Living in Dubai for 100 years: Bhatia family gets nostalgic
Bhatia family has built a strong bridge between the Emiratis and the expatriate Indian community in Dubai.
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Model Indian expatriate family receives high praise in their adopted homeland and back home.
How does it feel to carry forward a legacy of four generations in Dubai? Pride! It s an attribute that also brings in a lot of responsibilities, according to Deepak Bhatia, 49, managing director of Uncle’s Shop, son of Vijay Bhatia and grandson of Uttamchand Bhatia -popularly remembered as ‘Vattra’ by Emiratis and ‘Uttrabha’ for Indian expatriate community who set up a modest family business in the Arabian Gulf and native India almost a century ago.
Educator, entertainer and safekeeper – My Intelligent Smart Assistant wears many hats Sponsored by Video Credit: Supplied
One of the consequences of the ongoing global pandemic is that we’re all spending an unprecedented amount of time at home. For parents of young children who are balancing working from home with keeping their offspring healthily engaged, this can be a daily struggle. Thankfully, technology has stepped in to ease this difficulty.
Misa is one example. An acronym for My Intelligent Smart Assistant, Misa is an Android-based next-generation social family robot built to seamlessly fit into any home. “As a parent, Misa will blend right into your family as a friend, teacher, companion, cameraman, homemaker, entertainer and more,” explains Deepak Bhatia, Founder and CEO of Misa.
How the Bhatia business started
A hot and dusty day in Dubai. A scraggly youngster struggled to balance the rolls of cloth on his shoulders as he shuffled into the palace premises. There weren’t security men around. After all, this was the 1920s: a time when Dubai was a desert outpost by the creek.
Some palace maids noticed the skinny delivery boy. He was too young to work. Too frail to carry the cloth rolls. He certainly bore the marks of maltreatment. This aroused the curiosity of the maids, who quizzed him. His has been a life of struggle and abuse at the hands of his employer (a relative) since he came to Dubai, aged 11.
Dubai: When it comes to long-time residents of the UAE, any number of expats would lay claim to being early settlers here. More often than not, their chronicling would date back to 40-50 years, good enough for them to be acknowledged as veterans. But away from the spotlight, one Dubai-based Indian family is silently marking a milestone on completing a momentous 100 years in the UAE.
As family members of Uttamchand Tulsidas Bhatia, deemed the wealthiest and most influential Indian merchant of his times, share their journey exclusively with Gulf News, the history is eventful, the recollections vivid.
The illustrious Bhatias, spanning four generations now, make for a riveting story – whether it’s their personal accounts of how an orphaned Uttamchand sailed into Dubai as an 11-year-old and became the closest confidante of His Highness Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the late Ruler of Dubai; or their explicit narrative on Dubai’s transformation through the vagaries of time.
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