
List of People Interviewed
Notes
About the Book
About the Author
Copyright
Introduction
Sir Mahesh Patel, OBE, walks into a room, and immediately all eyes and ears focus on him—his passion and enthusiastic, childlike smile, his joyous love of life attract and energize everyone around him.
He assures me that we first met in 2008. Yet, to my embarrassment, I do not remember.
I was working in property management at the time. Sir Mahesh can describe our conversation in such detail that I know the meeting must have occurred. His command and recall of the personal details of those he encounters around the world are superior to most.
It was my good fortune to meet Sir Mahesh and his wife Lady Usha again in 2013, which I certainly do recall. Over time, a personal relationship was formed.
In late 2021, Sir Mahesh read my 2007 biography of world champion boxer Kostya Tszyu and a separate fictional feature film script that I was developing. He kindly entrusted me with the task of putting into words his amazing life story. I am honoured to do so.
In researching this book, it became apparent even those closest to him do not know the full Sir Mahesh Patel story. Of course, his many geographical relocations over the years have contributed to the misplacing of many pieces of the historical jigsaw.
I was determined to bring them all together and paint in words the life of Sir Mahesh Patel in full colour and, with his strong encouragement, record the imperfections as well.
This is a complete view of a husband, father, family member, businessman, philanthropist and friend. Now, you can read the inspiring story of Sir Mahesh Patel and marvel at his perseverance, his achievements and the many amazing things about him you did not know.
Prologue
Queen Elizabeth II in Fiji, 1970
It was a hot, sunny autumn morning on 5 March 1970, when the British royal yacht Britannia sailed into the port of Suva. Queen Elizabeth II was on a special tour of Fiji. This archipelago of 330 emerald islands set in the blue South Pacific Ocean had become a British Crown colony under Queen Victoria’s rule on 10 October 1874. The royal visit was in preparation for a historic event: the granting of independence to its people and the formation of the Dominion of Fiji.
The Queen, resplendent in green dress, complementing hat and white gloves, stepped ashore and was presented with a bouquet of flowers by a young Fijian girl in local traditional dress.
The Queen, accompanied by Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, dressed in his white Royal Navy uniform, moved forward, and both waved to the thousands in attendance, who had waited patiently, hoping to see the reigning monarch in person. The couple were then officially welcomed and treated to a traditional Fijian tribal dance known as Meke i wau, which is performed only for high chiefs.
Later, thousands of Fijian school children lined the main streets waving British flags, as the Queen and her cavalcade of motor vehicles approached.
Eleven-year-old Maheshbhai Patel, with his beaming grin, cheered enthusiastically and waved, as the popular monarch slowly drove by.
As unlikely as it would seem for two individuals so far apart in status and geographical location, forty-two years later, in Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth II and that same Fijian boy of Indian heritage would reminisce together and smile, talking about that warm Pacific day.
Chapter 1
Gujarat
Gujarat is the westernmost state in India and has 1,600 kilometres of beautiful coastline stretching along the Arabian Sea. It is the fifth-largest Indian state by area. The capital is Gandhinagar and its largest city is Ahmedabad. Gujarati is the state’s official language. Gujarati food is primarily vegetarian.
The Gujarati people have a rich history of commercial activity, dating back centuries. Their trade with other civilizations, including Egypt and Bahrain, aided Gujarat’s development immensely. They specialized in arranging shipping and trade across the Indian Ocean.
Tomé Pires, a Portuguese colonial administrator and diplomat who visited India in the early sixteenth century, wrote of the Gujarati traders: ‘These [people] are [like] Italians in their knowledge of and dealings in merchandise ... They are diligent, quick men in trade.’
Two men who played significant roles in the civil rights of Indian people and their country’s eventual independence, were born and raised in Gujarat.
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, known the world over as Mahatma Gandhi, is venerated for his non-violent struggle against British rule in India. Born in Porbandar in 1869, Gandhi was an Indian lawyer and anti-colonial nationalist who led the successful campaign for India’s independence, won in 1947. Further, Gandhi held strong beliefs in the rights of women and urged ‘women to fight for their own self-development’.
Vallabhbhai Patel was born in Nadiad in 1875. He was also known as Sardar Patel—‘Sardar’ means ‘chief’ in Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Persian. He was an Indian lawyer who became an influential political leader. One of Mahatma Gandhi’s earliest political allies, and a senior leader of the Indian National Congress, he played a prominent role in the country achieving independence. He was the first deputy prime minister and home minister of the newly independent India, from 1947 to 1950.
Both Gandhi and Patel are considered by many as the founding fathers of the Republic of India, highly respected for their personal sacrifices and unconditional community service.
Bhagwanbhai Ishwarbhai Patel and his wife Jiviben Patel lived in Mandala, a village in Dabhoi Taluka in the Vadodara district of Gujarat. Bhagwanbhai worked as a booking clerk at the local Mandala railway station.
Their second daughter, Savitaben Patel, was born on 31 May 1929. Her parents named her Savita upon seeing their child’s amazing glowing complexion. ‘Savita’ means the sun; It can also mean a humanitarian and generous individual. ‘Ben’ means sister, and is used as an honorific as part of the name to denote respect. ‘Bhai’, meaning brother, is similarly attached to male names.
Savitaben lived with her five sisters, Shantaben, Kantaben, Kapilaben, Manjulaben and Jayaben, and one brother, Dahyabhai. Tragically, Dahyabhai died of smallpox at the age of eight.
Shortly after, when her sister Shantaben sadly died from a mystery illness, Savitaben became the oldest sibling of the family. She took on the role of big sister to her four younger sisters. She accepted the role passionately, promising her parents that she would always take care of her siblings.
Bhagwanbhai and Jiviben Patel held strong beliefs in religion and culture. They followed the tenets of the Swaminarayan faith with complete devotion. It is a branch of Hinduism, which was founded by the yogi and ascetic Shree Swaminarayan, at the end of the eighteenth century in Northern India.
The Swaminarayan followers adopt his teachings of practising high morals, love and compassion for all, irrespective of caste, creed, colour or gender. He encouraged charity towards those less fortunate and education for everyone, including lower castes and women, which was unheard of at the time.
At the age of seven, Savitaben was taken to their local temple and formally initiated into the Swaminarayan faith. The Swami (the then head of the sect) blessed her and, as was traditional, gave her a personal secret Swaminarayan mantra as a lifelong chant. She became a devout follower.
With the strong encouragement of her parents, Savitaben attended school and joined the Girl Guides movement. She was an avid reader. She believed these helped her maintain ‘good mental and physical health’.
But life would change for Savitaben at the age of eleven. Her parents decided it was time for her to discontinue her schooling and prepare for marriage, as was the tradition at the time in the Patel community.
While disappointed by the decision, Savitaben accepted it as a dutiful daughter and prepared for her new training, working with her mother to manage the home in preparation for her betrothal.
Two years later in 1942, at the age of thirteen, Savitaben’s marriage was arranged with Maganbhai Patel, son of Prabhudas Patel, from a respectable family in the Karkhadi village. The wedding was held over four days at Savitaben’s home in Mandala.
After two years of getting to know each other, when Savitaben was fifteen, both families agreed that Savitaben and Maganbhai were now ready to live together in Karkhadi.
Prabhudas Patel had built a large home for his four school-educated sons and owned separate farming land. Maganbhai worked on the family farm with his brothers, managing the farm staff, the sale of the produce and the accounts.
At the age of seventeen, Savitaben became pregnant and, as was the tradition, she returned to her parents’ home in Mandala for the birth of first daughter Taraben. Two years later, sister Kusumben arrived. The new parents rejoiced at the blessings they had received.
Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon was appointed Governor of Fiji in June 1875 by the British. In 1878, Gordon decided to import indentured labourers from India, making use of a British scheme to assist their regional colonies. It was a substitute for slave labour, following the abolition of the trade in the early nineteenth century. The Indian workers, employed on five-year contracts, were paid and worked in the sugar cane fields in Fiji. The same scheme was used to send Indian workers to the Caribbean, South Africa, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Myanmar, creating the many Indian diasporas around the world today.
While the indentured labour scheme was discontinued in the 1920s and many of the workers returned home to India, many remained in Fiji to earn a living, thus creating a pathway between India and Fiji.
Maganbhai Patel’s brother Chhotabhai had settled in Fiji. He sponsored Maganbhai and Savitaben, who were granted a permit to live and work in Fiji. At the age of only twenty and now married for seven years, Maganbhai and Savitaben Patel, made the difficult life-changing decision to relocate to Fiji with daughters Taraben and Kusumben. In 1949, the young family boarded a train in Karkhadi and travelled via Vadodara and Bombay (now Mumbai) and then to Calcutta (now Kolkata).
After a two-week wait in Calcutta, the family boarded the Orma, which made regular trips ferrying passengers to and from Suva, the capital of Fiji. The voyage to their new home took twenty-eight days and nights.
Savitaben would say of the journey in later years when telling her life story to relatives: ‘The sun had set in India and risen in Fiji.’
Chapter 2
Fiji
Maganbhai Patel and Savitaben, with daughters Taraben and Kusumben, arrived in Fiji in 1949. They moved in with Maganbhai’s older brother Chhotabhai Patel and his wife Chancharben, who had arrived eight years earlier and had settled down in Ba, a town in the northwestern part of Viti Levu, the largest island of Fiji. (Incidentally, in Gujarati, ‘ba’ means ‘respected lady’ and is used as an honorific appended to senior women’s names.) Chhotabhai had set up a grocery and general shop in the main street of Ba, with a two-storey house built of wood and tin just behind it. Maganbhai, Savitaben and their daughters moved into the lower storey.
Savitaben later recalled her initial impressions of Fiji. ‘It was a green and fresh landscape everywhere and not as many people as there were in Mandala and Karkhadi.’
Chhotabhai asked Maganbhai to manage the business for him. Their new company name was C.P. Patel. They sold food grains, sugar, oil, onions, potatoes and fruits in one part of the store, and general merchandise in the other.
Maganbhai and Savitaben worked long hours to make the business an eventual success. But the early days were difficult. Maganbhai’s father wrote to the couple, encouraging them to return to India if their life was unbearable. At one point, when their lives were extremely difficult, Maganbhai suggested to Savitaben that she return home to Karkhadi with their children and that he would follow in a few years. Savitaben refused, expressing her faith in God and that He ‘would not deny us the fruits of our labour’.
In 1950, Savitaben became pregnant again. Their first son Pravin arrived and the family were overjoyed. In 1951, the second son Bhupen arrived. Following quickly in order were daughter Tarulata, son Bipin, son Jagdish, son Mahesh, and finally son Anil in 1964. Savitaben was thirty-five years of age when her ninth child, Anil, was born. Mahesh, the eighth child, was born at the Mission Hospital, two miles outside of Ba, in 1959.
The name Mahesh is a short version of a name of Sanskrit origin, Maheswara or Umamaheswara, meaning ‘Great Lord’. It is a popular name for Hindu boys as it is one of the names of Shiva.
‘To be honest, I never asked my parents why they chose Mahesh,’ he recalls. ‘They would have looked through an ancient book, and due to my horoscope, they would have looked for a name with the letter “ma”.’
Mahesh’s traditional Gujarati name is Maheshbhai, following the Gujarati tradition of adding ‘bhai’ and ‘ben’ to names.
‘My name was Maheshbhai,’ explained Mahesh. ‘Then everyone thought “Bhai” was my middle name, so I thought, I’m going to be called Mahesh Patel.’
Mahesh Patel and his family have vivid memories of growing up in Fiji.
Mahesh Patel: ‘Ba is inland. It is basically a sugar town. We had a railway track running right in the middle of town. As soon as a train stopped, we would pull out sugarcane and eat it. That was fun, a real country life: walking to school, going out to pick fruits from the trees, getting stung by bees, chasing off wild dogs. It was really a one-street town. Everybody knew everyone. We had aunties across the road and sometimes you would yell over the balcony, “Hey, shall we go to the movies tonight?” That’s how close-knit we were.’
Mahesh Patel: ‘We grew up in a large family with six boys and three girls. We had an uncle who had eight children. At any point in time, there would be fifteen to twenty people living in a three-bedroom house. Our front door was never locked. There was no key. Sometimes, because we used to sneak out, Mum and Dad would put a chair behind the door. When we would try and push the door, the chair would scrape on the floor tiles and screech. I remember when I was eight or nine, I went to a movie at one of the old traditional cinema halls and fell asleep. Nobody in my house noticed I was not home. There was no headcount. I woke up around midnight. It was dark and I started crying. I was banging on the door. A policeman passing by heard me. He got the theatre owner to let me out and took me to our house. I got into trouble with my parents.’
Anil Patel: ‘Mahesh was a good brother. He always looked after me. As I was the youngest, he was the one I looked up to. With everybody else, the age gap was too big. It was a large family; everybody was doing their own thing. He was the brother I could relate to.
‘Back in those days, I was quite skinny. He told me to drink raw eggs with milk. I wanted a watch. He said, “If you have that every day, I will give you a watch.” He did. A small ladies’ Seiko. I would have been eight or nine.’
Mahesh Patel: ‘When my parents used to travel, they would take my youngest brother Anil along because he was too young to leave at home. I used to get left at my auntie’s place. Daksesh Patel is my first cousin, one of many, but he’s closest as we grew up together in Fiji. This is how close we were as family: I remember in Class 2, I put down Daksesh’s mum’s name as my mother’s name … I’ve got that health card somewhere at home. I spent so much time with my Aunty Manjulaben Patel when I was young, I wrote her name in place of my mother’s in my school health card.’
Daksesh Patel: ‘I consider Mahesh one of my closest cousins. He is five years older than me, and at that age, five years was a large gap. When I was a kid, I used to look at Mahesh as my elder brother because I did not have any brothers; I have two sisters.
‘Mahesh felt like a brother and he still does. His father and my father and their forefathers came from the same village in Gujarat. There is a strong connection there. Then, our fathers end up marrying two sisters. So, we have connections on both our mothers’ side and fathers’ side. We are uniquely close.’
Anil Patel: ‘Mum and Dad were strict vegetarians. It was the belief of the village back home. As we grew up, our parents told us the importance of being vegetarian and not eating meat. Being vegetarian made us part of the home village. “Our bodies are not made for it. The body can’t take it,” they said. Eating meat back in those days was taboo at home. The first time I ever tried fish was with Mahesh. I must have been twelve. We went on a picnic, and I ate fish and chips. A school trip or a picnic was a good opportunity to eat meat. When our parents were alive, we would not eat meat in front of them; not even cook it at home. When they were away, we did cook meat at home, but we would still use a different set of utensils. That is how strong the beliefs of my parents were.’
