Sadrudin H. Lalani

Children

Chapter Two. Adventures of a Young Travelling Salesman
I started my first job with the Aga Khan Lottery (part-time, seasonal) and got my first paycheck of Shs. 150.00. Big money in those days. I think I bought my first bike with the savings.
After high school, I started my first full-time job with a firm called R.J. Chittenden (Manufacturers Representative). My job was to go to all different types of traders and businesses to take indent orders. My first travel was with this company and I was about 18 years old. I was given six big suitcases with different samples to show customers and to pick up and write up orders which were shipped to them directly by the manufacturer (indents). My itinerary was Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Kisumu, Jinja, Kampala and then back to Nairobi. No transportation was provided. I was supposed to travel by buses and offload at the town and hire an African casual labourer to carry my suitcases around from shop to shop. The samples I had in different suitcases consisted of hardware catalogs, hosiery, shirts and suiting material samples, biscuits and sweets, and many other samples and catalogs from different manufacturers from England, Belgium, South Africa, Italy, France, Germany etc. etc.
Each town I went to took a number of days and then I moved onto the next town by bus. Most of the places I stayed were with relatives except for the big city of Kampala where I stayed in the Indian hotel as we were not allowed to stay in any European owned hotels—damn those racist British!. When I was in Nairobi I had to visit various big time hardware stores and supermarkets and factories in the industrial area—again, any long distance travel was by bus. None of the Lalani’s had a car in those days. Everywhere you go to, even going to khane was always by Kenya Bus Service or by foot. And believe me, we didn’t mind at all or felt bad—it was a way of life.
I was with the above company for two to three years and my salary per month was approximately Shs. 700.00. Every paycheck was given to Bapa (my father) and I used to get spending money of Shs. 50.00 to 100.00 per month. I was then laid off by this company as one of the senior partners, Mr. Robert Chittenden, died of a heart attack and his brother David wanted to downsize the company.
I was unemployed for some time and finally was interviewed by a company called Grayson & Company around 1957. This was a leading pharmaceutical company in Nairobi. I was placed in their Johnson & Johnson Department and started selling J&J products. Part of my job was to go to African markets and teach and show the Africans how to use J&J products (i.e., baby powder, baby soap, Tek toothbrushes, etc.). In order to do this, you had to play music from your truck to attract the crowds and then talk to them in Kiswahili—this was a lot of fun. I did so well that the company now gave me a car (Land Rover 4-wheel drive). I was now asked to travel to small towns in Kenya and parts of Uganda and Tanzania. My first trip was with another white salesman and we covered parts of Kenya—more like orientation for me to get used to the African roads. We went through some rugged country in the Maasai land in Narok, Kericho and then onto other towns. I was having a ball travelling and driving through tracks, potholes, muddy conditions, rain and thunderstorms, tsetse flies, cars breaking down and getting help from the Maasai Morans warriors.
After the first trip, my sales manager Mr. Hall asked me if I would like to travel on my own on a wider territory. I was given a brand-new Land Rover with J&J writing all over and two loudspeakers on the truck and a tape recorder fitted inside the truck for playing music to the Africans. My first trip, on my own and two other trucks accompanying us, was to Nyanza Province by Lake Victoria (Kisumu area). This area is the most malaria-infested province in Kenya, being so close to the lake.
The sales for any quinine-based medicines was always the best seller in the Nyanza Province, which was divided into three: Central Nyanza, Northern Nyanza and Southern Nyanza. We normally spent about a month to cover the three Nyanza territories, ten days per area. The base was Kisumu for Central and Norther Nyanza and my job was to take off with my truck every morning to go to small towns and find out also where the market was on a certain day in a certain town and go and play the music and to gather a crowd. As there were very few radios and tape recorders were non-existent in those days, to play music was a crowd drawer. I would then start my speech to the crowd in between music to show them how to use baby powder and other J&J products. I also promoted kidney and bladder pills called DeWitt’s Kidney & Bladder Pills. I also promoted a painkiller called Aspro which became a best seller in the country in these times. During my travel, I was allowed travelling expenses of Shs. 30.00 per day. Whenever I used to stay with friends and relatives, I used to save this money for my pocket expenses as the paychecks still went to Bapa (my father).
Around 1961, I was asked to go to a new territory in Tanzania, a place on the footsteps of Mount Kilimanjaro called Moshi and Arusha. There was a beautiful hotel in Moshi built by Chaga Cooperative Union from Kilimanjaro (KNCU). I made some friends with these Chaga people who were waiters in the hotel and they agreed to show me around the mountain. I was the first salesman from my company to venture on the mountain and to everybody’s surprise, we found out that there were 2,000 shops on Mount Kilimanjaro—all run by Chaga people. This particular tribe in this area were very business minded and the farmers grew lots of cash crop and the best coffee came from the mountain. They were a flourishing community.
The company was very pleased with this new find and I was doing a booming business on the mountain. I made a lot of Chaga friends on that mountain. I used to leave Moshi every morning and come back late at night to Moshi to sleep. Sometimes I used to sleep on the mountain or with Chaga friends in their homes; they were very hospitable people. There was also a very beautiful hotel on the mountain called Kibo where I went for my tea whenever I was in that part of the mountain. During my spare time over the weekend when I was in Arusha (50 miles away from Moshi) I used to sneak out to Serengeti, Ngorongoro Crater or Lake Mantra to film wildlife. By now I had a very simple Kodak 8mm movie camera. I had lots of fun in this company and gained a lot of experience as a travelling salesman.
Another new territory I was asked to venture was Lake Province (i.e. Musoma/Mwanza area). It was a very large area and malaria infested being on Lake Victoria. I did spend a lot of time in this Province and did so well for the company that they opened a depot there seasonally which I was made in charge of.
Some of the towns in the Lake Province that I remember visiting on my sales trips with J&J included: Masungi, Ukumbi, Kabuki, Kirunguru, Elula, Fela, Ngudu, Kahama, Maswa, Manthare, Shinyanga, Geita, Bariati, Terime, Utegi, Nansio Islands, Ukrewe and Bunda. Of my my guides who used to show me some very remote places was Nasser Mohd—a single guy with good knowledge of the backcountry in the Lake Province (this person could drink hot boiling tea in a gulp).
There was a ferry we had to cross called Kinesi Ferry when going to Mwanza from Kisumu (before reaching Musoma). There was always a race against time to reach this place as the ferry closed at 6:30 pm. From previous experience, you didn’t want to spend the night there as this place was infested with giant blood-sucking mosquitoes.
I used to take boat trips on SS Victoria, SS Rusinga and SS Usoga many times going around the great Lake Victoria. We would start at Kisumu to Port Bell (Kampala) and then to Bukoba to Mwanza to Musoma and back to Kisumu. The lake trip took approximately five days. The food, cooked by Goan cooks, on these boats was just great. The cabins were very nice and comfortable.
Shinyanga, Tanzania was a place close to Mwadui where Williamson Diamond Mines were. Some of the places near the mines that I used to visit I had seen Africans mine workers trading a bag full of (smuggled) uncut raw diamonds with the shopkeepers in exchange for food items and some cash. Over the years, these shopkeepers and I became friends. I was offered many times to take these uncut diamonds but I was too scared to handle them.
Geita, Tanzania was where the Geita Gold Mines were.
During my travels through Tanzania, I always carried two bottles of water, sardines, cans of corned beef and bread in case you got stuck or have to sleep in the car. I got so sick and tired of sardines and corned beef after eating them over the years. There were certain areas in Lake Province that I used to go through that were highly infested areas with tsetse flies. If you were bitten by these flies you could get “Sleeping Sickness” (African Trypanosomiasis). When travelling through these areas, you have to shut all your windows. It was no fun as the cars didn’t have air conditioning and the days were so hot and you would sweat like crazy and stink like hell by the end of the journey.
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CROSSING THE SERENGETI
When I was supposed to go to Arusha after finishing my job in Mwanza, many a times I would take a short cut through the Serengeti to save four days of travelling. This was quite tricky and some times dangerous as there were no roads in the Serengeti; you travelled using instinct and a compass. This trip was about a day and a half and come evening, you would just park and go to sleep. It was quite scary at night in the Serengeti especially on a moonless night as the lions and hyenas would come and scrape your car with their claws as they could smell you. Fortunately, they couldn’t get in. After a few trips, you would get used to it and fall fast asleep.
During my travels, I was chased by rhinos, elephants and buffalos. Many times. I also came in close encounter with snakes several times. I got caught in a flash flood gully near Singida, Tanzania once. You always had to be careful when driving through the Serengeti and not be caught in a flash flood gully. During all this travel through the backcountry in Africa, there were no motels anywhere. Hence, I had to sleep in my car many times or request accommodation in whichever town or village I was in. I slept in African huts or from whomever offered accommodation be it Arab, Asian or African. It was because of these travels over eleven years and no regular diet and constantly sitting on hard uncomfortable Land Rover seats, that I developed piles (hemorrhoids) and suffered from this for many years until I got operated in 1972. I used to travel almost nine months in a year and every trip would clock about 10,000–12,000 miles per trip. I used to go through at least two cars a year as the British cars would not last too long on the rugged African roads.
In order to cross the Serengeti to reach Arusha I would first travel half way towards Musoma from Mwanza and enter the Serengeti through a place called Bunda. I started the day at sunrise and drove through the Serengeti until sunset and then parked and waited for day break. This trip took about a day and a half to two days (if there were not any car breakdowns). It was a risky venture!!!
Around 1959, I was granted a membership at the YMCA. I was one of the first Asians to be granted this privilege in this white-dominated club and was allowed to use the YMCA swimming pool. I bet those whites did not like that!!!
There was a change in the management of Grayson and Company in 1959 and a lot of salesmen were laid off and replaced by Africans.
I then joined a wholesale and retail chemist company in Nairobi called A.H. Wardles and Company. Initially, I was hired to work in the warehouse for a few months but was then promoted to sales position. I was given the cosmetic side and started promoting Max Factor Cosmetics and 4711 Perfumes. I was given a company car and had to do extensive traveling covering again all of Kenya and parts of Uganda and Tanzania. The good thing with this company was that I didn’t have to go in the backcountry to promote but just to visit the main towns and cities. My trips were scheduled every two months. I visited Mombasa, Malinda, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Moshi, Arusha and every two months I would visit Naivasha, Nakuru, Eldoret, Kitale, Kakamega, Kisumu, Kissii, Kericho, Londiani and then back to Nairobi. During my time with this company I tripled their sales of Max Factor products and also promoted SYLVASUN Tabs—an anti-sunburn tablet which became the fastest selling products in Mombasa and Malindi because of the beautiful beaches and influx of European tourists. Given the strong African sun, these tablets were taken before people go out in the sun to get suntanned and so they never got sunburned.
It was during working with this company that I started privately selling certain medicine to wholesalers in the Kisumu area. In a space of two to three years I made lots of money. I used to sell these medicine on a cash-only basis and used to get substantial amount of cash. As it was not safe to carry all this cash in my travels through the backcountry, I used to go to Gulami Meghji’s shop and made arrangements for them to issue me a cheque in exchange for cash. In those days they were one of the leading and reputable textile wholesalers in Kisumu. Gulamali Meghji and his brother, Lutafali Meghji, did me a lot of favours in those days. Gulami Meghji was father of Shirin Bhabhi and Begum Aunty; our family relations was also extremely good.
My best friend when I used to visit Kisumu was Sadru Singer. He was courting Sultan Meghji in those days and that’s how I became friends with Begum Meghji as she we the younger sister of Sultan Meghji. We used to all go out with the family on picnics and drives and we used to sing and have lots of fun by Hippo Point in Kisumu. In later years, my other good friend in Kisumu was Sadru Nathu Valli.