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My first day in UAE: 'On landing, I almost got deported'

A three-week holiday that became a 40-year residence...

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It was December 1, 1975.
I came to Dubai on a three-week holiday as I had friends here. On landing, I almost got deported as my original visa which was deposited with the airline had not been forwarded to the immigration counter. Finally I was allowed to make a call to my 'sponsor'. Those were pre-etisalat days and the phone in the arrivals was not working. The immigration authorities were kind enough to let me cross over to the departure area to make the call (accompanied of course by a policeman, lest I become another illegal immigrant!)
After much backwarding and forwarding the visa was found in the drawer of an absent-minded airline clerk's draw.

39 YEARS IN THE EMIRATES > 1976 Tanvir Kanji arrived from Mumbai (then called Bombay) in Sharjah to establish his advertising agency Inca Tanvir > Brought with him a rich experience of 12 years in printing, publishing and advertising from India. > Founder member of the International Advertising Association - UAE Chapter, which started in 1979. He has held various portfolios over the years and took over as its president in 2004 > Member of the organising committee and the official host of 'Dubai 2006 - the 40th IAA World Congress' held in March 2006 > Represents the IAA-UAE in the Asian Federation of Advertising Associations (AFAA) and is on the managing committee of the Indian Business and Professional Council of Sharjah > Awarded the 'Medal of Merit' in 2006 by the IAA World Services Centre, New York, for meritorious service to the advertising industry > instrumental in forging a joint venture with the International Advertising Festival - organizers of the Cannes Advertising Festival - and the IAA-UAE to stage the Dubai Lynx Awards in March 2007

The vision of the UAE in my mind was a vast arid hot desert. However, on exiting the airport building I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was raining.
During the three weeks in the UAE, I had a great time. It was pre-Christmas. There were only a handful of hotels and restaurants then and so everyone was taking turns to throw Christmas get togethers at their homes.
The expat population was small. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and were ever willing to help each other. Even in those early days before development started in earnest, there was a distinct vibrant energy in the environment and after each evening's socializing I was convinced that this was where I wanted to be (having passed up opportunities in London, New York and Los Angeles).
So I went back on December 24, 1975, and returned on April 6, 1976, to establish my advertising agency. My Emirati sponsors were from Sharjah and so it was presumed my office would be in Sharjah. The first order of the day was to get a trade licence, which was to be issued by the Sharjah Municipality.
When I presented them the relevant forms, they said they did not have a suitable category. The closest category was 'Sign Board Painting'. So my first licence was for a sign board painter. Similarly there was no visa category for graphic designers. They were classified under 'draughtsman'.
There was no typesetting available here, so we actually educated and convinced local printers to introduce it. There was no commercial sound studio; we started an in-house one.
We started our own in-house photo studio, as there were no commercial photographers available. There were no decent film and TV commercial producers, so we were forced to install our own facilities both for shooting and editing TV commercials and corporate films. There were no event management companies so we had to handle product launch events ourselves.
As is obvious, in the past 30 years things have changed radically. Today the UAE is an ultra-modern country, I think it is more developed than the so-called 'developed countries'.
Where else do you have immigration e-Gates, driverless metros, ultra-modern buses, ten lane inter-city roads. Where else do motorists stop and allow women and children to cross the road. Where else do air ambulances arrive within five minutes of an emergency. Where else do more than 200 nationalities live and work together in harmony. Where else do you find such a seamless fusion of the traditional and the modern. One can go on and on.
Would I like to live anywhere else? I don't think so. This country gives me everything one seeks - a booming economy, a stable and safe environment, international standards of living, cultural and intellectual stimuli, a tax-free regime, international connectivity.
The only place I look forward to visiting regularly is New York - because each time I come back with fresh new ideas. And of course I love the plays on Broadway.
The best advise that I got and have since followed was from a member of the royal family. He said: "You are our guest here. Just like you would be at your best behaviour when you are in someone else's home, be at your best and you will be our honoured guest as long as you wish."
I have always strived to be at my best.

Pioneer adman
A pioneer of the UAE's advertising and mass communication scene, Tanvir Kanji has made his mark as an inventive adman through his varied contributions in nearly four decades towards raising the bar of the media industry to keep it vibrant and on par with international standards.
In the 1970s - when the young UAE was a sandstorm of economic and industrial transformations as new businesses were setting base even as existing ones thrived - he was awestruck by the making of a new El Dorado.

By setting up one of the first full-service advertising agencies in the region in 1976 at the age of 32, Kanji became instrumental in revolutionising mass media communications in the UAE. A risk-laden entrepreneurial option in the then media-naïve UAE, Kanji set up his agency in Sharjah from scratch. Today, Inca Tanvir is a renowned 'independent integrated communications services company' in the Middle East.
Under Kanji's dynamic leadership, the agency has won many prestigious awards over the years; these include Clio, Hollywood International Radio and Broadcasting, International Advertising Association (UAE Chapter), International Mercury, New York Festivals, a special award from The Radio & Television Producers Association of India, International Broadcasting awards, the 11th Annual International Questar 2000, Galaxy awards and many more.
As told to Issac John