| Haridas
Mulla Raithatha was born in 1907 at Chhapar, Jamnagar district,
Saurashtra, India. He was educated in Khambhalia and was a resident
student of Lohana Boarding, Khambhalia.
Having completed his primary education in 1921, at the age of 14
years he took a daring step of embarking on a journey to East Africa
and landed at Mombassa after 10 days of lonely journey to see the
new land. |
| From
Mombassa, Haridasbhai travelled by train and road to reach Mbale.
At the time, Mbale was a small town in Bugishu District, Eastern
Province of Uganda. Here he joined his elder brother Girdharbhai
Mulla in their family business of Girdhar Mulla & Co. and began
dealing mainly in textiles.
Haridasbhai married to Kashiben,
daughter of Mathurdas Thakrar in Mbale. By his hard work and foresight
the business of Girdhar Mulla & Co., became very successful.
As is human nature and specially with
Haridasbhai, he wanted to set new goals of excellence, so with his
rich experience in textiles, in 1952 the company started cotton
ginning industry under the banner of Keyere Cotton Co., in Keyere
District of Teso, Uganda in partnership with four others. He shared
the full responsibility of managing the Ginnery.
|
| Haridasbhai
had Community interest at heart and worked silently supporting his
elder brother Girdharbhai who was the President of Shri Lohana Mahajan
of Mbale for 20 years. The family's financial
contribution to Mahajanwadi at Mbale was substantial. He was a religious
person and took keen interest in the Hindu Temple, Mbale.
In 1972 during Ugandan exodus Haridasbhai left and settled in U.K.
along with his family and spent rest of his life in retirement.
Haridasbhai died in 1983 in London. He
left behind 3 sons and 2 daughters. Jamnadasbhai Raithatha is the
eldest and was the president of Lohana Community North London during
1993/94 and President of Lohana Community U.K. in 1994/95, he is
presently residing in Harrow, Middlesex.
The office block in Raghuvanshi Charitable
Trust (RCT) building is dedicated to the cherished memory of Haridashbhai
and Kashiben Raithatha. |
