-Fascinating insights into the world of Sattaur Gafoor
HE IS a multi-millionaire who moves in elitist circles, and I am a perennial, impractical and idealistic daydreamer who lives from paycheck to paycheck, yet we share many things in common. We both believe in striving to achieve, we both believe in aiming for excellence in whatever we attempt; we both live our lives with a primary respect for our fellow human beings; we both have an abhorrence for vindictive, dishonest, and wicked people; we both have deep and abiding faith in God; we both have tremendous compassion for suffering people and, at scale, we both have a tendency to reach out to help those suffering people, under different equations and applications.
My great fascination for the pioneering entrepreneurs of this country – and everywhere, evolved since the days of my childhood.  Actually, the stories of those who achieve phenomenal success from a landscape of limited opportunities and capacities have always fascinated me.  I absolutely love Oprah Winfrey.  She represents the zenith of everything humane, human, and woman; but right here in Guyana there exist many men and women who have achieved superlative success, but who yet retain graciousness and simplicity in their everyday lives.
There is nothing I have that Sattaur Gafoor would want, yet this time-constrained business magnate, whom I did not know and have never met, took time out several years ago to find my telephone number and call me out of the blues to personally congratulate me for something that I cannot now remember; and this hallmarks the unique personality of someone who is an icon in his own right.  Despite his gigantic stature in the social and business world he remains a simple, approachable, affable human being who bonds with the most junior of his employees.
I have found that the greatest achievers are the most simple and humane persons, to whom common courtesy and respect for their fellow human is paramount.  In Guyana, and within my limited scope, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Bish Panday, Vic Insanally, Sattaur Gafoor, and Toolsie Persaud are cases in point.  I detest power-drunk people with a passion, but have the highest regard for people who have attained great stature without losing the common touch.
Creative writing is my forte and first love, which I have been forced to suppress all my adult life to earn requisite income to provide for my family.  One weekend, many years ago, I was forced to remain in bed because of an illness when my mother, who was visiting took over all my responsibilities.  I had not felt so mentally free since my childhood so I wrote,  the only play that I have written in my adult life.  It won Theatre Company’s 10th anniversary play-writing competition in the short-play category, beating all Guyana’s top playwrights who had made submissions.  Michael Gilkes won the full-play category.
On annual leave with nothing much that I am forced to do for the first time (except housework, which I hate), and with greatly-reduced responsibilities, I have felt that same sense of freedom and planned to pursue this love by writing stories for a book, and what better way than to tell the fascinating tales of Guyana’s top achievers in a compilation; so I sought time with Mr. Gafoor, who invited me to accompany him on a trip he was taking the next day to Berbice, which gave me an insight into one window of the diverse corridors that this amazing man treads.
My father had owned much waterfront property along the mouth of the Canje Creek and I used to accompany him as a very little girl to some of his business sites, so it was a journey in nostalgialand when Mr. Gafoor made his first stop at his transit point located at the mouth of the Canje River.
The natural beauty of the environs, just beneath the Canje Bridge, was a breathtaking splendor; but what was incredible was the transformation of the location within the three years that Gafsons had established its own wharfage facilities in this piece of prime real estate.  A new wharf had replaced the previous dilapidated structure, with a complete overhaul of the revetment and brand-new outbuildings. A huge ocean-going pontoon was being off-loaded onto the dock, which was situated among the jewel-like setting of verdancy characteristic of Guyana’s rainforest.  Standing on the wraparound verandah of an elevated office just above the waterline one could just imagine the absolute peace and tranquility to be afforded someone lying in a hammock when the sun rests and the moonlight blankets the beautiful environs in luminous but muted brilliance – a writer’s paradise.
Gafsons’ boardroom in this Canje location overlooks its wharf through glass walls, a perfect location for a busy executive to hold staff meetings while simultaneously observing the operational dynamics of the facility.
Gafsons Rose Hall town branch is also located in a very scenic site not far away from the Republic Bank in a secondary street on the same side of the road going East on the Courantyne highway and is a replica of the Houston complex on a somewhat smaller scale.  However, although the Houston complex obtains its manufactured construction stock from the Garden of Eden factory, the Rose Hall town site has its own manufacturing facility.
Mr. Gafoor does not confine himself to limitations of any kind and is in his element when faced with challenges, which he is adept at overcoming.  He was not even deterred during the lean times of foreign currency unavailability and severe import restrictions. Thus it is that he has created international linkages and partnerships for timely product delivery of construction materials, even those produced locally such as stone, when local suppliers fail to meet Gafsons’ phenomenal demands, and yet the entity manages to sustain competitive prices on the local market.  All Gafsons facilities offer a combination of goods and services to satisfy every need of a householder and construction entities.  An essential service being offered at the Houston complex is expert advice on requisite amounts and type of construction materials needed to complete buildings as per specifications of the architect’s design and the requirements of the home-builder, which is an essential prerequisite to save the unwary from getting ripped off by building contractors, which is common practice.  All outlets offer transportation facilities.
What engaged my attention, however, was the composition of Mr. Sattaur’s management staff, which comprises mainly women and some very young persons, all of whom displayed the greatest competency and delivered to their boss clear reports on the functionality and the procedures of the various applications of the Gafsons Berbice operations that made his brief visits smooth and hassle-free.  I was also touched by the way he ate what everyone else ate, sitting together in a spirit of camaraderie and joie de vivre with even his most junior staff members; which is not a one-off occasion, because I have witnessed this at different times and on different occasions.
When my curiosity is piqued, I am heedless of strictures in my pursuit of answers and my questioning elicited responses that further strengthened my respect for Mr. Gafoor.
According to him, he promotes anyone without restrictions to age or gender, once they have proven their competence and commitment to the job.  Of his proclivity to surrounding himself with mainly female executives he elucidated that he finds female employees very easy to get along with, very likeable, dedicated, astute, reliable, principled and, in the greater instance, possess greater integrity than their male counterparts.
This 70-year-old superman puts many younger colleagues to shame with his dynamic energy, which has seen him touching down in the wee hours of the morning at Timehri from interconnecting flights from as far as Asia and still be hard at work in his office very early the next morning.
His prodigious feats extend to his charitable and social work, much of which he undertakes himself, meeting people and hearing their problems every Friday morning then devising systems to find solutions in deserving cases.  Many times he would read about someone in need and call me to offer help.
This gentle man, and gentleman, does not only practice his faith; he lives it, which perhaps is the secret of his legendary successes and his facility to figuratively turning everything he touches to gold.