The Ratanshi Gordhandas Family

The Ratanshi Gordhandas Family

More than 150 years ago, a young Gordhandas sat in a wooden dhow from Kutch Mundra, with nothing but the clothes on his back, not even a passport or travel papers. All he had with him were 2 gold bangles, which he brought to begin his business in Oman. He landed in Barkha after a long 2-month journey in which he had just one small bottle of drinking water a day. Gordhandas began his business in trading food essentials and textiles with a bare minimum investment. Over time, he expanded his business, gradually building a small house right under the Barkha fort. He brought his 15 year old son Ratanshi to join his business. Ratanshi came with his 13 year old bride and they lent their hands in the family business which was, by then, dealing with dates, and footstuff like rice, flour, sugar, spices and salt. They were also involved with the money lending business, often helping the community in times of need. A Gujarati tutor by the name of Kumud Adhikari was brought to Barkha to teach the young children mathematics, and writing letters in Gujarati, the two necessary skills for a Gujarati businessman59 .

Ratanshi Gordhandas with Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma © Ratanshi Gordhandas Family

59 Details of the Ratanshi Gordhandas family are part of personal interviews held with

Permanand Bajaria. The photographs and documents he shared are published with his permission.

THE RATANSHI GORDHANDAS BAJARIA [BHATIA] FAMILY

Eventually, Ratanshi came to Muttrah to expand the family business, setting up a small establishment behind Ramesh Bhavan. Ratanshi’s son, Permanand reminiscences that they would take a boat from Barkha to Muttrah Corniche to complete any official work. The travel from Barkha to Muttrah would take 2 days by jetty. Permanand himself was born in the American Mission hospital in Muttrah circa 1945. By that time, the family had a landrover which would be used to travel between Muttrah and Barkha, a journey which would take more than 6 hours. By 1955, Permanand came back to Muttrah, having completed his school education in Kutch. He lived in Barkha for some time with his grandfather and in 1960, came back to Muscat where he trained at W.J. Towell and worked in Purshottam Damodar’s company. Permanand remembers his main jobs as being cleaning the stores and godowns on most days and when the jetties would arrive with fresh supplies, the next few days would go into offloading (usually lasting 2-3 hours after Fajr prayers), categorizing all offloaded items, counting them and making a list (called the parchi or ‘barva’). As he recounts, produce came from different parts of the world including flour and fruit from Australia, spices, oil and clothes from India, coffee from Guatemala and ghee from Holland. He even remembers

being told of a British steamer being bombed in the course of the Second World War.

Gordhandas and his son Ratanshi were closely involved with the community in Barkha, often working with them in times of need and helping everyone through tough times. In fact, Sultan Taimur had recognized Ratanashi’s generous contribution to alleviate suffering during the famine of 1943 with an official citation. Permanand gradually expanded his business from foodstuff to building material in 1970 and constructed the first 2-floored building in Wadi Kabir. He was known to host the annual Navratri festival involving everybody in the community and acquired a reputation for philanthropy. He speaks more than 8 languages including Arabic, Farsi, Belushi, Kutchi, Hindi, and ‘a little bit of English’.