The Magnificent and massive Hindu Temple about to be inaugurated this week was a dream of many Hindu families residing in UAE.
Eighty-two-year-old Businessman, Vasu Shroff, said he had dreamt of building a temple for thousands of Hindu worshippers in the UAE for decades.
After the government and related authorities of Dubai granted land for the temple in Jebel Ali three years ago, his son Raju Shroff volunteered to take on the project’s task.
The temple is constructed with brass spires that cap light white domes and will officially open on Tuesday, a day before the Hindu festival of Dussehra.
Final touches add a sheen to hand-carved pillars decorated with bells, flowers and elephants, as emerald and saffron inlays on marble floors are being polished.
For Mr Shroff, the temple was high on a list of philanthropic initiatives he aspired to set up since coming to Dubai 62 years ago.
Businessman Vasu Shroff said, “I had a dream to have our temple,” During an interview, he said that he was seated in the temple community area filled with marigold flowers.
“I used to pray day and night, hoping we would get land for the temple. When the government granted us land, I handed it to my son. Once he took on the responsibility, I was so happy,” he added.
Mr Shroff, chairman of the Regal Group, arrived in Dubai as an ambitious 20-year-old and established what was to become one of the oldest businesses in the Emirates, starting with textiles and expanding to technology and property.
He remembers a time when cars drove on sandy streets with no electricity and donkeys ferried water.
There was one Hindu temple in Bur Dubai, where the community gathered to pray.
His family started the second place of worship in 1958 in an old building in Dubai’s historic Al Fahidi district.
Mr Shroff’s elder brother and brother-in-law placed the Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh religious scripture, in a small room that grew from a tiny shrine to several rooms.