Noted community members and long-time residents Nivedita and Madhab Dutta have bid farewell to Bahrain – their ‘home’ for the past four decades.
Hailing from the Indian state of Assam, Mr Dutta was a senior employee at the Bahrain Petroleum Company (Bapco) while Ms Dutta was a three-time Indian Ladies Association (ILA) president.
“We’re returning with a heart full of love showered on us by friends in Bahrain who have become like family,” Ms Dutta, who arrived in Bahrain only days after getting married, told the GDN.
“We have had such a wonderful life here. Our daughters, Nikita and Asmita, were born and raised here and attended the Indian School Bahrain.
“Once we return (to Guwahati in Assam), it will be a new place for us to adjust – this (Bahrain) is home,” the 56-year-old added.
Life came full circle, when Asmita, who currently lives and works in the US, celebrated her wedding ceremony in the kingdom in October last year, which brought together the entire family, including members from back home.
Elder daughter Nikita presently works in Sweden.
Mr Dutta arrived in Bahrain in October 1984 on a two-year contract with Bapco where he worked in human resources, disbursing loans and designing and purchasing houses.
“I was okay with the arrangement as my intention was to earn some money to start my own consultancy back home,” said the 63-year-old.
Opportunity
However, fate had other plans and, six years down the line, ‘Maina’, as his loved ones endearingly call him, transferred to Awali Services Department (now Corporate Services Department), where his role was to run the self-contained township as part of a team.
“I also had the opportunity to plan and submit the conceptual design of Princess Sabeeka Park (in Awali), among other projects in the area, and through Bapco’s CRS (corporate social responsibility) projects, have developed many parks and recreational areas around Bahrain,” he added.
The couple has lived in Manama, Riffa and Awali over the years and are proud of the ‘tremendous’ transformation that the island has gone through.
“I arrived here 34 years back and the day after I landed, I woke up to breakfast prepared by my husband’s colleagues. I was so well taken care of, which was so touching,” Ms Dutta said.
While the kindness and hospitality was overwhelming, like any expat in a foreign country, she craved the familiarity of her community. “I grew up in a joint family in a protective environment and always with friends and family all from Assam. When I came here, I told my husband, ‘There’s nobody to talk to in Assamese except you’. At that time, there were very few of us.
“And then came the Assamese New Year and I said, ‘Why don’t we call them for dinner at our place?’ There were just four or five families but now we have a big, close-knit community, who are extended family for us. They aren’t just Assamese but Bengalis and Marwaris who have been born and brought up in Assam.”
In order to fight her homesickness, Nita, as she is lovingly called, took up a friend’s suggestion to attend the ILA fairs, which unknowingly marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey with the group.
“I looked forward to their annual fair – to be among Indian people, eat Indian food. Ultimately, I joined ILA in 1999 and the last 25 years have been memorable,” said the former ILA president for 2008, 2013 and 2014.
She also led many subcommittees during her stint.
Two milestones that Ms Dutta highlighted were volunteering and raising funds for 12 years for the various initiatives of Sneha Recreation Centre run by the ILA for children with special needs. She was also involved with the inaugural Leela Jashanmal talk entitled ‘Kiran – Ray of Inspiration’ which featured India’s first woman Indian Public Service officer and multiple international award-winning figure Dr Kiran Bedi as the guest.
She also fondly recalled the work done with the Royal Humanitarian Foundation and being part of Golden Jubilee Committee formed to organise ILA’s 50-year anniversary celebrations.
“I am ever thankful to ILA for giving me opportunities to work for the society,” she said, adding that she was also an active member of the Awali Ladies Hospitality Group, which carried out many charitable initiatives, including their famous annual craft fair and thrift shop – all memories she holds dear.
Mr Dutta also had a community streak in him, which found an outlet through the Awali recycling programme.
“Although Bapco has an environmental department now, when we started it was a very close network within the Awali community and Awali Services. There were some sheds at Awali recycling point, which is still there, but now there is a building to collect the materials (for recycling),” he noted.
Another ‘gift’ that Bahrain has given Mr Dutta is a platform for his art. While he sketched as a hobby, he started creating oil and acrylic paintings only after living in the kingdom and, spurred on by his Bahrain-based admirers, plans to stage his first exhibition once he gets back home.
melissa@gdnmedia.bh
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