Living the UAE dream: Dubai-based entrepreneur Anis Sajan pays tribute to the country on its 51st anniversary

Anis’ mother, Gulbanu Sajan, was afflicted with epilepsy and his eldest sister, Shabnam, donned the role of his ‘godmother’ to ensure a carefree upbringing of “playing cricket and flying kites”, despite mounting financial constraints.

Anis displayed an archetypal Sajan trait and has always “been a gifted salesman”. He took to selling fairy lights during Diwali — an annual Indian festival of lights — to make pocket money while he was barely 10 years old.

“It’s not how much I made, but it was more important to understand the value for money and try my hand at hard sales. It’s a life lesson that has served me well,” he says while recounting his salad days in his beloved Mumbai amid his well-appointed sitting room in his tastefully done-up villa at Emirates Hills (The villa goes beyond the brick and mortar and an assortment of rare artefacts that money can buy but it’s the love and warmth of his wife, Rubina, and his two sons, Azhar, 24, and Sahil, 21, that make up his happy family. Anis is a devoted family man and a strict disciplinarian).

Anis was having the time of his life with his friends and batchmates at KJ Somaiya College of Arts & Science in Mumbai, when Rizwan, who by then had taken up a job in oil-rich Kuwait in 1980, asked his younger sibling to join him.

“I couldn’t turn down his plea because he has been a father figure, a mentor, a friend-philosopher-guide for me, an endearing relationship that we enjoy even today,” recalls Anis fondly. On January 2, 1990, Anis landed in Kuwait, where Rizwan was making a mark in timber business at Atlas Commercial Company under the able guidance of its owner, Jacob Moses.

Anis’ stint in Kuwait was “uneventful because I missed Mumbai a lot”.

The Gulf War-1 cut short his stay in Kuwait, and he headed back to Mumbai on October 2, 1992. Over the next 14 months, Anis, who had moved out of Pant Nagar to Bandra after Rizwan bought an apartment in the tony Mumbai suburb, honed his skills as a salesman with Eureka Forbes, an Indian consumer goods company that was capturing lion’s share of the water purifier market. He was one of the leading salespersons in the company and, at times, made 20 times his meagre salary on the basis of his “stupendous sales performance”.

The going was good, but life, as always, had other plans for Anis, who was destined to make a mark in the Arabian Gulf.

Rizwan, who had moved to Dubai in late-1991, wanted Anis to join him.

So, this time, it was the UAE, a young nation that was gradually making a mark on the world stage, because of the visionary leadership of its Founding Father Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

He arrived in Dubai on November 12, 1992, and was blown away by the charming Emirati official at the immigration counter, who greeted him in Hindi, “Aap kaise hain?” (how are you?), to make him “feel at home on a foreign land”.

A feeling that he has nurtured for the next 30 years and continues to swear by the country that has become a “home away from home because of its unprecedented safety and security and a cultural melting pot — a happy blend of East and West celebrating diversity”.

However, Anis’ easing into the UAE wouldn’t have been possible had it not been for Rizwan, who ensured that his younger sibling didn’t miss the Mumbai vibes. Rizwan initiated Anis to Karama, one of the vibrant Indian quarters of a fledgling Dubai, which struck an instant chord with the youngster, who was destined to prosper in Dubai.

“A driving licence those days was one of the prized possessions. Few expatriates could obtain a licence quickly. However, I was one of the luckiest to get one in three months, which came in handy for my sanitaryware business. I still remember my first car in the UAE, a Mazda station wagon — its number plate was 88530 — that helped me ferry the wares in Dubai and adjoining Sharjah and Abu Dhabi,” he says. Rizwan was persisting with his timber business and the brothers were making inroads as suppliers to wholesalers in Deira.

A team of four, including two employees, was packing a punch.

Soon, Rizwan, a consummate businessman since his formative days, decided to christen his enterprise as Danube — the second-longest river in Europe after Volga — on a trip to a timber factory in Romania via the water way in 1993.

The UAE, says Anis, “is blessed by the hand of God”.

“Initially, it was the reconstruction of Kuwait following the Gulf War-1, which was followed by the disintegration of the Soviet Republics that brought Russians to Dubai in big numbers. They were bulk buyers whom I was selling my sanitary wares till we diversified our portfolios, such as hardware, tiles, electrical and washroom fittings etc. I went to exhibitions in Bologna, Italy, Frankfurt in Germany and Taiwan to source sanitary fittings and shower curtain rods that the Russians were buying in big numbers,” he says.

In 1996, he got married to Rubina as his enterprise flourished coinciding with High Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, unleashing a flurry of ambitious development plans for the emirate.

Rizwan and Anis were at the right place at the right time. The unity of being — time, place and action — couldn’t have been more opportune for the Sajan brothers, who by the turn of the millennium were ready to cash in on the real estate boom in Dubai between 2003 and 2008 amid the opening up of the property sector.

joydeep@khaleejtimes.com