The-Polyester-Prince

gambles against rises and falls in prices at time of delivery Doing business on one’s
own account was strictly forbidden to Besse employees by the terms of their
contract, and his older brother Ramnikbhai disapproved, so Dhirubhai would simply
say he was ‘studying the market’.
Dhirubhai made some profits, and learned the fundamentals of business and money.
But he also made some near disastrous mistakes, which almost wiped out his capital.
On one occasion he suffered a tight financial squeeze when an incoming cargo of
sugar was damaged by sea-water and his customer refused to accept delivery
Pending settlement of his insurance claim, Dhirubhai had to pass the hat among
Besse colleagues for loans to bail himself out.
One particular ally was a Besse employee named Jamnadas Sakerchand Depala, a
relative by marriage, who lent Dhirubhai 5000 shillings on this occasion. Depala was
close to Dhirubhai and the two usually had lunch together, even after Dhirubhai had
married. It was an odd relationship, another attraction of opposites. Depala was not
a worldly man and lent money again to Dhirubhai for his ‘market studies’, but had a
strong influence nonetheless. Jamnadas was morally in control of Dhirubhai,’s said
Susheel Kothari, who had been in the same bachelors mess with Dhirubhai. ‘If
Dhirubhai was drinking too much, no one else could stop him. He just swear at them.
Kokilaben used to call Jamnadas and Dhirubhai would listen to him.’s According to
one version of events, Jamnadas made considerable sacrifices for Dhirubhai. On one
occasion, so this story goes, Jamnadas and Dhirubhai were reported to Besse
management for their private deals, and got suspended from service. Jamnadas took
responsibility and resigned from service, allowing Dhirubhai to complete the seven
year’s service that earned him the right of residence in Aden.
Another story told by ex-Besse staff is that, after leaving the company, Jamnadas
continued to invest in rice and sugar deals masterminded by Dhirubhai, and lost
heavily, to the point of losing most of his capital. Jagani remembers Jamnadas being
very depressed around 1961. Whatever the truth of this, Dhirubhai continued to act
as though he was in debt to Jamnadas. Some years later, Jamnadas came back to
India and was given a shop selling textiles for Dhirubhai. After a while Jamnadas
stopped coming to work, but Dhirubhai saw that his salary was paid until his death in
1987.Dhirubhai left Aden in 1958, with his seven years service and right of residency
as a fallback, to try his hand in business back in India.
The house of Besse lasted only another nine years, as long as British rule in Aden,
which was being eroded by the sandblast of pan-Arabic nationalism. Some of the
transistor radios sold at Steamer Point found their way to the villagers of the Yemen
hinterland, who picked up President Nasser’s message of Arab nationalism through
Radio Cairo.
Resulting hit-and-run attacks by rival liberation fronts made Aden unsafe for
foreigners. In the second half of 1967, British forces pulled back into an evertightening
perimeter until the rearguard was lifted out by helicopter to a naval task
force offshore on 29 November 1967.
The territory fell unconditionally to the National Liberation Front. It applied its harsh
version of Marxism-Leninism, abolishing private property and nationalising most
foreign companies. By then the closure of the Suez Canal in the 1967 Arab-Israel
war had cut Aden’s bunkering business. Racked by periodic coup attempts and wars
with northern Yemen, the new state of South Yemen became an economic back-