Meet the expats - The Keskars: Bringing Amity and Astrology to Mauritius

One of the first emails we received congratulating us on this Meet the Expats feature was from Dr. Dhananjay Keskar, an expat from India who moved to Mauritius with his wife Sujata around four years ago. We finally had the chance to meet the well-presented and well-spoken couple last week, who together have lived a full and happy life and were more than happy to share their experiences with us. Dr. Keskar is director of the Amity Institute of Higher Education (part of Amity’s Global Business School) here in Mauritius and he was keen to tell us about this impressive and forward-thinking project, while Mrs. Keskar specialises in astrology. Here’s what happened when we met the couple for coffee and a chat…

It’s such a pleasure to finally meet you both! So to begin with, can we ask you where you moved to Mauritius from?
Dr.: From the Western part of India, close to Bombay. We got married in India.

Mrs.: It was an arranged marriage. We had a common family friend who had this in their mind – and thankfully it all worked out.

How did you find the process of moving to Mauritius and settling in over here?
Dr.: Quite good actually. It’s a good shift, I would say. Before coming here, we always thought about coming to Mauritius on holiday but it didn’t work out. And suddenly this opportunity came from the Amity group to look after operations in Mauritius and in Africa - and actually we both have lived in Africa too. We lived in Nigeria for about 15 years.

Mrs.: Yes, from 1980 to 1995.

Dr.: So we already had the familiarity and with Mauritius being so close to India in so many respects. I thought would be quite interesting and challenging.

Was the move to Nigeria because of Amity also?
Dr.: Well no, I’ve made the shift from corporate sector to academics and I made this shift 15 years ago. Prior to that I was working in the corporate sector for over 25 years. The move to Nigeria was with a transnational company involved in food and beverages and later on, I was in the engineering industry also.

Can you tell us what life was like in Nigeria?
Mrs.: Nigeria was a bit challenging. You had to take care because of the law and order situation there. Otherwise it was good. Our daughter was studying and there was a very good Indian school there.

Dr.: There’s a very strong Indian community and very good business community and schools there also.

And why did you leave Nigeria?
Dr.: Basically for our daughters’ higher education. The schooling was good, but for higher education, we thought we’d bring them back to India. We went back to Pune, which was our hometown.

How many children do you have?
Mrs.: Two daughters and both are married. One is in Australia and the other one is in Hyderabad in India. The daughter in Australia is a company secretary and the one in Hyderabad is a radiologist.

Do you get to see them often? Have they been to Mauritius?
Mrs.: They have been to Mauritius – we are expecting them to come again for holidays soon.

Dr.: And we travel to India, maybe once or twice a year. So when we go, we meet everyone that’s in India.

For our readers, can you tell us what life was like in India and how it differs to life here?
Mrs.: Life is quite fast in India, yet it is quite relaxing. I find, however, that Mauritius has it all. It’s definitely like they say, ‘a rainbow country’. There’s every culture here.

Dr.: All festivals are celebrated here whether it is Hindu, Muslim, or Christian. Everyone enjoys all the festivals and we take part in all of the celebrations.

Mrs.: Everyone participates peacefully with a lot of discipline.

And what about your friends? Do you have more local friends or expat friends?
Mrs.: We have both.

Dr.: One of the things that we’re enjoying wherever we’re staying is the networking. Meeting people, that’s what we enjoy.

Meeting people is always a pleasure! Okay, so moving on. Please tell us about Amity…
Dr.: Amity is a global education group established in India about 20 years back. It started with primary and secondary schools. In India, Amity has also gone into higher education and as of today, there are about 25 international schools, which offer primary and secondary education and eight private universities. Besides India, Amity also has a presence in Mauritius, Singapore, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, UK, USA, China, Romania and South Africa - and altogether the total student strength is about 150,000 and the faculty, including researchers is about 6,000. The universities are research and innovation driven. All the researchers and the faculty have about 800 patents to their credit and of course a large number of books authored by them, articles and research papers published. So, it is on the global scene.

And what about Amity here in Mauritius?
Dr.: In Mauritius, we set up in 2011 as a degree-awarding institute approved by the Tertiary Education Commission. Then in 2016 we started the Amity Global Business School in partnership with the University of Northampton. So we offer programmes from the University of Northampton, where the degree is awarded by them but the delivery is all done here by our faculty. We are growing and the idea is to establish ourselves as an education hub. Not just for Mauritius, but for Africa also. We have attracted a number of students from Africa and there is a good growth and investment plan for the group in Mauritius. The group has a very strong commitment to Mauritius and to setting up a good world-class university and also a primary and secondary school here. There’s been a good response so far. We’re quite happy with the way things are going and progressing.

What is your involvement in Amity?
Dr.: I am overall in charge as far as the Amity Group’s operation in Mauritius is concerned. I’m responsible for both these institutions: the degree awarding institute as well as the partnership with the University of Northampton. In addition, I am also involved with the diversification and enlargement plans of Amity.

Where in Mauritius are the Amity campuses?
Dr.: Currently, we’re located in Ebene. We’ve looked at some options and plots of land. We’ll eventually have our own campus - educational blocks as well as residential blocks. When we bring students from Africa, the first thing that is necessary is having residential facilities, so that is also on the cards.

Is it just higher education that Amity offers in Mauritius?
Dr.: Currently, it’s just higher education. But we plan to soon go in to primary and secondary education also.

Regarding Amity’s degree programmes, which areas of study are available?
Dr.: The focus areas are management, information technology and tourism and hospitality. But we do want to increase the portfolio of programmes and go into education, law and engineering. There are plans to offer vocational programmes and short-term programmes, and we are also into training and development. All these things keep my colleagues and myself quite busy!

Where do you see Amity going in the future?
Dr.: I guess that within the next five years at least we should have a good dominant status in Mauritius as well as catering to African countries. Furthermore, we have a presence in South Africa and there, we want to grow. We’re trying to cover the east, west, north and south of Africa from Mauritius as the hub. Wherever Amity has gone, particularly in India, there are very strong universities, highly focused on quality, excellent campuses and infrastructure. The Amity campuses in India are about 100 – 120 acres with excellent facilities. So we want to replicate that here as well as in African countries.

It all sounds fantastic and we wish you the very best of luck. Would you say there are any differences between working here and working in India?
Dr.: I would say the pressure is a lot more in India. As Sujata was saying earlier, life is quite fast there. There are more pressures, more targets and bigger challenges. It’s a bigger market.

Mrs.: The challenges here are different. At times it is also tough here.

Dr.: The main challenge for Amity is to attract students from African countries as well. Mauritius is beginning to be known as an education hub. There are steps in that direction. To contribute to that process is something that Amity would like to do.

Do you normally work all week, Dr. Keskar?
Dr.: Yes, often 7 days a week. The normal office hours are normally 5 days a week, but on Saturdays and Sundays there are always quite a few things to catch up on. And of course, the day starts earlier in India, and we have a couple of schools in South Africa which I also look after and they are a couple of hours behind us and I keep in touch with them. So the day starts early and ends late. And then there are always a number of meetings throughout the day. So it’s a busy routine, but we enjoy it. It keeps us challenged physically and mentally. And of course when the time comes, we visit the country and go out.

Well you do deserve some time off! Where do you like to go on the island?
Mrs.: We like to visit all the new places. Of course, all the tourist attractions we’ve been to over the last four years, but one memorable thing was a helicopter ride. It was wonderful. Especially seeing the illusion of the undersea waterfall, we really liked that.

So Mrs. Keskar, we know you studied astrology – very interesting! Can you tell us more about that?
Mrs.: Well, I studied the subject for over 10 years. I was teaching it in India and here, I gave some honourary lessons to some 20 or so local people and they were very much interested in that.

Is that something that you’d like to do more of over here?
Mrs.: I would very much like that opportunity, as some people have some misunderstandings about astrology. It can help you to improve your life, to make your life happy; it can help you to make a decision. And I’d like to use astrology as more of a counselling, because you cannot change a destiny. But if you know a bit more about your children, marriage, education…etc. for this purpose it can be used.

Where did your interest in astrology come from?
Mrs.: Right from the beginning I had an interest. My father used to tell us many things, and I experienced the things he said… and my interest developed like that.

What’s the process like if somebody wants to know something about his or her life or future using astrology?
Mrs.: I follow an ancient form of astrology and for that you need the birth time, birth date and place and I prepare the horoscope and can provide answers to their questions and if they want any guidelines, I can provide that. I did some research in astrology also, in particular medical astrology. Sometimes you can know and have some idea of what kind of diseases you’re prone to and at what part of your life these will occur. So this can help people to improve their health.

Amazing. So, this final question may be a little bit ironic because of what we’ve just discussed, but how is the future looking here in Mauritius for Mr. and Mrs. Keskar?
Mrs.: *laughs* The future looks good!

By Sabah Ismail & Khalid Khadaroo

If you would like to contact Dhananjay or Sujata, you can email dkeskar@mauritius.amity.edu or call 5933-8708.