Chairman of Al Dobowi Group releases autobiography

Surender Kandhari, chairman of Al Dobowi Group, grew up as a gentle child into a gentle adult with no lack of privilege or material deprivation. None of this spoilt him and he knew that he was destined to succeed.

One morning his grandfather, asked for a commitment. He said, “One day you have to build a Gurudwara, make me that promise.” And at that moment began the saga of The Temple of My Dreams.

The sincerity that marks Kandhari’s life and efforts to stretch out a helping hand are best reflected in the major endeavour he undertook to build a magnificent gurudwara in Dubai and create a zone of peace and comfort for everyone regardless of their persuasions.

Kandhari has faced doubt, crisis and occasional moments of despair where the saving grace has always been his belief that out of good comes good.

Against that background, he injects into his narrative humour, a delightful self-deprecating manner in which the rough and the smooth patches intermingle into one entity. His affection for his friends, his compassion for those who call upon him and above all his love for family and his rock, his wife Bubbles, combine to create a riveting story.

Life, Kandhari says, is like a game of golf. As golfer Bobby Jones said: ‘You get bad breaks from good shots and good shots from bad breaks. But you have to play the ball where it lies.’ This book does just that.

Temple of My Dreams stands as testament to the creation and development of an industrial empire that employs over 2,000 people, gives an inside look into the tyre and battery industry on a global scale and provides signposts to young entrepreneurs on how to set up their businesses. It is also a personal account of an extraordinary life and how these factors are bound together by the inspiration derived from construction of the Guru Nanak Sahib Gurudwara in Dubai and how this incredible house of worship was conceived and turned into reality, that being the core basis for the title of the book.