Original subtitles

'Hamriyah Dock, Dubai,

'an ordinary place with a special significance for me.'

It was on this spot 20 years ago that myself and my film crew

stepped aboard a wooden dhow called Al Sharma, which took us down the Persian Gulf and across to Bombay.

It was day 18 of our series Around The World In 80 Days.

It was a journey that was to become one of the most unforgettable

in my 20 years of travelling.

This traditional sailing ship known as a dhow was my home for a week.

It had no radio, no radar, and no cabins.

We slept on deck and steered by the sun and the stars.

We ate what the crew ate, augmented by the occasional fish caught on the end of a hook and line.

'Just my luck the day I'm off my food, I got two of the biggest fish caught.'

Our crew, all Indians from Gujarat, soon became friends,

laughing with me or more often at me, showing me how and what to eat,

even looking after me when I was ill.

HE GROANS

'It certainly makes me forget the pain I had.'

It was only when the time came to say goodbye

that I realised how much I was going to miss them.

I've often wondered what happened to the Al Sharma and her crew and her captain, with whom we shared so much

during that eight-day voyage, so I've come back here to try and find out.

Dubai, where our journey began, has transformed itself in 20 years, growing literally by the minute.

This is an offshore property scheme to be built on sand and shale regurgitated from the seabed.

It's a new world, at least, that's what the developers are calling it.

Let me explain.

I'm in the Persian Gulf but I'm standing on Great Britain,

but this Great Britain is man-made.

When it's connected up with over 300 other islands,

it's going to be part of a mind-boggling property complex called, modestly, The World.

This being Dubai, they're not stopping there, they're already

building a neighbour out there, which is going to be called, equally modestly, The Universe.

The dredgers and graders still have plenty of work to do on this new

world and so far, I can't see much resemblance to anything in my atlas.

But the higher you go, the more it begins to make sense.

Isn't that South America down there on the left,

and Antarctica below it?

When it comes to fantastical schemes, Dubai already has four.

The newly-opened, 1,500-room Atlantis Hotel resort

is only one of the properties built on a giant palm tree.

To find out what life's like on a palm tree, I visit John Kelly Quinn,

a Liverpudlian who lives tax free in a gated community on Frond D.

This is the family room, which leads out to the garden,

which is obviously a beach, as you can see, and the pool there.

You've got your pool and the sea, choice of bathing. That's incredible. Fantastic.

Yeah, that is the sea, isn't it? Yeah, that's not man-made. Everything else is.

That's quite natural. Yeah. And all this sand, that's...

This has all been dredged up from the seabed.

As you can see, all the signature villas over the water there.

Yes. They're rather grander. You've got a lot of stars who live here.

Footballers? Lots of footballers.

Yeah? Beckham. Beckham?

I believe he's got a villa here as well.

Simon Cowell, I believe has got one here, Madonna. Oh.

I've never seen them.

Yeah. I'm looking forward to it.

Probably no Sheffield United players. I'm sorry, Mike.

Modesty is not a word you hear much in Dubai.

In the 20 years since I was last here,

this has become a city hooked on superlatives.

Anything the rest of the world can spend, Dubai can spend more.

Anything the world can build, Dubai can build bigger.

This is the tallest building in the world, about 700 metres right now.

That's about 2,200 feet,

and most people are speculating

that it's going to get up about 3,000 feet or about 900 metres.

Dubai has been called Las Vegas on steroids.

There seems no limit to its vaunting ambition

as it sets about creating the city of the future.

In Dubai, nothing is impossible. Whatever you want, you can have.

The last time I skied was ten years ago in America,

but who needs the Rockies when you can have a metre of fresh-laid snow

every day of the year,

even when the temperature outside is hot enough to fry an egg.

They don't manufacture much in Dubai but snow they do make,

30 tons a day, 10,000 tons a year.

Is this a miracle or a flagrant waste of the earth's resources?

I'll think about that as I go shopping.

The Emiratis love shopping.

They've turned their traditional souks and bazaars

into state of the art temples of consumerism

to which foreigners and locals alike are irresistibly drawn.

Dubai hopes to attract ten million tourists a year by 2010.

The symbol of their ambition

is the iconic and exclusive Burj Al Arab Hotel.

At its gala opening, Tiger Woods hit a golf ball off the helipad.

Forget five star, the Burj Al Arab is a seven-star hotel.

And they should know, they awarded the stars themselves.

Of course, there is a price to pay.

Welcome to your Presidential Suite.

Fantastic. This way is the living room with the private cinema.

Hm, private cinema. Indeed, yes.

How much would this...? Ha! There's a bar in every room.

How much would a place like this set you back

if I wanted to stay for a week, say?

It is �10,000 a night.

A night? �10,000 a night, mm.

And if I wanted to stay an hour, do a special rate?

No.

To get over the shock, I head for the bar...

high on the 27th floor.

It seems a bit unexciting to have a beer here, I know, because

I've just seen the Presidential Suite.

Yeah. At �10,000 a night, so people have something a bit more exotic here, do they?

People actually what having here is the world's most expensive cocktail

we have on offer.

I would expect you would in a hotel like this.

It's a very Dubai thing that, isn't it?

To have the biggest and most expensive, so what's in the world's most expensive cocktail?

It's made with 55-years-old McClelland single malt Scotch whisky,

and the idea behind is to have a really outstanding extraordinary

cocktail and the name, for instance, is 27-321.

That symbolises the height of Burj Al Arab, 321 metres,

and it's served on 27th floor where we're sitting now in our bar.

So the name is the price and the price is the name.

The price is the name, that's �27,321?

Dirhams. Oh, dirhams. Oh, well.

In pounds, it's about �3,800. Yeah?

For a 55-year-old Scotch?

I mean, that's daylight robbery.

In the heart of the city by the waterway they call The Creek,

I'm relieved to find that there is something left of the Dubai

I remember 20 years ago.

Although the new city shimmers in the background,

I've chosen to stay at one of oldest hotels in Dubai,

it's been here over 30 years.

It's from here that I shall plan the next step of my mission

to track down the Al Sharma and the crew I got to know so well.

I've brought the original film out with me, and it's here that there are some important clues.

'And you, everyone here, is from the same part of India.'

'Same country. Kutch Mandvi, yeah.'

Kutch Mandvi, that's the nearest thing to an address.

I know that Kutch is in the northern part of India,

and Mandvi is a town on its coast.

That evening, I find myself thinking about my old friends.

Do they still live in Kutch Mandvi? Are they alive or dead?

20 years is a long time.

I have a useful lead.

Close to the public beach on the downmarket side of the Burj Al Arab

is the offshore sailing club where I'm to meet a Captain Bill Nelson.

As head of Ports And Customs 20 years ago,

Bill helped me find a dhow.

Captain Nelson is now 86 and in poor health.

Despite all that, he agrees to talk to me.

Captain Nelson, I think you didn't find us the dhow directly,

you got someone to help us. That's right, Kamis, Kamis Mohammed,

my assistant at the time. I remember Kamis, very good, helped us get provisions.

He's a very good fellow. Is he still around?

He is still around.

In fact, he's the boss at the control station at Port Dubai.

So, how would I get hold of him? Er...3-4-5-1-2-4-0.

That is the operations room.

3-4-5-1-2-4-0. OK, ops room.

They will find him for you, of that there's no doubt.

He helped buy me a blow-up bed, I think.

Odd thing to go around with an Emirati buying an inflatable bed the first day you meet him.

Yes. It was very comfortable.

'My contact Kamis, who works at the port,

'tells me the trading season

'has just resumed after the summer monsoon.

'There are dhows heading all over the Gulf

'down to Somalia and Zanzibar,

'and he's found one going my way too.'

I associate Kamis with the old port of Dubai where we took on last minute supplies before setting out.

It still fizzes with life.

I take an Abra, a water taxi, across the Creek.

This is one of the few pleasures left in Dubai that's still cheap.

The journey costs only a few pence.

I'm heading for the office of Ports And Customs

to meet Kamis again after 20 years.

I have high hopes.

His HQ is right on the neck of the Creek.

If Al Sharma has passed this way, he should know.

Ah-ha, could this be the man?

Kamis. Michael.

Hey! Welcome back.

How are you? Long time. How are you?

Fine, thank you. How are you? Well, I never!

You don't look a day older.

Thank you very much. You've got to say the same to me now.

No, no. I'm all grey and old. Great to see you.

You're running the customs now, I gather.

I do. I do, and I'm an advisor now in Dubai...

Yeah. And I hear you're married now? Yeah, enjoyed it. How many children?

Two. Two boys. Ah, very nice.

Do you know what happened to Al Sharma, is it still sailing?

And more importantly, what happened to the crew?

Unfortunately, I don't know what happened.

That was the last time, I've seen Al Sharma and the crew.

Right. So that day 20 years ago when we sailed away from Dubai

was the last you saw of me and the last you saw of the boat. Yeah.

Do you know where they were from? From Gujarat.

Gujarat, I remember that. You will have to go to Bombay.

Then from Bombay, you have to go to Gujarat to ask for the family by the name of Haroum.

They are the owners. Ah. So they will remember their name.

Probably you will be able to find...

OK. Whatever you are looking for with them.

OK. Well, that's good.

I suppose I shouldn't expect the pieces to fall together

just like that but I can't disguise a touch of disappointment.

Maybe sensing this, Kamis has laid on a surprise.

Using his influence, he's persuaded the crew of a dhow leaving Dubai

to take me along for a ride.

Oh. Ah.

Hey. Yes!

They're Iranians, carrying a full cargo across to Bandar-e Bushehr on Iran's Gulf coast.

For a few hours, I can relive what once took me a week.

'Will you write down...will you write down...?'

Me. When I was a baby.

Well, this dhow isn't quite as pretty as Al Sharma

and I'm only on it for an afternoon,

but already it brings back intense feelings,

the feelings of being away from the rest of the world...

And these guys I've only just met, very cheerful, very friendly.

And it was extraordinary on the other dhow during the eight days,

how mutual incomprehension in the beginning gave way to friendship

and then genuine affection by the end because we relied on them.

With all our technology and our gadgets,

we depended on their seafaring skills to get us to Bombay.

And I've never really had a relationship like that

with any other group of people,

quite different from my own, at any other time on my travels.

It was a unique relationship and that's why I want to try

and find out if some of those guys that we got to know so well

at that time are still around.

My next destination must be Mumbai, Bombay as it was then,

and after that, Kutch Mandvi is a strong possibility.

But I don't want to go all that way

unless I'm pretty sure the captain and crew are there.

Whatever happens, I need a few more answers.

'20 years ago, I spent my first night in India

'here at the Taj Hotel, grubby and unshaven after a week at sea.'

Welcome to the Taj, sir. Thank you.

'This time I'm greeted with the full VIP treatment,

'garlanded with marigolds

'before being shown to the Rajput suite, which has a famous history.'

The Rajput suite has had quite a few celebrities

who've stayed in it over the years.

In fact John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed there,

and for five full nights they didn't leave the room even once.

Please, after you. Yes. Not like any hotel door I've ever known.

Oh, right. It's quite grand.

It is too actually. HE CHUCKLES

I can see why he didn't want to come out for five days.

The entire suite is in a very Indian decor, as you can see.

Yeah. The Rajput was a dynasty in India,

so the entire suite is designed to give that feel.

Yes, it does, doesn't it?

So, it's unlike a hotel room, it's like a palace, isn't it?

It's absolutely fabulous, and the swing is very reminiscent

of the old days when queens liked to sit and look at the ocean.

Oh, lovely, lovely.

That's amazing, I'll look forward to that anyway.

So my bags will be sent up, will they?

No. You're in room 276. Oh.

All right.

'News from room 276 is mixed.

'I've drawn a blank with Kamis' contact Haroum

'but I've had a piece of luck.'

I have got a lead which comes from the BBC files

of Around The World In 80 Days and they tell us

that Dukaran Murji And Sons were...the brokers

who organised Al Sharma's cargo.

I talked to a man there called Digant Joshi and he had inherited

this business from his father, and he reckoned that he could find out

some information about Al Sharma

and about whether the crew are still around, which is very good news.

He said it'd take a couple of days, he's got his business to run.

But that was, I thought, a very good bit of news,

and hopefully something will come through from him

in the next couple of days.

Very, very nice, it gives me time to look around.

'This is Churchgate Station, one of Mumbai's busiest commuter terminals.

'A lady called Jyoti Namasti has agreed to meet me here

'and throw me into the city at the deep end.'

How many people cram on these trains every day?

6 million to 6.5 million people travel every day

from north Bombay to south Bombay

and the same number back home in the evening.

We've been described as sardines in a box.

'But believe it or not, this is the quiet time of day,

'the time to see the tiffin wallahs in action.

'They carry on their heads a half million lunchboxes

'containing hot meals made by beautiful housewives

'for their husbands in the city.'

They will collect it, push it on the trains in the suburbs.

It takes about half an hour or an hour for it

to come to Churchgate Station that you see here.

Outside the station, the daily miracle begins.

The tiffin wallahs carry the lunches across a busy road to be sorted.

How they're sorted is a mystery,

for the lunchboxes bear neither names nor addresses.

The second counterpart will take it out,

and the third man will reshuffle all the tins away out.

That's what they're doing, that's what the systematic chaos is.

The third man that reshuffle, he puts two tins there,

one there, and he takes three from there, four from there.

So they've been brought from different suburbs,

they've been reshuffled here, and they go to different offices.

But don't they lose the tiffin every now and then? Not at all.

One in a trillion. One in a trillion is lost?

American magazine Forbes says the accuracy rate is 99.999%. Fantastic.

They have been given the Six Sigma accuracy rate, as much as Motorola

and General Electric, and only in Mumbai, nowhere else in the world.

They tried to call them to Italy to have a system put there,

and they said, "Your trains are not on time, so we can't do it."

Prince Charles was here, he wanted to see them in action,

and he was so happy. He gave three of them a free ticket

to come to his second marriage to England. Really?

Do you think it's a bit selfish of the Indian men

to expect a hot meal every lunchtime delivered to them?

Well, it's still a woman's privilege to cook,

and men in India...

this is a male-dominated country, to a certain extent.

Times are changing very fast,

but then they would love to have a hot meal.

They are a little spoilt, Indian men,

so they expect a hot meal from the wife.

Like, I am working, he still gets a hot meal.

It's an example of the paradox that is Mumbai,

a state of chaos in which everyone knows what they're doing.

Like this laundry, to which Jyoti has brought me

for practical as well as scenic reasons.

It's quite an extraordinary place. This is the biggest open-air laundry

unique to Mumbai,

where the dhobis or the washermen wash the clothes here.

There are 500 of them and this is the biggest laundry in Mumbai.

The stone is supplied to him by the government.

It's passed on from father to son.

They pay nothing for the stone. He uses a cake of soap, not of a very high quality, but see the clothes.

They're sparklingly white.

I actually had this quite good pair of trousers

and we were filming in Dubai on the dhow

and the dhow's absolutely covered in tar and they're a real mess.

Could they do them here, do you think?

Oh, yes, the dhobis do an excellent job. Yeah.

You will see them, see the whiteness of the clothes, see the dirty water,

and they will wash it. In five minutes, it will dry in the hot sun.

And they iron it for you and send it back to your hotel.

Let's see how the mark is. Here they are, shall I show them to you? There we are.

You see it's on the back there.

No problems. That's oil, isn't it?

It is oil. The washing machine will not take it out, but the dhobis will do an excellent job.

I thought I was going to have to throw them away.

Hello, hello, erm...

Look at that, oil, I think.

Oil, tar, is it possible to save the trousers?

Yes, he will. There he goes...

Giving them a go, yeah.

With the brush, with the cake of soap. Yeah.

And he will hit it.

We've got at home, we've got a whole cupboard, my wife's got stain removers...every kind of stain.

Oh, they don't work in India.

No. This works. This works.

So, he's washed them now, and now he's...

Hitting it on the stone, the dirt comes out.

The buttons are broken, your wife will have to redo the buttons.

Don't say that, I'll do them myself. Yes, I know what you mean.

So, that's the price you pay for getting them really clean.

Has he done it? Yes. He's putting it in the clean water now.

He's dipped it in the clean water.

Brilliant. I wish I'd brought all my laundry.

None of the clothes are lost.

Maybe a few buttons are broken, that's the only thing. Yeah.

I tell you, never better. Thank you.

They've never looked cleaner.

'I return to the heart of Mumbai,

'crisp and spotless in the trouser area to the Cafe Leopold.

'It's cheap and cheerful, and I'm told is a favourite haunt

'of talent spotters looking for Western extras for Bollywood films.

'Ah, my luck is in.

'All I need now is to make myself look irresistible, but...subtly.'

Hello. Hi, there. Hi. Michael.

I'm Wasim. How are you?

I'm very well, very well. I'm sitting waiting to be discovered.

You are? Yes, I'm told that's what happens here.

I'm actually a coordinator myself.

Ah. Yes, I'm coordinating for some extras in a Bollywood movie. And what pay do they get?

They would be paid around 1,000 rupees for an eight hours' job,

normally six to eight hours.

�10?

That's slave labour.

That's 1,000 rupees and that's a lot of money in India.

What if you have a dialogue part, what if you've got words?

It's the same thing. Is it? More or less, yes.

So what kind of part would you see a 65-year-old man like me playing?

Maybe a manager, a big cog in a big office, you know. Really?

CEO of a big company, like Microsoft or something.

CEO, now you're talking. CEO, that's right.

Right on. I usually only do vicars.

'I don't get the part, our dates clashed,

'but I do get something better,

'the chance to meet one of the legendary figures of Bollywood,

'writer producer and director Mahesh Bhatt.

'He's currently shooting a new film

'at a beachside villa outside Mumbai.'

Hello, Michael! Come, come.

Ah, Mahesh, what an honour to meet you.

Thank you very much indeed.

Hello, nice to meet you. Hello, how are you?

How was your journey, a long drive?

Yes, yes, yes. Come into my parlour.

Come into my parlour said the spider to the fly. Ah.

The fly will be on camera.

'Mahesh Bhatt's latest film is called Jashn, Celebration.'

The sea will not have an animal...

'The picture features Bollywood starlet Shahana Goswami

'and Pakistani heart-throb Humayun Saeed.'

Do you know your fellow actors? No, we've all met for the first time...the first time we've met.

In fact, one of them has just been killed. Terribly sorry, you got the part.

Oh, dear. Nothing to do with us, was it?

It's become quite a fad to be in this industry

and people are leaving their investment banking jobs

and coming into, you know, being ADs for 10,000 rupees

from the 20 like jobs.

So, it's quite inviting and I think everyone wants to be kind of

in the field, if not necessarily an actor or an actress, but yes,

there's a huge influx of people coming into this world.

Silent, silent.

'Mahesh may be a Bollywood veteran but his appetite for film seems undiminished.'

Action.

'He's seen Bollywood evolve from escapist song and dance spectaculars

'to more realistic dramas like the one they're shooting today.'

Cut it...very good.

'In an industry where an on-screen kiss was taboo for years,

'Mahesh has been a liberating, often controversial figure.'

I am one of those film-makers who's been accused

of introducing soft porn to Bollywood, and I plead guilty to that, if you call it soft porn.

If we had to seduce the consumer into the cinema halls, we needed to change the way we were making movies.

So we kind of eroticised our movies,

we put in this sexual component a little more stronger

than it was used by predecessors, and we kind of raised the bar.

Can you give me an example of this,

like you see a couple in bed together?

Yeah, I mean you had passionate kisses now and you also had...

premarital sex.

You also had live-in couples.

We also had a man and woman getting into multi-partner relationship,

so all that started happening,

and that was what the young felt comfortable with

because that was their life.

And I would say that the younger generation

is less hypocritical than the earlier generation.

The earlier lot wanted sex but it wanted it through the back door.

The mantra of our predecessors

was good people fall in love, bad people have sex.

Back in the city, I've had a call back from my contact Digant Joshi.

He runs the biggest dhow operation in Mumbai from his HQ in the busy streets near Princess Dock.

His head office, I eventually find it, is hardly what you'd expect of a shipping mogul.

Digant's information is not at first encouraging.

What news of Al Sharma?

Al Sharma, when you were there 20 years back,

the owner was Taled Mohammed.

They went bankrupt and he cannot maintain the launch.

So, just eight months, nine months back, he sold it to someone else,

and that person was taking the launch from Veraval,

Gujarat to Jamsala for the repairing.

Hm. During that voyage,

Al Sharma sank into the waters, six to eight months back.

So I just missed seeing it.

Just missed. And did the crew survive?

Crew were saved by another launch...

..which was plying along with Al Sharma.

Would this be the same crew that I sailed with 20 years ago?

Different crew because the owner sold it to somebody else

and all the crew were changed.

Any news of Captain Suliman and the crew?

Captain Suliman is in Mandvi.

Kutch. Mandvi.

Mandvi has two portions, one is a Mandvi and one is a Salaya Mandvi.

Right. Which is near the sea.

So you can go to Salaya Mandvi

and ask anybody about the captain of Al Sharma,

Suliman, and you can easily get about.

What's the best way of getting to Mandvi?

You can take train from Mumbai which goes to Bhuj. Yeah.

The train name is Kutch Express.

You can go to Bhuj and from Bhuj, the Mandvi is 60 kilometres away from Bhuj.

'One thing Indians take very seriously is astrology.

'Before I leave, there's someone I'd very much like to meet again.

'Janjit Upall was the hotel's resident astrologer

'and when I consulted him 20 years ago, he was uncannily accurate.'

Can you tell me now what lies in store for me in the next two or three months?

As it's boat sailing, it's a pleasant journey and on schedule.

If not you may even try to complete it ahead of schedule.

If you've lost some time, there are more possibilities of your recovering that time.

You are full of a spirit of adventure.

He's agreed to give me an update.

We're hoping to try and find the crew of Al Sharma.

Have you any idea from the charts and what you find out

whether we will find them, whether we'll be lucky?

Yes, you will, you will.

You will find them and you will get interesting input too.

Will they be pleased to see me?

Very much pleased to see you.

Very much pleased to see you.

I was going to ask you about, you know you saw me 20 years ago,

and with chart like that,

can you tell enough to talk about my character?

Do you have any sort of feelings about that? Yes.

According to your chart, you come over as a very emotional person.

Very emotional, family oriented,

I would say even a spiritual person.

I mean you read more meaning to life than what is apparent.

You question life,

and I must say that your work, the journeys around the world

to the mountains, to north world, Himalayas, Tibet,

it was not only a journey

to make something spectacular which you have made,

but it was a journey within the self.

It was rediscovering yourself.

So do you think that this travelling that I've done in the 20 years

since I saw you, which I never expected to do,

is that part of an ongoing process?

Do you think I'll ever just say, "Stop, that's it?"

No, it's an ongoing process.

Journeys will carry on and you will keep travelling.

That's part of your nature.

Do you hear that, Helen? Sorry.

The journey goes on.

'The journey goes north now.

'I find myself booked on the Kutch Express under the name of Mr Polin.

'I only hope that's me.

'The overnight sleeper will take me northwest via Ahmedabad in Gujarat

'to the terminus at Bhuj, capital of the old princely state of Kutch,

'close to the Pakistan border.'

I think I'm up there.

Hello, can I squeeze in? Thank you.

No, no. Thank you very much, that's very kind.

Sit with the little girl. A boy or girl?

Girl. A girl, yeah.

And what's your name?

Vanya. Vanya.

She loves trains. Yes.

Very good, yes.

Thank you, very good. Thank you very much.

Five. Five, thank you.

Anyone else want one?

'As dawn breaks, we're in Gujarat,

'home state of the hero of Indian Independence,

'Mahatma Gandhi, and hopefully the crew of Al Sharma as well.

'We've come a long way north in the night to a part of India I don't know.'

This is Gandhidham Junction because Gandhi was born very near here

and of course he died.

He was assassinated exactly 60 years ago, the Father of India,

so, a rather important man from the Gujarat point of view.

It's also why Gujarat is dry, a dry state.

He encouraged the men not to drink cos it was bad for them.

So it's dry, and from what I hear, largely vegetarian as well.

The people are supposed to be very jolly.

'The Kutch Express is running over an hour late,

'but we're up country now and no-one seems in much of a hurry.

'Nor does it help that stretches of the railway are single track,

'though still maintained with meticulous zeal

'not a little reminiscent of the old days of the Raj.

'20 stops and 15 hours after leaving Mumbai,

'we reach the end of the line at the town of Bhuj.

'Bhuj is the capital of Kutch, and I take a couple of hours to look around before going on to Mandvi.

'There are some fine buildings to see in Bhuj,

'but few of them escaped the devastating earthquake

that shook the town on January 21, 2001, Republic Day,

'when the people of Bhuj,

'like the rest of the country, should have been celebrating.

'There was a colossal loss of life and no-one was untouched.

'The Mahara of Kutch lost three-quarters of his palace,

'and what remains standing looks as if it could fall down any minute.

'Now the only occupants of its marble halls are birds

'that nest in the rotting ceilings.

'Portraits stare into the void,

'and dust covers the trophies of an era long past.

'Out in the centre of Bhuj, optimism has returned to the rebuilt streets

'and people don't talk much about the earthquake.

'But no-one's forgotten.

'Manjana Maycha has not forgotten.'

They started shouting, "Earthquake, earthquake," and I came out.

Yeah. As soon as I came out,

the shop was collapsed.

The shop you'd just been in collapsed behind you? Behind me.

You were a second away from being crushed yourself. Yes, yes, yes.

And what was the scene outside here, were just people...

They started running and crying and shouting.

People, animals, dogs, just running here and there.

What did you do, did you just run?

No, I just went and stand in the corner.

Oh, you must have prayed, did you pray?

Yes, yes, of course. SHE LAUGHS

Well, your prayers were answered cos you're still here,

but it was awful for the town, wasn't it?

I mean, it was a big loss of life. Yes.

Nearly 100,000.

Nearly 100,000?

All the locals. All over Kutch. Yeah.

'The one thing I miss as I walk these hot streets

'is a refreshing glass of cold beer.

'I'm told there's only one place I might get one.'

Gujarat is the only dry state in the whole of India

but if you're a foreigner, you can get an exemption,

and I'm told that I have to turn up with a copy of my passport,

which I've got, a little note of that,

and also a certificate of where I'm staying.

So I'm going to see if I can get a permit for the time I'm here,

see whether the system of exemptions really works.

'The surroundings aren't exactly convivial.'

Give me your passport.

He's writing down the place where I shall be staying in...Mandvi.

Getting thirsty.

Still get a stamp in your passport.

You will sign here. OK.

What do I do now? Where do I buy the liquor?

Just here. Oh, right, I'm sorry.

I didn't see that at all. OK. Hello.

What do we think?

Ten beers, one spirit?

OK, fine. The spirit's for him.

'Well, at last I have the beer, but I'm not allowed to drink it

'until I'm at my hotel, and that's another 40 miles away.

'Mandvi, coastal town, 45,000 inhabitants,

'main business, shipbuilding.

'Best-kept secret, resort hotel right by the beach.'

You can see it, yeah. Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, thank you.

Thanks very much, I hope that will cover it.

Thank you.

Good. It's a dangerous ride.

'The grandly-named Mandvi Palace Beach Resort

'may turn out to be a row of tents

'but these are no ordinary tents, these are five-star tents.

'Possibly even seven-star tents.

'Each one has a double bed, en-suite bathroom and loo,

'and air conditioning.

'Oh, it's a tough life.'

Thank you very much. Oh!

Cool, cool, lovely, cool.

'And in the evening with the sun well over the yardarm,

'I finally get around to that beer.

'Now, what exactly am I doing here?

'This tented camp was first set up

'by the Mahara of Kutch to accommodate those private guests

'who'd come to visit him at his country palace,

'which is right next door to the camp...

'and open to the public.

'Having never met a Mahara before, I decide to pay him a visit.

'By the time I reach the palace, I'm getting a bit twitchy,

'but my gosh is it worth the walk!'

Did your family have this specially designed?

'The Mahara, or to give him his full title,

'His Highness Sri Pragmalji Mandansinji III,

'couldn't have been more friendly as he invites me in.

'He is descended from a very old Kutch family,

'and talks nostalgically of the days of an independent Kutch

'before it was absorbed into Gujarat

'and had to accept a less relaxed regime.'

Do you think that there's any good reason why people shouldn't buy alcohol in Kutch or Gujarat?

There is a slight problem here.

Kutch is a part of Gujarat state,

which we were not a part of Gujarat state ever in the history.

And Gujarat state unfortunately is Gandhian in the sense

that they believe in prohibition and things like that,

which is not necessarily very congenial to tourism.

Mahatma Gandhi probably thought that a lot of people wasted their income

on unnecessary things like alcohol,

and which is not very healthy.

But I'm sure, I am sure...

I have had the pleasure in my life

of meeting Mahatma Gandhi and getting his autograph etcetera.

I'm sure if he was alive today,

he would have relented on that, but I'm sure that in due course

er...the change will come.

'I wouldn't want anything to change here,

'not at sunset and not on this fantastic beach,

'which is by the way owned by the Mahara, as is the sea.

'Or at least it is at high tide when the waves break onto his beach.

'But now it's back to business. Today is the day I must track down the captain.'

Well, now we've got this far, I actually found out where he lives. I'm going to see him.

I think it's probably just as well

I'm just going to have one last look to see what he looks like.

And this is where I'm introduced to the captain.

'Hello, hello.' 'Good afternoon.'

Very eager, that's right...

'Very well, do you speak English?' 'Yes.' 'Good.

'Where are you going to?

'Are you going to Bombay?'

'I'm going to Bombay, yes.'

'Good, I need a boat.' 'Yes.' 'To take me to Bombay.'

'Yes. Why not? I take you to Bombay.'

Yeah, that's fine, that's fine. I think I should remember him.

Well, I'm in the centre of Mandvi

but it's not the sort of place that has maps or street plans,

so I know I've got to get to Saliya

cos I was told that by Digant in Bombay,

so I'll just have to go and ask for Saliya.

The end of the journey begins.

Excuse me, er...Sal... Saliya. Saliya.

Oh, it's over there?

Saliya.

Can you tell me...

Where is Saliya?

Saliya. Where?

Mandvi. Mandvi, yeah.

Mandvi, Saliya. It's over there? THEY SPEAK NATIVE TONGUE

Thank you. Aabhaar.

'Salaya or Saliya, and I'm still not quite sure which it is, proves to be on the other side of the creek.

'It's served by a distinctly no-frills ferry service.'

Here I come.

Ooh. Thank you.

Hello, boys.

I'm going to Saliya.

Hey, nice outfit.

'Once in Saliya, I've a chance to show off my few words of Gujarati.

Excuse me, sirs, Captain Hassan Suliman

Kya rey che?

Up here? I follow this?

'As Digant Joshi had forecast, here in Suliya everyone I talk to

'seems to know the captain, or be related to him.'

Excuse me, Captain Hassan Suliman, OK? Kya rey che?

Thank you.

Thanks.

'All directions lead to the waterfront, and extraordinarily,

'there's a dhow being built right outside the captain's front door.'

This is the one.

'This won't be such a surprise for the captain, he knows I'm in town, but it'll be a surprise for me.

'I've no idea how he or I will react.'

Will it be him? Will it be me?

Hey! Michael, how are you?

How are you, Michael? It is you! I recognise you.

How are you, Michael?

Oh, I'm very well, very good indeed.

Yes. Come in, come in. Oh, yes. Mikel, you used to call me, Mikel.

OK, you come in. You've become a big man, a very big man.

And I've become a grey haired man.

But you now very big now. Very big, pah!

'We catch up with each other as he takes me on a walk through the shipbuilding yards.'

How big was Al Sharma?

'Al Sharma was tiny compared to some of the 2,000-ton dhows they're building here now.

'But still they build them in the time-honoured way,

'by hand and eye and physical strength.'

This is good strong wood. Where's the wood from? Malaysia.

Malaysia. Malaysian, ah.

The wood is coming from Malaysia.

You have now...

Only one girls. One girl, yes. Yes.

Married with Anwar, you know Anwar?

With Anwar? Yes, that's right.

And the marriage was at a big, big thing. Yeah, yeah.

A lot of big party, big feast.

Big feast! You pay.

Yeah! Many times, it'll be for 18 years we are married.

Yes, that's good, yes. Whoops.

'Often in these last few days, I've tried to visualise where the captain

'and his crew might live,

'and this location is right out of central casting.

'I ask the captain if he'd heard

'about the programme we made together.'

So did people...

All over the world, you know the BBC World Service?

Yes, BBC World Service.

Famous in the world. And what do your friends say?

Yeah. They like it? Yeah.

Like it, I like it. Good. Very good.

20 years from now, another 20 years. Yeah.

We maybe see each other again. Yeah.

I'll be very old man, you'll have to push me. OK.

How many years after, you come next time to Mandvi?

Oh, I don't know.

I don't know. I have to ask my wife.

'Later in the day when I come back to the captain's house,

'I bring my DVD player and Hassan, in turn,

'brings together some old faces from Al Sharma's crew.'

Hi, thank you. Thank you.

I might just have to... Oh, no disc.

'We gather round, the chief engineer, the second engineer,

'the cabin boy Anwar now married to the captain's daughter

'and father of three boys, and of course the captain himself.'

You see, I have to wear glasses now.

Yeah. When I last saw you, I could see very, very clearly

and now I have to wear these. Where are you? There you are.

Oh, there we go, look.

'I board our dhow, Al Sharma, which means candlelight in Arabic.'

Look at me, look at my silly socks and the funny hat.

There you are.

'The captain has made sure the place is scrupulously clean, he assures me...'

Yes, there you are.

Anwar was a very small boy there. Yes, yes, yes.

We've got some more here of Anwar.

Now he's captain, big captain.

Are you a captain now? For 14 years. Fantastic.

There we are, that's right, going out.

HE LAUGHS

Sad. Yeah. Sad to see the ship. Sad that it's no longer around.

And who's that?

THEY SPEAK NATIVE LANGUAGE Dead. He's dead?

Kasim. Kasim, yes, expired. Yes, expiry.

Is this Dejilanti? Yes, ex-man.

Chief Officer, dead. Ah, right, chief officer. Now dead, yeah.

He for four years dead.

Oh, right, yeah. Salimamman, Ramsey-mamman, and er...

Kasim. Three men is dead. Oh, yes.

THEY LAUGH

'The plumbing is basic, they favour the hole in the barrel system.'

THEY LAUGH

'The boat is scorchingly hot by day and suicidal at night,

'but once installed one enjoys direct contact with nature.

'This is rather a shock and causes my bowels to lock solid for three days'.

Oh, yes. THEY LAUGH

I didn't know how to use that at first.

Ah, there you go!

It was very useful. Look at that there.

Look at the chillies, yeah.

'Whilst Ali Mamoun, the cook, produces three meals for 22 people every day.'

He's making chapattis. THEY LAUGH

He's making so many chapattis, look at that. Expecting company?

There must be 40 chapattis there. Stop it! Stop making chapattis!

Very good food there, very nice.

Kedgeree, kedgeree, you know kedgeree?

Yes, that's right. Kedgeree.

Mohammed is coming. Mohammed Suliman.

'Mohammed was Al Sharma's bosun.

'He's the captain's brother and Anwar's father.

'Both of them had told me that he wasn't well,

'so I'm doubly happy that he's come to join us.

'He does seem to perk up a bit when he sees himself on film.

Yes, good crewman and all together.

Here is Kasim listening to the music,

listening to Bruce Springsteen.

LAUGHTER

Now this is putting the sail up, I remember.

SINGING

For the open sail. Yes. Pull up there.

Yes, and you sang your song.

THEY SPEAK IN NATIVE LANGUAGE AND LAUGH

Yes, very sweet.

And strong. Now Anwar is captain. I know, I know.

But he's not changed.

'Very good.'

There's me saying, "Very good." Fat lot you did, Palin.

Yeah, "very good." Oh, yes. Ha ha.

'So we sit and watch ourselves when we were 20 years younger,

'until we come to the final sequence of the voyage

'where I bid them all farewell for the last time.'

Ah, yes! LAUGHTER

Yeah, lovely smile.

'Bye bye.' Ah, look.

Goodbye. There you are, goodbye.

'I'm very sad to leave Captain Hassan and his crew.

'We entrusted our lives to these people,

'and they responded

'with unquestioning generosity and openness.

'I know I shall never again on this journey enjoy such simple and

'straightforward friendships as I've made with the crew of the Al Sharma.

'At this moment, it's almost impossible to accept

'that I shall never see them again.'

There we are. I didn't believe I would never see you again,

and it's just as well, because I've seen you again!

Excellent, there you go.

Well, now we do another programme together. Other one?

Yeah. We get another boat out.

We'll do it all over again. OK. OK?

'Then after tea and all manner of hospitality,

'it's time for another farewell.'

Thank you so much, it's great to see you again.

OK, how many years you thinking you come here?

Shall we leave it another 20? More 20?

Real mature men. OK, sir.

Thank you, good luck to all your family.

It was lovely to meet them all, and great to see the shows again.

OK, goodbye. See you soon.

20 years will go by very quickly.

OK, sir, bye, goodbye. Goodbye.

OK. Goodbye, sir.

'Whatever plans Hassan and I might make,

'I'm pretty sure that both he and I know

'that this time the chances are we shall not see each other again.

Goodbye, sir. Careful, please.

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