One of the oldest businesses in Nausori Town is Ishwar Lal and Sons.
Established 69 years ago, the store which sits directly opposite the old Nausori bus stand, began trading on March 1, 1952.
Ishwar Lal, along with his family, travelled to Fiji from Surat Gujurat, India, in 1952.
They had heard that Fiji was a land of opportunities and came to explore business ventures in the then British colony.
Founder Ishwar Lal was married to Manchha Ben and the couple had four children — Shanti Lal who passed away a month ago, Manohar Lal who now looks after the shop, his sister, Kanta Ben Billimoriah who lives in Hamilton, New Zealand and another sister Urmila Ben who passed away two years ago.
Mr Manohar, who now looks after the shop, hopes to keep the family legacy alive.
He is patiently waiting for the day his sons realise the importance of running and maintaining the family business.
Mr Manohar said just as technology had changed the way the world operated today, he had noted a lot of changes in Fiji over the past six decades.
“My father had been running a tailoring business back in India for about five years before we came to Fiji,” the 74-year-old said.
“I came to Fiji from India when I was just six years old, in 1952, and we faced a lot of challenges when we started off.
“The business was very small and we operated at a very subsistence level, we used to earn enough just to survive.
“And at that time, the sugar mill was just opposite our shop, which was good for us.
“So most of the income generated in Nausori was from the sugar mill, it boosted the local economy and provided employment.”
Mr Lal said one thing that had been lost over the years was the interconnectedness and relationships between the different people who made up the Nausori community.
“Life in the olden days was way better, people trusted each other and the price of items were much cheaper.
“I would say they were 20 times cheaper than now.
“When I say people used to trust each other, a good example would be this — our customers would take the goods for credit and they always used to pay for them.
“You can’t do that today.
“There was less paperwork back then and there was less interference from the Government too. Life was very basic.
“All the shops here were all wooden and people used to do different businesses and survive.”
Mr Lal said the reason they had been successful in their business was because of their ability to learn to adapt to the different changes in the retail sector.
“When I started, I was a tailor, I learnt that from my father who was also a tailor.
“But from that, we moved into sales and closed the tailoring business.
“Something that we have learnt is to be honest in business, that is a priority and we have maintained that even though we need to make profit.
“Sometimes, when customers forget their belongings in the shop, we keep it and wait for their return.
“Whatever we owe someone, we always pay.
“These are the basics of business, when you pay back, you gain reputation. “Our mother was a hard worker, apart from looking after the family she used to do tailoring work for other nearby neighbours.
“And the money she earned from sewing was used to buy our groceries.
“Both our parents supported each other to raise our family.”
Mr Lal said raising a family in the “olden days” was much better, in his view, when compared with the present time.
“Most parents are afraid of the laws nowadays, all these things that say we cannot be hard on the children — I don’t know which way we are heading.
“We are following modern day lifestyles and this has good and bad influence on our kids.”
When asked of his vision for the future of the business, Mr Lal said he hoped his sons would one day realise the importance of having a family business and continue the tradition.
“There is very little we can do because now the choice is theirs, on what they want.
“There are so many new ideas and our thinking does not match them because we are old and traditional and they want to be modern and up-to-date with the latest things.
“We want our children to be educated and come into the business and grow the business but when they get educated they don’t want to come in the business and that is happening with me.
“We used to work seven days a week but now our children want to work five days a week.”
Mr Lal said the store had been successful business but whether it would continue in the same vein was not certain.
His daughter, Seema Ben, said she hoped to continue the family business but only if her father wanted her to.
“This is one of the oldest shops in Nausori and people come here because we sell quality brands,” she said.
“Because of this business, we have good relations with the community and across generations.
“I have also seen a lot of changes over the years “Back in the day, even if you earned less, you were happy but now, even though you’re earning more, you are not happy and many are struggling.
“Nowadays things are getting tougher and tougher.”
