By Kumkum Chadha
A bomb blast in Karachi, politician Shashi Tharoor and business tycoon Ratan Tata “a god to many Indians”, his student days when he made money “selling ice cream”, diplomat and author Mohamed Maliki is a multi-faceted personality. Unlike many diplomats, he does not measure his words, but is frank and forthright: enjoying every aspect of his chequered life.
Maliki is among the few who is adept in balancing power and the pressures of life before and after being a career diplomat. The Morocco’s ambassador to India, learnt one lesson: Invite Indians for a meal, but never on a Tuesday.
The greatest influence on him in his formative years was his father who he said “was ahead of his time”. If his mother was protective, like all mothers are, Maliki’s father disciplined him, as it were: “Sometimes excessive, but in hindsight the best way,” he said in an interview to a national daily.
A big takeaway perhaps is about money and his philosophy about it: “In this context, I see things differently from others. I don’t ask if we have the money to spend, but if I am convinced by the action, I will decide to do it and then look for the money that is needed for it. Normally one would ask if we have enough money to undertake the task, but I will say let us do it and then see how we can generate the funds. In the long run, you end up doing more action than what is required because you are not restricted or limited,” he said. This is something Maliki has followed both as ambassador and in his days as a student.
“Since my second year of University I have not taken a single penny from my parents. In summer I would go to France: enjoy the beaches and also sell ice-cream. Also, I made ice-cream myself and I would come home with a good amount of money,” Maliki said even as he confessed that he started off by borrowing from his father and then returned him ‘double or triple that amount’”.
And what was his trade secret: go to the beach, when other sellers went home to take a nap: “I had a chance to sell more than the others not because I was smart or clever: no, not that. It was because I came from Morocco and thus was used to the sun more than the French. So, between one and three o’clock in the afternoon, all sellers would go away and that is when I would get to work and sell all the ice cream and often double it too. I also managed to build a rapport with the kids on the beaches with the result that they would ask their parents that we will wait for Mohammed and buy from him. It also happened that I would get a lot of tips,” he said. Maliki also learnt making ice-cream through a recipe book and that too helped him earn big bucks: “When I would return to Morocco, I would have enough to live for one and sometimes two years also,” he said.
On a serious note, Maliki believes in friendship: “I live it every day, I see it every day and I cherish and value friendships”, Maliki said.
An author, philosophy dominates his life, times and work: Who am I? Where do I come from? What is pain? These were some of the questions he has attempted to answer in his forthcoming book: “It is a non-conformist autobiography which captures the incidents that have impacted me. There were lessons, there were pitfalls and some life changing incidents,” he said keeping the details under wraps given that the book is not out yet.
However, he mentions “a burglary at home” and a bomb blast which he barely survived and an earthquake in Karachi: “The burglary was in Cameroon, a few months before I was to get married. So, I had a good amount of money and the jewellery I had bought; the bomb blast in Karachi was during the visit of US president George Bush and I was staying in a nearby hotel” which is where he saw “terrorism first hand. In such cases you always feel that this cannot happen to me, but only to others. You read about terrorism, you see it in movies, but always see yourself detached from it. But when you are caught in the middle of it, then certain questions come up”. He stops here and refrains from discussing the details and insights.
“For all that you have to read my book,” he says, adding that once you survive disasters you realize that God has given you more time and how best one should put it to good use.
His first visit to India was way back in the nineties when he was focused on visiting the Taj Mahal in Agra. Of course, a lot has changed since, including the traffic: “But I always found fascination in the contentment of people even then and as now. This is despite visible poverty. In temples there was gold, but nobody would touch it. What has also fascinated me is the grandeur of the buildings, including the Jama Masjid. The friendliness has remained the same”. As for negatives, it is lack of cleanliness and delayed infrastructure projects among others that he feels can change.
As for the bilateral relationship, Maliki said: “India is a strategic partner and I believe that food and health security are sectors where we can work very closely. We are connected much more than people think. Add to this, the cooperation in sensitive issues, including counter terrorism, maritime and cyber security. There is a very strong will from both sides on all these and I also think we can do quite well in sectors of defense and pharmaceuticals”.
Both Ratan Tata and Shashi Tharoor, Maliki says were and are friends: “With Ratan Tata I built a relationship which was not based on business at all, but purely on human values. I was lucky to be called his friend”. As for Tharoor, there is a “Tuesday dinner story” that Maliki related: “When I invited Tharoor and some other friends over for dinner, it was a Tuesday. I was unaware that it is difficult to call anyone on Tuesday. So, on a table of eight people, there were six or seven menus: somebody without garlic, somebody without onions, somebody vegetarian, somebody saying no eggs. I threw up my hands”.
As for the big picture, he says he has had a “smooth sail” and no major setbacks: “Touch wood” he says superstitiously, giving a loud knock on the mahogany side-table.
—The writer is an author, journalist and political commentator