Royal send-off for expat Sri Lankan driver
A Saudi royal family went out of their way and gave a warm farewell home party to its non-Muslim Sri Lankan private driver after 33 years of service.
Several royal figures broke protocol to attend the party which was held at Prince Abdul Raman bin Farhan Al Saud’s palace in the capital Riyadh on Thursday night.
'Sabq' newspaper identified the 76-year-old driver as Watti but said he was nicknamed Samy by the royal family as a “gesture of affection for him".
It quoted the driver as saying he felt as a “member of the family” during his work for the royals and that this encouraged him to stay for such a long period of time with them.
“I cannot forget the humanitarian gesture by the Prince when my relative stole SR10,000 which I had sent to my wife. The Prince heard of what happened and quickly summoned me and gave me the money,” Samy said.
“I have found affection, warmth, respect and good treatment in this place. The Prince had always joked with me by calling me ‘Prince Samy'.”
'Sabq' also quoted Emir Mansour bin Saad Al Saud, director of the strategic planning at the state Saudi Industrial Development Fund, who is Prince Abdul Rahman's grandson, as saying:”I was born and brought up in this place. I cannot image it without Samy. I have always considered him as part and parcel of this family.”
Heartwarming – Wish you the best Sami. I just hope that I get at least a party at the Emporium when my time comes ...
Source: http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/royal-send-off-for-expat-sri-lankan-driver-2016-01-18-1.617653
So sweet ..........................
Just to recap the subject;
In fact there were three honorable drivers I am known with.
01) This driver became an authorized signatory after saving long time for a local family. I.e. for the farther of present business owner and the present one. Due to his long standing service, later part of his career, he was functioning like a Head of HR and communicating office for owner. Very recently I heard he retired.
02) Driver number two is still in existence and working for a distinguished business owner and having a lot of control over the affairs of many business own by the local owner. Some of his close associate call him as eyes of the owner. He really work honestly and the owner has provided him with two houses and he comes on a reasonably new land cruiser. In my association with him, I found him to be naturally talented individual who manage to speak local language very fluently and other sub continental language’s as well. As his is originally from Asia. One such day, he called the CEO of one of the owner’s company and gave some good advice in local language and guided him nicely.
03) Driver number three is owning a rent a car company at present and having around 92 cars under his belt. He is also an authorized signatory.
There are some individual come across naturally talented and due to some reason they landed, without pursue further education in any discipline. However the service level of a person is important to be resistant for such long time. Without any hesitation above all noble people should be in the caliber of “honesty” individual I suppose.
They need grand farewell too!
Equinox, you have mentioned two names, the second one is my Sponsor, he is very very good man with a good heart.
dont want to return or never return? Lol..
i love some of the srilankan bands, their vocals are real good. the people too
"If you visit once, you don't want to return." .. Thanks for the warning
All of it's people? You've said already that the government is rubbish. Aren't they Srilankans, too?
That's why this two-legged creature is called a Human Being. Being a Sri Lankan, I'm happy to hear this gratitude. Cheers Samy. Sri Lankans have a proud history of over 2500 years. The people are generally Innocent. But unfortunately our own bureaucracy is exploiting this quality and robbing the resources of the country and deteriorating the qualities of people too. This is a splendid land on planet earth. If you visit once, you don't want to return. I promise. This is the paradise on earth. So its people.
Excellent example of affection and recognition.
In Qatar also there are some who respect and value the long standing association of expats with them.
Mr. Hussain Al Fardan, Chairman of AlFardan Group is one of such examples.
Mr. Yousuf Darwish, Chairman of Darwish Group is yet another example.
Both opine that employees are their most valuable asset, above anything else.
They openly tell their young successors that what they are today are because of hard work of these long serving employees, so never forget to take care of them.
Unfortunately, in the competitive corporate world, this value is not prevailing, where, today you are at the top serving for long years, and tomorrow you shall be thrown out like a discarded item.
Yes, some Saudis are good ppl.
Yes Sri Lankans are GOOD PPL !!