Author: Priya Adhyaru-Mehta

Gujaratis are teaching the language of business to the world and how! An Arab youth, Ahmad Samar, in Dubai has learnt the Gujarati script, especially to inscribe mementos in Gujarati for the large number of tourists who visit his city every season.

Samr, 24, a perpetuating a 60-year-old sand art tradition, makes signature mementos painting Dubai’s representational picturesque dessert scenes and monument images. He makes beautiful glass paintings, vases or paper weights with serene dessert scenes, images of Dubai city skyline and tall Burj Khalifa, using natural and artificially coloured sand. He then skillfully personalizes these chic mementos with fun messages inscribed in vernacular languages.

Samr, who has been making sand art momentos since the past six years, has recently added Gujarati to the short menu of languages in which personalized slogans can be inscribed on his creations. In fact, Gujarati is the only Indian tongue to make to Samr’s repertoire of languages which includes English, Arabic and Urdu.

Due to rising demand of tourists from Gujarat, he was lured to learn Gujarati, and now he can write the language with elan. Interestingly, this savvy businessman learnt the language from tourists only.

“Some six months ago, a group of tourists from Gujarat visited my stall. While I was writing a message in Urdu, one of them enquired whether I can write Gujarati for them. I promptly requested the group to help me learn how to write the language. They obliged me by writing couple of different fun messages in Gujarati,” Samr told TOI.

He then kept copying and practicing that script which helped him learn to write Gujarati. “I seldom understand the meaning of the fun messages I write in Gujarati. However, I enjoy writing them as it helps me earn more money. And with more practice and more interactions with Gujarati tourists in coming years, I will soon understand the meaning and will be able to form new slogans as well,” Samr said.

Samr said that Gujaratis are generous tourists and readily loosen their purse strings to personalized mementos inscribed in Gujarati.

These days, Samr makes eight to 12 glass paintings a day with messages inscribed in Gujarati. And each of these pieces of various size and shapes sells for about 100 to 400 dinars (about Rs 3,000 to Rs 12,000 per piece).

By knowing to write Gujarati, Samr has earned an edge over other artists creating sand art momentous in his surroundings. Following his example, some other artists have also come forward to learn to write Gujarati so that they too can be flooded with the orders next season.