Most of the 50,000 Hong Kong residents who commute on the Star Ferry every day are likely unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But that’s not the city’s only Indian connection.
The Morning Star first set sail in 1880, the brainchild of Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala, a cook from Mumbai who launched Hong Kong’s first ferry service. Mithaiwala landed in Hong Kong in 1852, coming, according to one account, as a stowaway. The captain of his ship allowed him to stay as a cook. Putting his quickly learned culinary skills to good use, he then launched a successful bakery, one of many profitable ventures. The serial entrepreneur’s greatest legacy, however, was the Kowloon Ferry Company, which he later sold, and was renamed Star Ferry.
Most of the 50,000 Hongkongers who every day take the ferry, which has over the years been revamped and upgraded, are probably unaware of its roots in Mumbai. But what’s remarkable is that Star Ferry is by no means the only enduring Hong Kong institution with an Indian connection.
A short walk from one of the ferry’s piers on Hong Kong Island in the bustling Wan Chai district is Ruttonjee Hospital, first founded in the early 20th century by Jehangir Ruttonjee as a sanatorium to help fight tuberculosis, and subsequently expanded into a world-class hospital by the Ruttonjee-Shroff family, who are still deeply involved in health and social welfare activities in Hong Kong.
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