Ganed Raj Patel yn Kampala, Uganda ym 1957. Daeth ei hen daid o India i Uganda i adeiladu’r rheilffyrdd.  

Mae’n cofio cyrraedd maes awyr Heathrow gyda’i rieni a’i 3 brawd, a theithio dros nos i Gaerdydd ar drên post. Yma, cymerodd ei rieni swyddi fel mecanyddion a gweithwyr ffatri i gael dau ben llinyn ynghyd, a chawsant gymorth hefyd gan ‘Mr Singh’, a helpodd lawer o deuluoedd Asiaidd Uganda i ymgartrefu yng Nghaerdydd. Mynychodd Ysgol Uwchradd Fitzalan, lle'r oedd un o'i gyd-ddisgyblion yn Janak Patel, ond gadawodd i gefnogi ei deulu ar ôl i'w dad fynd yn analluog.   

Dechreuodd Raj a’i fab Neal ‘Vegetarian Food Studio’ yn 2003, y bwyty Gujarati – llysieuol cyntaf yng Nghaerdydd. Dros yr 20 mlynedd diwethaf, mae’r bwyty wedi ennill clod niferus am ei fwyd a’i letygarwch ac mae’n parhau i fod yn un o brif elfennau cymuned Caerdydd.

Trawsgrifiad o gyfweliad gyda Raj Patel gan Radha Patel a Robin Robin Chaddah-Duke

Raj: Okay. My name is Rajesh Patel.

Radha: And your date of birth?

Raj: 19th of March, 1957

Radha: And where were you born

Raj: In Kampala, Uganda.

Radha: Okay. And could you just repeat for me again, about your kind of life in Uganda and how you came to the UK?

Raj: I was born in Uganda. I was a young, young boy. I went to primary school, and in those days we had the government, Doctor Obote, and it was overthrown. I remember the overthrow day when it overthrew the government and Idi Amin came in charge of our country. And within two months, I think he told all the British passport holders to leave the country within 90 days otherwise he’s going to kill us you know, that's what I remember, that my parents and me and my three brothers and my parents came to England and we landed at Heathrow, and then we were sent to Cardiff by the... in those days there used to be a post office train at night, we were put on a post office train and came to Cardiff because we, we asked him to bring us to Cardiff because my auntie was here and that's how I came to UK.

And then we went to primary - and then next day we joined the schools, Fitzalan, and that's what our life started, with the help of my aunt.

Robin: I've got one question about Fitzalan High School. Do you remember a boy called Janak Patel? I was interviewing him the other day and he went to Fitzalan High School.

Raj: Is he the one that worked in the coal mines?

Robin: Yeah.

Raj: Yes, yes, I remember, I know him very well. He was more he was higher than me.

Robin: Because he was about I think he was said he was 16. Yeah.

Raj: He was, he was older than me. He was in upper school.

Robin: But you both came from Uganda to the school

Raj: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a lot of people in Fitzalan at the time, cause Fitzalan was the only school and most of the people were living in Grangetown, so that's what we ended up, I did my A-levels in Fitzalan, you know, that's what happened. Janak, I know him very well.

Robin: And so interesting. How did you meet?

Raj: In school, in school in those days there was no maybe community there? You know, no networking. So that's how we met, you know, that's what we did.

When we came from Uganda, first time, after two weeks me and my three brothers fell ill. The reason is that we came to a very poor country from a tropical country. And in Africa, because of mosquitoes, you always have malaria. So, in this country at that time a doctor, didn't know what malaria was. So they put us in hospital in Llandough where we didn't know the culture of the British way of what to do, how to eat, what to use the fork and knives and nothing like that.

You know, it was very awkward for us and they just blocked us in the hospital in Llandough and isolation unit because they didn't know what was wrong with us. You know, it was very difficult. And we didn't have no transport, no cars. We didn't know the roads, we didn't know the busses. But my parents couldn't speak English. It was very difficult.

So then we joined the school after a while I was I was put in Heath hospital for three months in isolation because they didn’t understand what malaria was, you know. But eventually I told them what was but they wouldn't understand never quinine medicine that we have in Africa. They wouldn't accept that, you know. But long story short, then I ended up in school in Fitzalan and because when I was in hospital, they sent a teacher to hospital to start teaching us. In those days, it was like that. If you're more than two weeks away from school, they send the teacher home to come and study wherever you are. So they were coming to hospital to teach us the school, the work, the homework and everything.

So eventually I ended up in Fitzalan high school. And then I did my O-levels there, then I did my A Levels there, and then I left, and then I wanted to go university, but in those days there was a college called Coursera college or something, I can't remember the name, in Colchester Avenue. I joined there to do my higher education, but within four months of me joining the university thing, my father broke his back while working, you know, because my father never worked in his life labouring, because in Africa he never worked, you know, he always employed people to do the work. So when he came here, he had to take a job, when he took a job, he took a job in Edward Currans where they make the baths, you know, in the docks.

And my mother took a job in a factory, you know, and we were 3, 4 brothers all together – young brothers. So somebody had to look after the house. But in those days it was very difficult to, to get a house with children, to rent a house with children. Nobody would give you a house to rent if you had more than one child or two child, two children, you know.

So eventually we managed to get a help from Mr. Singh in Cardiff, he was a counsellor. He helped us and he gave us a house to rent in Clare Gardens. So we started from that, we separated from the family and we went on our own. But while I was in university, my father broke his back because he never lifted the baths in his life.

When he broke his back, we didn't have no money income coming in so I had to leave my education to go to work so me and my mother can manage to finances of the house. And then my three brothers were going to school. So when they came from school, even in those days, they had to go and take a job in Wimpy.

I don't know whether you know, Wimpy, used to be like a Burger King, it’s a wimpy shop, you know. So my brothers used to finish work at 3:00 and 5:00, they used to go to wimpy bars in
St Johns Square Cardiff and work there till 10:00 every day, seven days a week. So to meet the ends meet in the family.

So three of them were working there and me and my mother were working full time. My father was at home, but then we found it very difficult. My brothers were coming home, there's no food because my mother was working. So, then I decided to get married at a very young age, and I got married to my wife, and she came in and she helped us, and she'd been very good to look after our family and she'd been supportive.

So then my family grew up, and then we bought our first house with a deposit of £750. It was very difficult to save in those... because the wages were by £13 a week, £14 week. You know, it was a lot of money, but it was very difficult to collect £750 in those days. So that Mr. Singh, the one I was renting the house from, at the age of I think 15 I was or 14, I can't remember the exact... he took me to Cardiff City Council in city centre and got me a mortgage, got my mother and my father a mortgage. He knows how to explain everything, and the council gave us a mortgage and I have a mortgage payment of only £40 a month, but was very, very difficult to get £40 a month with four children, mortgage, rates, insurance, everything because everything was new to us and my father was very ill. I had to leave my education to join the family to work. So I worked full time in a factory with my mother, which was very hard for me as well.

But then eventually things got better. We bought the house, council gave us the furniture to start our houses and then it was a good house slowly by slowly. We grew up, you know, and then that's how we started our life. And then four years later, I started my own business repairing of cars because my younger brother is a very good mechanic my father was a mechanic, so we rented a small place in Grangetown and we started repairing cars and with the help of a dealer in Llantwit Fardre, he gives us a lot of work. So we used to work, we started with three of us together and that's how I started going to garage business. Eventually, after two years, I moved to a bigger place in Leckwith with my brother and started bigger business.

Then I went to insurance repairs because I was taught how to repair insurance damage cars. We went into that business eventually I grew up and that's how I got that... I bought my first business place in Leckwith Place for £23,000, and that was even hard to get money from the bank. But there was an ex bank manager who helped me, took me to NatWest and gave me the money, they gave us a mortgage for 20 years, and we paid it, in four years we paid it off, working hard, then we paid it off.  And that was the start of our... growing of our business, that's how we started. And then I stayed in car business for 15 years. Eventually I sold that business and then I went into the restaurant business. No, I went into importing, import and exporting. So I travelled the world, I was the first guy in the UK to bring used car engines from Japan into UK.

And in those days there used to be a magazine called Exchange and Mart, I don't know whether you know about it, there was a magazine, because in those days there was no internet, there was nothing. But you used to have a magazine called Exchange and Mart, which was for all the motorist and used to come out every week. So we, we rented it, we took a whole page, advertise on that, paid £25,000 for the whole country in those days.

And then we had agents everywhere. So I was bringing engines from Japan, which nobody knew how to do. And then I was selling them and that was my success. And then from there I grew up, I bought the big place in Sloper Road, and then I stayed in that business for 27 years. And then my two children grew up, one became a chartered accountant and the other one became a qualified chef through Birmingham University. Both of them were first class degrees. So my eldest son is owning the restaurant with my help, and my younger son is in London. He's a chartered accountant; he's got his office in Canary Wharf and his wife is chartered accountant so they're very successful. So that's how my success came – hard work. The only business I've sold was a car business because I can't manage everything now. So now I got our garage business, got our restaurant and we got our property portfolio. So that's what the business. But now I'm leaving everything to my children because I had a stroke. I don't want to work anymore, I'm retired, but it's a... that's our successful.

At the moment we've got 14 properties in portfolio and our business that’s it. So both of my children, I got five grandchildren and that's it. And my mother's still here with me. Anything else?

Radha: Yeah. I really like to go into more detail about the restaurant. So can you tell us about how...

Raj: The restaurant?

Radha: Yeah. How did you start the restaurant? What was what was the idea...

Robin: Yeah and the vegetarianism, it's the first in Wales. What was that like?

Raj: So the vegetarian restaurant came by because when I came in the 1971 here, there was no temple of ours. So in Mardy Street they became a property for sale, which was belonging to electric board and deli property. So me and five people in our community got together and said, look, we need a temple of our own. Let's try to get the money from everybody and buy the place.

I think we bought the place for 20,000 or something. I can't remember the exact figure. So we collected money from all the community and we bought that place, but it was a derelict place. So then all the Ugandan people were all over the country and in England. So we announced in our local newspaper, used to be very good for that.

We need help to redevelop this place. So every weekend there's people from London, Leicester, Birmingham, come on a coach on a Friday night to help us. Some were carpenters, some were electricians, some were architects, all different types of people, labourers. So they used to come in Mardy Street to work and they used to sleep on the floor in the hall. So on the weekend we had to cook and my mother was a very good cook. So my mother and my aunty used to cook food for 300-400 people breakfast, lunch and evening meals. And my son was, I think, three years of age at the time. He used to go with them. So he learned what my grandmother, what grandmother was doing, and we didn't because the community used to pump him, come on Neil do this, do this and he learned how to cook. So that got him into food business.

So eventually he said he wants to be a chef. But my father said to him, you can't be a chef unless you go to university, get a degree in whatever you want, because Indian people are very fancy with our education. So you go and get a degree, then I'll buy you a restaurant.

So he went to Birmingham University while he was in Birmingham University, we didn't have the money at the time, you know, so he used to come home on Friday and I had quite the corner shops and all Patel shops, corner shops. I used to sell samosas and onion bhajis. He used to come on a Friday, Saturday morning I used to get two bags of onions myself for him to make onion pakoras on Sunday morning.

He used to make samosas, my mother used to help him to make samosas, and I used to do the onions and he used to make it. And he gets up at Sunday, Monday morning he gets up at 4:00, makes the food by 7:00. I put all the food in the car, I drove him to the station first, and then I got to deliver food to all the shops, you know, and they were all helpful to us because that is how samosas and onion bhajis came in the marketplace.

So we noticed that was a big demand for food. And by doing that for three years, he saved £40,000 to buy his first business. It was with the help of the family, not on his own, but for him to go to study and come here on Friday and then do this. And that's how vegetarianism in the food business came in the market.

So when he qualified, the day when he threw his hat at the university, I found a place in Grangetown. The reason to select Grangetown was because our temple is there, and I thought there's nobody here, our people will come and there's no vegetarianism in Cardiff so we opened the restaurant in Grangetown. So we opened the small restaurant in Grangetown, with that 40,000 that he saved, I took him to midland Bank and then I said to Bank, I want £100,000 for a loan. He said, no, I'll give you £150,000. So you give us a loan within two hours they give us the loan. And we bought our first business premises for him, 440,000, which was an old cafe. So I start a business from that for the first four months, because we didn't have money to buy the equipment and do everything, he started making sandwiches and English food and started introducing samosas and pastas and stuff like that. So for three months we did that, then he decided to knock the place out to make it a bit tidy and we didn't money to buy tables and chairs. So I went to Ikea and bought the tables and chairs, plastic table, picnic ones, the white ones I bought them, I bought four of them and I put them in a restaurant and people used to come and eat and I was telling them, look, this is what we can afford but the food was very nice. So the word travelled and it's the word of mouth traveling and today I’ve got 37 awards, the best in the country for everything. And it's not me – it's his work, but he doesn't like to represent himself so it’s only me and my daughter who represent ourselves.

I’m going for another award next month. So that'll be my 39th award, if I get it. So that's how the vegetarianism came in and vegetarianism came in because all the people liked our food. So word of mouth travelled. When I got my first award, it was very good publicity. So people started coming and word of mouth. Even today is a word of mouth, I don't advertise at all, you know, we don't advertise at all. And that's how it came up, it’s the quality of food and the service you give that brings customers in. But today now in Cardiff I think there's about 10-12 restaurants. There's so many restaurants opening now because all the students are coming in and they're opening these restaurants because they get a license to bring people from India here.

And it's a dodgy way of doing things which the government don't realise. And they're coming in the market, spoiling the market by doing cheap food. No quality, no qualifications, no standards of hygiene, but they only want to apply for immigration license to get five people here and they sell these licenses to students to make them stay here.

And that's what's happening.

Robin: And then they underpay them.

Raj: They underpay them. And not only that, they’re effecting the market, there's so many of them opening now, you know, it's like the health sector. Everybody wants to join into care homes. And the care they're giving is absolutely rubbish. But what can you do? But that's the problem that we're facing. But we don't we don't undercut anybody because our quality is top. You can't you can't give a quality food at cheap prices, you know. But that's it. But 99% of my customers are the British customers, you know. So that's the difference between my business and the other business where they’ve got cheap food.

Robin: Did it always used to be like British people coming to the restaurant?

Raj: No, no, no, I only got about 2% of my business with the Indian people who maybe 2.5%, because all my business depends on the British people, and that is the way I built it, and that's the way I keep it, because there's a cultural difference between Indian people and the British people. You know, the culture is a very big issue.

You know English like mild food and quality food. Indian people like the food but they like to go on the market, you know, cheaper market. That's the difference you know.

Radha: What would you say, what would you say is... so you came from Uganda and you said your great grandfather, like, helped build railways. You came here, you really built yourself up. You worked hard. What would you say is the legacy that you want to be remembered for? All that you think Ugandan Asians should be remembered for?

Raj: For our contributions to Wales I mean, people from Uganda contributed a very large amount of financial and business ideas into Wales, you know, even today I have a first minister I've been talking to him to bring Indian businesses, manufacturing business in Wales, because at the moment the country haven't got any manufacturing business there. They're talking about immigration, that immigration is bad.

But by bringing immigration in, by bringing in the business people, who are the business people in India into this country, instead of them exporting finished goods from India to here, we can make goods here and sell all over Europe. So I'm trying to bring my Indian people here, because if you go to the Valleys now in Merthyr or Aberdare the amount of money that is coming from the European market.

The industrial units are built up, the roads are built up, but there's nobody there to use them. Why? Because nobody wants to come and invest money in the UK. The government is throwing millions of pounds to help people. But there's no, nobody's successful. They brought Sony, they brought Hitachi, they brought caterpillar, they brought all the big companies. What did they do?

They came here. They took the money and run away. Like, look at Newport now, the industrial units are empty. Why are they empty? Because they don't invite the right people to come here. Right. So I went to the Welsh Government and I told them about this as well. And the Welsh Government says to me, well, we've got an office in Delhi, they can do this.

So I met the guy from Delhi. I said, okay, what are you doing for Indian people? Delhi is Delhi, right? Right, Gujarat is Gujarat, Bombay is Bombay, as you know. Yeah. These people don't travel from day there to there day. They only sit on a phone and ring people up. And what do they do, only ring the big companies, they don't want to know the real working people who got the talent of doing the job.

That's what the differences is. Yeah. So I told my first pacer it’s better you come to visit India with the people who work on the ground and know what they're doing. Then we can bring the economy up. But I'm trying, I'm trying. It is only a part time thing that I'm doing. I don't need to do it, but I'm only doing it for my people If I can do it.

Robin: Mr. Singh, Could you tell me a little bit about him, who he was, what he did?

Raj: He was - when I came in this country, he was here from, I think 4 or 5 years before me. And he used to live in Penarth Road and he was a local councillor and he was, I think he was a local councillor and something he was very high in the government and he knew all the government people because in those days the whole community was very small and he was the first one of the ways here.

So he was a very good man. He was old, but he was great and he had a few properties, and he had four children, you know. And I met him through our doctor, my doctor, Doctor Singh, I met to him and I was very young boy. So I explained to him that we were looking for a house, my mother’s got four children.

So he gave us a house to rent, which was in Clare Gardens. And then he used to come to collect rent every week. So I asked him, my mother asked him, how can you buy a house? Show us. So he said, don't worry, you come with me. But because my mum didn't speak English, I went with him and he took me to Cardiff City Council and explained everything to the councillors.

So they said they need £750 deposit to £7500, 10% it was and then we saved that money. We borrowed some money from friends and put the deposit. Then he got me the mortgage and that was the thing. But we stayed with him for four years.

Robin: Do you know where he came from? Mr Singh.

Raj: He came from India. He's got his children still here. The children and the family are still here, you know. But he was a very good man. He helped a lot of people. And then there was a guy called Mr. Mooneeram, you know, Mr. Mooneeram, he was a very help to asian people, but he passed away, there was a Mr. Mooneeram and that's how the help came. Mr. Mooneeram was in charge of education. And he is the one who used to teach us and put in school and disciplined us and taught us everything. So he was also a good man, you know, that's how it, that's how we grew up. You know, Mr. Mooneeram and Mr. Singh. And then there was a Mr. Ramdava the solicitor, there was a Mr Singh solicitor, he helped us as well. So there's that's how we grew up.

Robin: So do you think you were, your sort of, success, do you think the people that inspired you perhaps were those community figures in the same way that you're trying to bring business to the community?

Raj: Community? Yeah, that's the thing, you know, and I'm the eldest of the family so we had to look, I had to look for a different way of doing business. And so that's how... I'm not educated. I'm not educated to a higher level. But I got knowledge of business and I travelled the world with my mind for building for business, because what I used to bring from Japan, I sold all over the world.

The only place I haven't been is New Zealand. Otherwise I export it everywhere, you know, because I used to bring from Japan to here, and then I used to export from here and people thought it was coming from UK, but it was coming from Japan. And that's what made me the money. And that's how we became successful. You know, I've told you everything and I'll say, you know, even the hospital problem, you know, when we came, it was very difficult for my parents. And so that's how we done it. And with the help of the family unity, that's when today, even now, we are all one unity in the family, all the family businesses.