Ayub Mohmed Adia - From Barbodhan to Bolton

Ayub was born in 1937 in Barbodhan, a village in Gujarat, northern India.

His father had a 20-acre farm, cultivating wheat and rice. Servants farmed it while he worked away in Burma, a trader selling aluminium pots in the markets of Rangoon. The family, like many in the village, were much-travelled merchants - Ayub's grandfather and uncles owned a clothes shop in Mauritius.

In his village school Ayub was taught only Gujarati, and so when he was fourteen his father summoned him to Burma, to learn English. There he found a daytime job as a typewriter mechanic, and for the next ten years he attended night school.

I stay both things...In the daytime, the job working - eight hours working - and, at night-time, going to the school two hours ....Yes, very long day.....Every night for ten years...

In 1961 he felt the urge to come to England.

I had friends coming here....I been to the airport to say goodbye... Then they write to me...say - "England very nice...You come here. ...And the factory very nice... And the money you can make - better four times than India and Burma...In one week, what you make in one month."...So I want also to come to England to make a better life here...

In August 1961 he arrived in England. He had brought only £3 with him from Burma and, out of this, he had to pay for his train up to Preston. He took the night train, arriving in Preston tired and cold at 4 o'clock in the early morning.

The very next day, he registered at the Employment Office, where he was told he would receive £3.50 a week until he found employment.

One pound rent to landlord...One pound to eating, for food....One pound still in your pocket...Very very cheap then, everything, at that time....

He stayed in a small house where seven other people were living. They shared the beds on a shift-basis.

Somebody is working on a nightshift so, in the daytime, they go to work and somebody come and sleep here in that bed...

Very quickly he had to learn how to cook.

When we come here, we even don't know how to fry the egg, so my friend - when he come home from work - he cook ......We go looking what kind he is doing...And we learn from my friend...

The first thing Ayub learnt to cook was "chapatti and the rice and the curry".

For three months, he went from factory to factory, enquiring about vacancies.

Every day when we get up after breakfast, we go out, looking for work... Everywhere, "No...Come back in a month."..........First time when I come here, I feel very happy...But after, few weeks later, I feel sad...I don't find work.

But eventually he got his first job - in a Courtaulds' textile mill. There were many other Asians working there, as well as Italians, Poles and Maltese. He worked as a winder for six months, and was then transferred to the spinning department, where he stayed for the next three years.

In Preston, at that time, there were no mosques.

Only we pray in the house...And some festivals like Eid, we go to a big house to pray.....One time we have to pray in the Preston Park outside...About 6-700 people...And it was snowing that day!...In December.......The English people, they very interested...The Evening News come, they photograph us...They write down the story - that the Indian have prayer in snowing time.

In 1967 he moved to Bolton. A great number of friends and relatives had recently travelled there from India and Burma. Job prospects were good in the town, with a lot of work in the textile mills. A year later, Ayub married Maryam, from his home village, Barbodhan. He bought a house for three hundred pounds.

The house owner say, "You give me £100 deposit, and the £200 without interest. ......Then girl come every weekend...take £2 every week."

Ayub found a job at the Sir Richard Arkwright mill - a Tootal's mill - in the spinning department. He worked there for the next ten years. Early on he was promoted to the post of 'ring jobber', responsible for maintaining the machinery. For this he had to receive training from the incumbent ring jobber who was about to retire.

I am put with old fellow to learn everything...Frank something...A small fellow...He used to chew tobacco...He teach me everything. ...They choose me because I was a typewriter mechanic before.... Also they say, "Your mind also working very nice, so you will learn quickly."......I learned easily - about six month time, everything.... Then the old fellow is coming part-time in the afternoon, looking I do everything all right.

Ayub enjoyed working at Tootals - they paid well enough; there was a factory shop where you could get discounts on clothes; you could take Indian food to the canteen and warm it up; and he had many friends there he could talk to.

But in 1980 the mill closed. It was an old mill and the factory would be moving to Ireland. The manager informed the workers six months before closure.

So everyone very sad...And some of our Indian people they cry also...They ask me, "Where will we find a job?"

With the recession biting deep, many failed to find new jobs. For six months Ayub managed to find work at Holdswoth's mill, but then he was laid off. Unemployed and unable to find work, his health broke down. He contracted tuberculosis. It was two years before the illness finally cleared, but then almost immediately he fell seriously ill again, this time with stomach ulcers and high blood pressure. Due to ill health, he has never been able to work since.

He had always enjoyed working.

Because in this country, if you are not working, your body is very cold...When you are working, your body is getting warm...

But he is happy he settled in Bolton.

People very nice in here...Very friendly. ......But everywhere I go, I like it....India, Burma, England...Everywhere.

He has many relatives now around the town.

About 15-16 houses..........And from our home village, Barbodhan, about 500 houses also in Bolton.

Ayub's sons were born here. Ebrahim in 1969, and Maqsood, three years later. Early this month of May 2002, Ebrahim became a councillor, elected for the Derby ward in the local elections. He is one of only three Asian councillors in the town.

Ayub has been back to India just once since leaving - in 1975 when his father was very ill.

We got some land...My grandfather bought it...We still got it...A lot of field, about 20 acre, and a house...

I miss India because it's my country and I born there... I miss it, yes, and I want to go...some time, yes...If the God give the life.... But not to live.....To visit.

www.barbodhan.org