Dinesh Kamath about himself

I belong to the caste which is called GSB or Gowd Saraswat Brahmins. My father is a GSB belonging to Mangalore and my mother is a GSB belonging to Karwar. Both Mangalorean and Karwari GSBs speak Konkani. But there is a great difference in the Konkanis the two speak. Mangalorean GSB knows Kannada in addition to Konkani. While Karwari GSBs know Marathi in addition to Konkani. There are GSBs in Maharashtra too. Sunil Gavaskar, the great test cricketer, is a GSB. GSBs are supposed to be very good in mathematics. That's why you'll find most of the GSBs working in Banks. If you want to know more about GSBs you can get those information from the Googles site.

My family came to Mumbai for the first time four generations back. My great grandfather came to Mumbai and settled over here. His son, who is my grandfather, did wonders. When he was in his teens he had hardly any money. But before he had reached the age of thirty he possessed chains of hotels. They were quite decent hotels ( not ordinary types). I was told that he possessed more than eight hotels and he was so generous that he gifted (free of cost) a couple of hotels to his sisters. But the poor chap died at a very young age of thirty four. He died of Tuberculosis which those days was like cancer (incurable ailment). After his death, his hotels were all grabbed by God-knows-who and his wife and three small children were left with not even a single hotel. I was told that he possessed all these hotels in a region called Phanaswadi which I think is somewhere near Girgaon. Had my grandfather lived for two decades more my family would have been owners of chains of five-star hotels today. But what has happened has happened. There is no point in brooding over the past.
Now I'll tell you something about my dad. My dad was a customs officer when I was born. I still remember the white uniforms he would wear and proudly go all the way to his office at Ballard Estate from his residence at Bandra. Today we find custom officers feeling shy to come in uniforms in front of the public. God knows why! My dad was transferred to Goa Customs somewhere in the year 1964. He was many a times the part of the squads who did seizures of contraband goods. I know about this because I would constantly read my dad's name in the Goan newspapers. My father impressed all his superiors with his intelligence, honesty and devotion towards his duty. When he returned to Mumbai in 1970 he was straightaway appointed as superintendent in Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). This is the department where only special officers of Customs and Excise are deputed. No ordinary officer gets entry in this powerful department. It was while working for DRI that my dad got the opportunity ot handle Haji Mastan's case. Haji Mastan, for your information, was the most dreaded smuggler of those days. He was the man who two decades later was going to be succeeded by Dawood Ibrahim. Even in DRI my dad cracked many cases, made many seizures and even detentions. He expired in 1982. But just before he expired he had received the news that he was the recipient of President of India Award for the year 1982 for the meritorious service he rendered to the department of Customs for 33 years. That was the proudest moment for him. But unfortunately he could not survive to receive personally the prestigious award. The award was received by my mother whom I accompanied to Delhi. My mom received the award at the grand function held at Vigyan Bhavan and the award was given by the hands of then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. It was at that time that all the winners of the award were presented with the souvenir which described in details the terrific exploits of all the award winners. It was while going through this souvenir that I became aware of the fact that my father, during his entire career. was the part of seizures of contraband goods worth Rs 4.2 crores and 76 detentions. My father was so humble a man that not once had he mentioned to any of his close ones about the magnificent feat he had performed.

I would like to pass on to you another interesting information. My father and mother met in Customs where both were working. They fell in love and got married. The result was my late brother and I.

I will pass on to you more infos later on. Till then, bye!