It was a cold and crisp February morning of 1968 when I arrived in the UK with - £135 (- minus £135) in my pockets! £135 (2,700 Tanzanian shillings) was the amount I had borrowed and owed to relatives for my air fare from Dar-es-Salaam to London.
Having recently acquired my BSc degree in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry from Poona University, I had returned to Dar-es-Salaam, where I was brought up and went to school, with aspirations for a high profile career in a chemical industry. But that was not to be as, because of Africanisation, such jobs were not available to non-Tanzanian citizens.
I had many offers for a job as a teacher of mathematics but teaching was not my forte. However, I accepted a teaching post with much reluctance while waiting for an opportunity to join my brothers in Zambia where a career as a medical representative was awaiting me.
Then the exodus to the UK of Asians from newly independent Kenya began. Fearing that the floodgates had opened up for uncontrolled immigration, and to stem the flow of the crowds, the UK government brought in a law which was to end uncontrolled entry of British citizens to the UK as from 29 February 1968 and that, displaced Asians were to be required to apply for a voucher under a quota system.
In order to beat the deadline, plane loads of people, including myself, jumped on the East African Airways flight on 27 February and came to this country on 28 February. As I had just graduated from university and had not worked long enough, I did not have two pennies of my own to rub together and had to borrow the air fare of 2,700 Tanzanian shillings which, at 20 shillings to a British pound, amounted to £135.
Those were the days when covert and even overt discrimination was rife and, even with a university qualification, I was only being offered manual jobs in factories. With a BSc degree in my pocket, I refused to join the so called blue collar brigade and landed a job as a demonstrator in the electrical engineering department of the then West Ham College of Technology, now known as the University of East London. From there I progressed to the Department of Education and Science and worked there for 34 years until early retirement in 2003.
To give a synopsis of my family life: I got married in Tanga to Prafulla of Mombasa, Kenya, on 15 February 1971. Immediately on arrival in London, Prafulla joined me at the Department of Education and Science and worked there for nearly 33 years before retiring a couple of months after I did.
We have one son, Shital, who is a graduate in investment and insurance of City University and works as a vice- president dealing with derivatives in the investment sector at J P Morgan. He got married to Krina in 2003 who is a graduate in accounting and works as an accountant in the Crown Prosecution Service of the Civil Service. They have two children. Kian, 7, and Amaya, 5.
I would say that my proudest achievements were being invited to Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace twice where I have had the opportunity to rub shoulders with the Royalty. My proudest moment was when I had a photograph taken with the two Margarets. Princess Margaret, the Queen’s sister and Margaret Thatcher, who was then the secretary of state at the Department of Education and Science. Princess Margaret was then a patron of one of our schools and I was introduced to her by Mrs Thatcher when she visited our offices. I was also nominated to receive an MBE which has so far not materialised.
Mine is the story of someone who came to this country with nothing and yet progressed to the stage where he became a guest of the Queen of the country.
