RAJKOT by Abdur Razzaq Thaplawala

Khanji zanana school Rajkot

I left my luggage  in the office of  The Memon Educational & Welfare Society and took a small trolly bag with me which contained clothing for 3 days. The Jet Airways flight took me from Mumbai to to Rajkot. The flight time was 45 minutes and the return fair was Rs. 7,800/=. At Rajkot Airport, I was received by a friend Mr. Farooq who was requested by Mr. Adam Noor to receive me. Mr. Farooq was there at the airport to receive me. He had booked a room in Hotel Kavery, Rajkot. It took me one hour to reach my Hotel. We had arranged a Suzuki Hiroof   for our tour. Before living Rajkot next morning, I was shown the Adamjee Boarding House at Rajkot. The plaque at the Adamjee Boarding House read following in Gujrati :

 

 

          “Sir Adamjee Haji Dawood constructed this Boarding House at a cost of Rs. 14,050 on the occasion of the wedding ceremony of his son. The foundation stone was laid on 2^nd February, 1941 by the State Resident Major G.B. Williams. The Boarding House was completed and declared open on 19^th Janaury, 1942 by Janab Haji Abdul Shakoor Baig Muhammad Subasha.”  

A street of Rajkot

The Boarding House is a beautiful building constructed on a plot measuring 12,500 sq.yards. When I visited the Boarding House, the building was in good shape but it was rented out to a Government department and two private firms. There were 15 boarders who were living in kitchen and dining room of the Boarding House. Out of these 15 students only 5 students were from Memon community. The Boarding House is located at the prime locality of Rajkot. Unfortunately, the Memon community of Rajkot does not appear to have taken care of  the Boarding House and thus the wishes of Sir Adamjee Haji Dawood to accommodate Memon students did not materialize. This was a very sorry state of affairs. I explained this state of affairs to the community elders at one of the meeting of Board of Management of World Memon Organization held at Mumbai on 27^th March, 2005. I was told by some Indian dignitories that they are trying to revive the Boarding House. According to a conservative estimate, the present value of land and building of Boarding House is about Rs. 25 crores.

Rajkot & Junagadh road showing Gondal & Jetpur mile stone	Return journey to Rajkot road through Dhoraji - mile stone

Rajkot has a population of about 1.1 Million people out of  which 100,000 people belong to Muslim community and there are about 5000 persons who belong to Memon community.