Manama: Two brothers’ lives were transformed after Bahraini King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa offered them the opportunity to improve their living conditions.
It all started with a video posted on the website of a local daily, Al Ayam, in April.
Mohammad Falamarzi is shown selling fish from a stall by the road. His emphatic comments, his easy gestures and his passion for Bahrain and the need to serve it wholeheartedly earned him the respect of thousands of people who watched the video.
It gave Mohammad and his brother Jassim instant fame, but nothing had prepared them for the biggest surprise of their lives when Shaikh Nasser, the son of King Hamad and his representative for charity works and youth affairs, came to visit them.
“I was astonished when I saw him next to me. I had goose pimples,” Mohammad later said.
Shaikh Nasser conveyed King Hamad’s greetings to the brothers and relayed the royal directives to assist them by buying them a new fishing boat to help their small business really take off, and offering them a commercial registration and a place they can use as a restaurant as well as a lucrative deal to sell fish to LuLu Hypermarket.
The offers were to reward them for their hard work and for devotion to serving Bahrain in any capacity.
In the video, Mohammad insisted that he was proud to sell fish, saying there were no limits or shame in serving Bahrain. He said he did many odd jobs before deciding to sell fish by the road.
Shaikh Nasser told the brothers he planned to eat at their restaurant next year.
