Your childhood…
My Childhood was in the pure hustle and bustle of Mattancherry, the place I still hold a lot of pleasant memories which are very close to my heart. The school was a lot of fun with friends and we were all very happy.
Alhamdulillah, A very happy family with 15 mem-bers in a small house but with a lot of love and respect for each other.The difference in today’s children’s childhood and ours were very different as the times were very different. All the sacrifices we had to make in our childhood with limited resources have helped us reach this position in our lives today.
Your stepping into the field of business…
My father, was in the field of clearing and forward-ing service, I worked with him for almost 9 years and then moved into the field of seafood trading. I started working at the tender age of 15 years, and tomorrow (13/12/2019) I am turning 54 years of age, so that’s a total of 39 years of hard work-ing. We have all been blessed abundantly and with his blessing only we have reached where we are today.
Your Father Mr.Usman Sait (Bapu Adha) was an active member of our Jamath and CMA, was that the reason that you also at-tracted to the community service at an early age?
My Father, J.M Usman Sait was a very active mem-ber of the Jamath and was the vice president for a long span of 18 years. I watched him spending long hours and a lot of effort towards the service of the people through Jamath. Many times I have told him to slow down a little considering his health but he never gave ears to our plea. He was always busy arranging food kits and medicines and other important necessities for the brothers and sisters of our community. I never expected myself to join into this realm of community service as I was involved in other or-ganizations that did the same but on a smaller scale but also focusing on other activities. Around 24 years ago, when my father left the committee of CMA, he insisted that I join the asso-ciation. The first election I faced was eventful, I remember getting the 2nd highest vote at that time. Our dear and respected Mahmood Ibrahim Sait got the highest vote, that was a matter of pride and great happiness for me seeing that our community had placed trust on me, at that time I was 30. The first two years I was watching and learning from our seniors. In the second term, I was not present due to my business commitments and traveling. Looking at my disinterest in community services, my father told me that time will teach me the importance of being able to serve the community. Later on, I had the opportunity to serve the association as Vice president for 2 years and as Presi-dent for 4 years.
Alhamdulillah, you are active in the educational field also. Our community school Phool wari and the Dawn school are illuminating examples. Could you please first put light on the history of Phool wari?
This school is working under the Cutchi Memon Jamath and I served as the managing trustee and manager for 15 years. When I took this post, my father told me that it is not an easy task, I have to handle things with pa-tience and it will take a lot of time to run and manage this school. The building of the school was in very bad shape and it was a challenge for me, it was as bad as any government schools of that time. The first Chairman of the school was Mr. Ahmed Usman Sait, and a Mr. Mahmood Ibrahim Sait followed him. The previous chairmen supported me and my team to improve the conditions of the school.I consider this as one of the biggest challenge I had taken up in the field of social service. I got tremendous support from my very good friend and brother, Mr. Atheek Nisar and we worked as a team for the uplift of the school. The school was making heavy losses and we found it hard to meet the day to day expenses of the school. For first two years we had to put in our funds to meet the expenses. When I took over as manager, the school had only around 60 students and when I was leaving after 12 years the strength grew to a total of 329 stu-dents which is a matter of great pride and happi-ness for me and my team. I take great pride in being able to associate myself with this school. I thank from deep of my heart Mr Naushad who stood by me as my shadow and helped me with the day to day administration of the school. Now the school got very good amount as cash balance and we have 2 buses without any loan. The infrastructure also vastly improved with multi-ple floors on the existing building. We got some external help in the form of funds and support from our committee members to finish all the works. Today, Mr Naushad is taking good care of the school and he is putting in a lot of hard work and giving a lot of his time to attend to the needs of the school, I very much appreciate his hard work and dedication. Itis a matter of great rewards from the Almighty as Allah himself revealed the Quran with the words “Read” and we are helping our children to read.
About Dawn school?
It is an association of 50 people and the founding Chairman was Mr. Zakaria Usman Sait. I am now managing the school. Dawn public school follows the CBSE Syllabus with a total strength of over 600 students, which is one of the best CBSE schools in the West Cochin area. When we started this school we had the intention of providing quality education which follows the CBSE syllabus at affordable prices for the general public, which is running Alhamdulillah very well for the last 17 years with good results and with good output.
Cutchi Memon Assoaciation under gone tremendous change during your tenure as the President. Could you please elaborate little ?
Before becoming the Association President in 2006, I served four years in the committee and two years as Vice president of the association. I noticed that the Association can perform very well if dedicated youngsters are brought into the committee. When the new committees formed under my presidency we had an aim that our works should set a high standard for the next generation to fol-low. I remember, our team included Mr. Noor Mo-hamed Sait, Mr. Sheraz Anwar Sait, My brother Mr. Rafiq Usman Sait, Mr. Harris Zain and Mr. Nau-shad M. K and my seniors Mr. Mahmood Ibrahim Sait, Mr. Zakeria Usman Sait, Mr.Gaffar Sait.
Shadi Mahal is the only income generating asset of CMA, so we made plans to maintain it well and keep our income steady. The Zakah fund collec-tions were meager around 1 to 1.5 lakhs which was voluntary donations from the members. We planned to work to bring in more zakah funds, Alhamdulillah, at the end of that year we collected 21.8 lakhs. This taught us if we got a solid plan and implement it properly nothing is impossible. Last year the zakah collection was Rs. 80 lakhs. Alhamdulillah something we started 12 years ago now paying off. We formed different committees like Health, Edu-cation, Housing to cater to the needs in those fields and made arrangements for food kits for widows and the needy of our community. I am very happy to inform you, today also Association is working for the same causes for which we set up the foundation. Alhamdulillah, I thank Allah for helping me and my team for this achievement. I am still present in the current committee to help and guide the new members, Alhamdulillah.
I remember once talking with you regard-ing the increasing rate of divorce in our community and the need for pre-marital counseling for the couples. I like to ask now the same, why can’t we introduce pre-marital counseling ?
I was the Chairman of the dispute committee of the Jamath for 10 years. This committee takes care of divorce issues and family problems within the members of our com-munity. During my term, we received 110 com-plaints and Alhamdulillah we solved 100 cases. My observation is our girls are more educated and independent now so they are more assertive. Unnecessary involvement of parents also leads to divorces in our community as they are mostly not educated, and don’t know how to sort out issues within the family. Pre-marital counseling can help in improving the quality of married life. This is something which has to be taken up by the Jamath, the discussions and talks are going on but we need to take it more seriously and move ahead. My personal view regarding the marriages taking place in our community is we should encourage the boys and girls to marry within the community as this helps us grow and have better ties with each other between families and friends.
Could you please enlighten us about the religious role you are in and how you reached there?
I am a member and office-bearer of an organiza-tion Kerala Nadwatul Mujahideen, that spreads the message of Islam that is “Worship the creator and not the created”. I am in charge of the Kochi mandalam, that have eight branches spreaded through out Kochi. LA ILAHA ILLALLAH is the aim of this organization which spreads the message of the Quran and the Prophet-SAWS. I spend a lot of my time for this organization as this is the only thing that keeps us away from sins and helps us empower our-selves. Our belief will help us overcome any ob-stacles in our life and Allah will give us the strength to withstand any calamity which is in any form.
What gives you happiness and what makes you discontent?
My happiness is my family, our family consisted of 5 members and today Alhamdulillah we are 10. The only feeling of discontent I have in my life is I don’t have my parent’s dua as they are not there with us today, they have left for their heavenly abode. I am with Jamath for last 20 years serving at dif-ferent positions, I am very happy that collectively we have taken many decisions for the uplifting our community. People have been very receptive to the changes we have made we are very happy with the response from the people. Our associa-tion also has reached new heights today.
The advice you can give to young entre-preneurs?
One piece of advice to the new entrepreneurs Be Honest because with honesty we can reach great heights, Allah will bless us very well if we are honest in our dealings and our words.
In the last generation almost all got a nickname. “Key” was a nickname related to the gramophone service of your grand-father and father, but you converted that into a brand name and made it your pride. What made you think differently?
It was a nickname that I heard with shame when I was young, but today I turned it into our brand name for my business and family. Alhamdulillah our three companies are known by the name KEY and today I am proud that people call me KEY RASHEED.
Before concluding I would like to think and thank people who were our role models. Mr. Salay Mohamed Sait, Ahmed Usman Sait, Mahmood Ibrahim Sait, my father J.M Usman Sait, and all the honorable persons who preceded them. Today when we do these activities they will be the recip-ients of the abundant rewards from Allah. Insha Allah.
Thank you very much Mr.Rasheed for sharing with us your thoughts and spending time with us for this interview….thanks from the editorial board for Memon Boli.
Interview by Ansar Shakoor
