Desi News Corp - Index

Desi News Corp - Desi News - April 2009 - Index

CAREERS CAREERS START
@ @ Centennial Centennial College
College
A proud export of Guyana
Ask Professor Mohamed
Khan about his family
history and he always
begins by acknowledging the
tremendous contributions of
his grandfather, Karamat Khan,
in his native Guyana.
Karamat emigrated from
India in the 1870s to work on
the sugar plantations of the
British colony. An unusually tall
and bright man, the plantation
managers felt he would make a
good watchman, so he was given
a horse to ride around the
perimeter of the property to
ensure things didn’t go missing.
After he completed his employment
contract, he took his
savings and purchased some tracts
of land in rural Guyana at the
turn of the century. It was there
that he proceeded to build a
diversified business that included
rice farms, cattle ranches,
a rice mill, shopkeeping and
even a ferry service.
Karamat g rew rich over
time, but never felt he was
entitled to keep the money for
himself. He became a philanthropist,
looking after the
community of Mahaicony by
investing in communal needs.
He became known as the baap,
or father of the village – a great
honour.
“My grandfather would even
counsel husbands and wives who
had gotten into disagreements,”
Khan recounts with a smile.
A devout Muslim, Karamat
saw the need for literacy and
education in the community,
and seized the opportunity
when Canadian Christian missionaries
arrived in the remote
rural area in the 1930s.
He partnered with them to
establish the Karamat Canadian
Mission School by donating a
generous parcel of land and
building materials. It would grow
to be a big school, accommodating
350 students, as well as living
quarters for the teachers.
Karamat died in 1955 at the
ripe old age of 90. Among his
NARI MAVALWALLA /DESI NEWS
PROFESSOR
MOHAMED KHAN
TEACHES IN THE
SCHOOL OF ENGINEER-
ING TECHNOLOGY AND
APPLIED SCIENCE AT
CENTENNIAL COLLEGE
many accomplishments, he was
most proud of the more than
50 grandchildren of his who
lived in the immediate community.
“He named all the girls Bibi,
and all the boys were Mohamed
– though he would distinguish
them with a unique middle
name,” Khan says. “My own
name is Kayume, although a
stranger to our family would
only hear ‘Mohamed’ when my
brothers and I were called!”
Khan had the distinction of
attending the very school his
grandfather had funded. After
completing grade six, he was
packed off to the capital, Georgetown,
to attend Central High
School. Upon graduation,
Khan wrote the GCE exams and
returned to his grandfather’s
school to teach the preparatory
classes for high school.
With his interest in teaching
stirred, Khan attended teacher’s
college and immediately went to
work in the poorest neighbourhood
in Georgetown. There
he met Hilton Lewis, headmaster
of the local school, and
together the two men worked
hard to transform the school into
a community resource.
“We painted the school in
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the colours of the Guyanese
flag and threw open the doors
to the local residents, inviting
them to use the building for
meetings and events. That cut
down on the vandalism. We also
walked the community, making
sure everyone knew who we were.”
It was an eye-opening experience
for Khan that harked
back to Karamat’s own philosophy
of supporting community
building.
Unfortunately, by the mid-
1970s Guyana was in the midst
of political turmoil. The population
was torn between the
politics of the left and right, and
those who had the means chose
to leave the country to look for
opportunities elsewhere.
For Khan, whose fiancée had
gone to Toronto to study, the
decision was virtually made for
him. Rather than accept a standing
offer by the University of Guyana,
Khan applied to the University of
Toronto and won admission.
He came to study applied
mathematics and computer science,
a rigorous program back
when researchers still used punch
cards and flow charts to write
computer programs. It was there
that he met fellow student
Michael Yassin, a Guyanese
who worked as a senior systems
analyst at Nabisco Foods.
Yassin invited Khan to work
together on a computer project
for the company as part of their
course assignment. The work
illustrated for Khan the power
of computer programming and
how it could facilitate business
systems and create new efficiencies
in the workplace. He was hooked.
“I was inspired by that work.
I began to formulate a career
for myself,” recalls Khan.