DR YUSUF HAMIED, who turned 90 on Saturday (25), said he would continue to do what he has done all his life – provide affordable medicines to those in need.
Hamied heads Cipla, one of India’s largest pharmaceutical companies. It was founded by his father, Khwaja Abdul Hamied, in 1935 and began manufacturing medicines for the Indian market the following year.
Hamied was at Lord’s last Sunday (19) to watch the One-Day International between England and India.
As England raced to a record 387 for 3, helped by lacklustre Indian bowling and fielding, Hamied looked rueful.
“I am not enjoying this,” he confessed to Eastern Eye.
Hamied in the 1954 Christ’s College class photographAmit Roy
But he laughed as he recalled: “For my 70th birthday, we had a dinner in the Long Room at Lord’s. All the score boards around the ground read, ‘Yusuf Hamied. 70 not out.”
The day before his latest visit to Lord’s, Hamied was at Christ’s College, Cambridge, which he had joined (“matriculated”) as an 18-year-old undergraduate in 1954 after arriving from what was then the cosmopolitan city of Bombay (now Mumbai).
He was born in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 25, 1936, to an Indian Muslim father and a Lithuanian Jewish mother, Luba Derczanski.
“Most of the other boys who joined Christ’s were either 21 or 22 because they had done national service, but I was 18,” he recalled.
A total of 154 students joined Christ’s in 1954. Last Saturday (18), only 10 returned for a lunch hosted by Hamied and his wife, Farida, in the College Hall.
The High Table at Christ’sAmit Roy
Hamied sat at High Table between Lord Simon McDonald, former permanent under-secretary at the Foreign Office and now Master of Christ’s, and Professor Deborah Prentice, the psychologist and former Provost of Princeton University who is now Cambridge’s 347th vice-chancellor.
On her right was Prof Frank Kelly, a former Master of Christ’s, and on his right was Lawford Howells, who was acting as master of ceremonies. He had joined Christ’s with Hamied in 1954.
For the benefit of Eastern Eye, Howells held up the formal college photograph taken in 1954. Hamied was in the second row from the top on the extreme left. After graduating with a First, Hamied remained at Christ’s to complete a PhD in 1960.
Hamied was asked what he would say 72 years later as a 90-year-old to his 18-year-old self, entering the College gates lugging his trunk.
Lawford Howells with the 1954 class photographAmit Roy
“I would tell the 18-year-old one, ‘You’re in the right place to get educated. I hope you have a good education, particularly in the subjects in which you’re good at, and which will be useful for society in general in years to come,’” respond ed Hamied.
He went on: “Luckily for the 18-year old, which was me at the time, I took up chemistry, and because I took up chemistry, in 1960 I could walk into my father’s business, which was making medicines in India. Following which, because of my Cambridge education and background, I developed into pharmacy and in manufacturing medicines. And that helped me in good stead over the years.
“I feel, in retrospect, that I have contributed a fair amount to India’s health, health care, and internationally as well. In the year 2000, we brought out very cheap and affordable medication for HIV and AIDs. We’ve been helping Africa also with anti malarial drugs – again at affordable prices.”
He added: “So that has been my life, a very satisfying life, because you’ve contributed to society. I think (you can’t have) a life without interaction with fellow human beings and with society. We’ve always said the mission statement of a company or an individual has to be one not for monetary gain. (You have to ask) what have you contributed, both socially and otherwise, to the welfare of society in general?”
Members of the 1954 intake reunited at Christ’s College alongside Lord Simon McDonald Amit Roy
One of his latest projects is helping to build a new library at Christ’s. At the end of the month, the vice-chancellor is due to in augurate two refurbished chemistry laboratories at Cambridge, also funded by Hamied.
He emphasised: “I feel that when you are in my business, making medicines, one of the major contributions is that if you are saving lives, you have to have a humanitarian approach to life in general and be humble in life. Respect your fellow men. See that the world is in good health if you can possibly help.
“And that is what I’ve been doing all my life: helping education, helping in health care, and helping society in general.”
Incidentally, at Eastern Eye’s Arts, Culture & Theatre Awards (ACTA) last month, Hamied presented the Outstanding Contribution to the Creative Indus tries award to sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor.
The sky gardening projectNational Trust
