The enhanced visibility of successful Indian professionals has done much to polish the perception about Indians among the people in Hong Kong.
Letter from Hong Kong
The enhanced visibility of successful Indian professionals has done much to polish the perception about Indians among the people in Hong Kong. An English teacher in an international school here recalls that in her early years in Hong Kong, over a decade ago, whenever she introduced herself to her class as an Indian and her husband as a banker, the children would invariably ask her: “Does your husband have a gun?” That question befuddled her for quite a while — until she figured out that the only “Indians” that the children had seen were burly, fearsome Sikhs who served in the British colony as policemen, watchmen and doormen! In fact, to this day, some Chinese tombs have images of Sikh guards sculpted on them: the belief is that the guards will protect the deceased person even in the afterlife!
* * *
Perhaps the most celebrated ‘Indian’ family in Hong Kong is the Harilela clan, headed by the genial patriarch Hari Harilela. Theirs is an inspirational rags-to-riches story, which started off in 1922 when Hari’s father Naroomal left Hyderabad (in Sind) for Canton in southern China in search of fortune; a downturn in fortunes led them to Hong Kong, where Hari, as a 10-year-old, began his worklife as a streethawker. By sheer dint of hard work, the Harilelas rebuilt their fortune: today, “Dr Hari”, as he’s known, heads a global multi-billion-dollar empire, with interests in hotels, real estate, food and a string of other sectors.
To this day, four generations of the Harilela clan live together under one roof in their famed 100,000 sq ft mansion - a supreme luxury in this space-starved city - and an annexe that, between them, have 70 bedrooms, a 70-car garage and a 75-seat cinema. The parties and private dinners that the Harilelas host in their Kowloon Tong mansion are legendary on Hong Kong’s social circuit, and people who’ve been invited to one of them gush about the heights of hospitality the Harilelas have scaled. As for me, I’m waiting in line for an invitation…
* * *
Not every Indian who pounds the pavements in Hong Kong, however, ends up half as wealthy as the Harilelas. Along the Golden Mile in Kowloon, where the Harilelas own a swank Holiday Inn hotel, a swarm of Indian touts peddle “genuine fake watches” and “cheap suits” for a commission. Others solicit custom for guesthouses in the nightmarish Chungking Mansion. Still others sell tawdry sex…
Prostitution isn’t illegal in Hong Kong, but soliciting is a crime. And in the evenings, garishly made up Indian commercial sex workers come out on the streets of Tsim Sha Tsui. Many of them, an Indian consular official told me, have arrived on a 14-day visa, which they get on arrival (Hong Kong is one of the last outposts of the developed world where Indian passport holders still get a visa on arrival). “As soon as they arrive, the women tear up their passport and report to the Indian Consulate-General that they’ve lost their passport,” the consular official says. And till the time it takes for a duplicate passport to be issued, they sell sex on the streets…
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}