 Fatehaly was
a complete contrast to Shamshudin. He was very fashionable and
outgoing. He could easily lose his temper if something was not
done as he required. He played in the Ismaili Band, was a Hawk
Patrol Leader in the Scouts (he got married in his Scouts uniform!)
and was always in the thick of action. He was
also an active volunteer. He suffered from asthma from
his childhood and from a number of other ailments as he grew up.
In 1932, he
was engaged to be married to Sakarbai, daughter of
Ahmed and Nurubai Jamal Pradhan. She was born in 1917 in Kisumu
and lived in Mombasa,
Mwanza and ultimately Dar-es-salaam. Habib and Ahmed
knew each other and must have discussed Ahmed's very fair 15 year
old daughter
(she was known as "roop- sundri"). One day a "daftari" (Court
Clerk) arrived at her house. Upon inquiring what was
going on, she was informed that the daftari was preparing papers
for her
engagement. She asked Ahmedbhai if she was not too
young to get engaged; her father said that he was getting very
tired of all
the proposals he was getting for her and reassured
her that this boy, Fatehaly seemed decent enough. The first time
they met was
on their wedding day in 1934. The wedding was simple,
as befits a son who was not the first son. They stayed in the house
with
Habib and his family. Sadrudin was born to them in
1935, weighing in at 11 pounds. Sakar was very sick during her
pregnancy and it
is revealing of Habib's nature that he would spend
hours by her bedside in hospital; men generally did not do such
things in those
days. When Sakar recovered, he advised her that it
was no longer necessary to veil her face in his presence or anybody
else's. Rehmatbai
and other women also stopped doing so around this time.
In
1936, Fatehaly, Sakar and their son went to India to get treatment
for Sakar's eyes which had been very painful for some years. Sadly,
Sadrudin died very suddenly at the age of one and a half; this
was a very hard blow to Habib. It was for this reason that he had
some misgivings about going to India for his medical treatment
in 1937.
An example of Fatehaly's free spirit was the Golden Jubilee in Nairobi in
1937. Only Habib Bapa and Rehmat were to attend from the family, but Fatehaly
had other plans. After his parents had left, he managed to get a ride to Nairobi,
celebrated the Jubilee and got back before Habib Bapa returned.
Fatehaly has his sight set on Congo following a Farman by Mawlana Sultan Mohamed
Shah during the Golden Jubilee. Habib Bapa would not agree to send his son
so far, but Fatehaly refused to work in Dar-es-salaam. A compromise was reached
and Fatehaly was dispatched to open an office in Mwanza. Akber
followed soon after. Fatehaly did not keep well in Mwanza and eventually returned
to Daressalaam. Subsequently, he went to the Congo, but could not get a visa
to settle in the country. The course of many lives could have been changed,
but for a bureaucrat's stamp on a passport.
In 1945, Mawlana Sultan Mohamed Shah granted mehmani to the five brothers and
questioned why it was necessary for three brothers to stay in Dar-es-salaam.
He advised one brother to open an office elsewhere. Fatehaly agreed to move
to Mombasa after
the Diamond Jubilee in 1946 and supplied goods for sale in the Dar-es-salaam
and Mwanza offices. His ill health (heart problems) continued in spite of treatment.
By this time, Fatehaly and Sakar had six daughters. In 1952, Rehmatbai, Jafferaly
and his wife Nurbanu visited Mombasa. Jafferaly and Nurbanu had not been able
to conceive children for seven years and urged Fatehaly and Sakarbai to let
them adopt Rashida, their youngest, who was two years old. It is indicative
of the closeness of families in those days that they agreed to do so since
Rashida would still remain in the family. They also discussed that if Jafferaly
and Nurbanu ever had a son, Fatehaly and Sakarbai would adopt him. When Zahir
was born, he was offered to Sakarbai, but she chose to waive this right. Fatehaly
died in hospital of a heart attack while Rehmatbai and Jafferaly were still
in Mombasa.
Sakarbai,
like Sherbanu, raised her children after Fatehaly's early death,
and her proudest achievement is also that her children and grand-children
are so well settled and that they all practise their faith and
serve the community. |
