“Soodha, will you work or just scamper around in your red ‘ghaghra’ (skirt) and ‘choli’ (blouse)? And, cover your head with a ‘dupatta’ (scarf). You bring shame to us!” yelled a middle-aged lady.
Soodha was a vivacious 21-year-old girl. On some evenings, she slipped a yellow “genda” (marigold) flower behind her ear. At the age of 10 in 1931, I would watch her from our office window, in Tandalianwala (in undivided India, now in Pakistan). She was as pretty as a princess. I nicknamed her the “genda-kudi” (marigold girl).
Childhood is a magnificent phase. Every day is astonishing. You do not understand everything, so you just preserve situations in the recesses of your mind. Today’s happenings gradually metamorphose into memories in later years. Then, there is time to unravel the events you witnessed as a child.
My father insisted I complete my daily homework in his office. As luck would have it, my desk was by a window.
Thus, my childhood years were enriched with a window overlooking the “mandi” (market). From that small window I watched life unfold.
I saw migrant labourers arrive annually to tend to the wheat crop, after the harvest.
About 300 men and women came from Surat province in western India (now in Gujarat in India).
They set up tents to stay, in a corner of the market. They worked throughout the day, cleaning the wheat crop, packing it in gunny bags and covering the mounds with tarpaulin sheets at dusk.
Sitting by my window, I frequently observed Kailash, the son of our neighbour Lala Parbat, chatting animatedly with Soodha or her father.
Much later I learnt that the flower behind Soodha’s ear was a signal to Kailash that they could rendezvous after dusk under the banyan tree.
So, Kailash would hang around to learn if his sweetheart had positioned a marigold behind her ear. I was intrigued to see this furtive romance between a migrant labourer girl and the son of a prominent businessman.
Kailash was miserable when he was not watching Soodha. He would not eat. He neglected his studies. He became consumed by his passion for her.
But I was not the only one who was intrigued by the mystery of the occasional “genda” flower behind Soodha’s ear.
One dusky evening, as Kailash waited for Soodha, two shadows pounced on him from the thick foliage of the tree. The shadows rained blows on him. He fought back. But the shadows were unrelenting. Kailash fled. He reached his house to find his nose bleeding profusely.
Next day all the migrant labourers, led by the two shadows, who were Soodha’s father and brother, met my father. They protested that the youngsters of our town were debasing their women.
My father hurried to Lala Parbat’s shop and counselled him to send his son to Lahore for some months.
Lalaji saw the wisdom in this counsel. The alternative was to face a massive walk out by the migrant labourers. The mounds of wheat would rot. To save further ignominy, Kailash was despatched to Lahore.
So the wheat crop survived that year in Tandalianwala. However, I never saw Soodha again.
After that day, no young man in town dared to look at any migrant girl.
Kailash never returned either. Some said he tracked Soodha to her village and married her, but I do not know for sure.
Over the years, I have wondered why religion, caste and community play an overriding role in alliances between youngsters in India.
Inter-community marriages are frequent in cities now. However, such liaisons are frowned upon in rural areas.
Even 83 years on whenever I see a marigold flower anywhere, I remember Soodha, my childhood marigold-girl and wonder what became of her.
Hari Chand Aneja is a nonagenarian former corporate executive who now keeps busy with charity work
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.