It was one of the proudest moments of his
life when royal footman Badar Azim was given the job of helping to announce the
birth of a new heir to the British throne.
The Indian-born 25-year-old was entrusted
with the official proclamation about the arrival of Kate and William’s son and
ordered to place it on a golden easel outside Buckingham Palace.
But on Tuesday night, just eight days after
playing his part in the celebrations surrounding the newborn Prince George of
Cambridge, stunned Badar was forced to give up his dream role and fly back to
the slums of Calcutta after the Home Office refused to renew his visa.
He had to vacate his plush Royal Mews staff
apartment in the grounds of the palace and return to the cramped two-roomed
house his parents, two brothers and five other relatives share in a rundown
suburb of the Indian city.
Badar, a hospitality graduate, was told to
leave Britain despite desperate pleas to be allowed to renew his work visa,
which was granted after he completed his studies in Scotland in 2011.
He left his prestigious job at the end of
last week. Days earlier, on July 22, he was cheered by thousands well-wishers
as he posted the royal birth announcement and images of him in his dashing red
and black uniform were flashed around the world.
A royal source said: “When Badar was given
the important job of announcing the royal birth at Buckingham Palace he knew it
would be one of the last things he did as a footman for the royal family as his
work visa was going to expire.
“He is disappointed and devastated he
hasn’t been able to extend his time in the UK. Moving over here has changed his
life. He had settled in and made lots of friends so he’s heartbroken to have to
let it all go.”
Badar’s journey from rags-to-royalty began
when he was picked for a sponsorship scheme run by St Mary’s Orphanage in
Calcutta. His parents, welder Mohammed Rahim, 52, and Mumtaz Begum, 41, could
not afford to fund his further education.
So St Mary’s arranged for him to study at
the city’s International Institute of Hotel Management College. The orphanage
also raised £10,000 to fund his BA in hospitality management at Edinburgh’s
Napier University. During his studies Badar, described as quiet and polite by
his tutors, did not forget his humble roots.
He organised charity walks to raise cash
for the same scheme that had helped him. Speaking in 2010 of how the move had
changed his life, he said: “The orphanage literally helps transform the lives
of hundreds of children each year.
“If I didn’t go to St Mary’s, I would be
working somewhere in the streets of Kolkata. It would have been very difficult
to get a job in India because unless you have a good degree, you will not get a
good job and a good salary. The conditions I live in now are so different from
how I lived in India.”
After graduating in 2011, Badar was granted
a two-year graduate work visa. He landed the position of palace footman worth
around £15,000 a year plus bed and board at Buckingham Palace in February 2012.
Sanjukta Bose, director at the Hotel
Management College in Calcutta, said Badar had worked hard to get it. She
added: “It was more than mere luck. He was very good at whatever he did. But
that was not all.
He was very kind-hearted too. He was
well-mannered and a good communicator. He was also punctual and well-groomed.”
His duties included carrying messages around the palace, serving tea and
greeting guests at banquets. He met many senior royals including the Queen.
But he knew the clock was ticking on his
time in the UK, even as he posted the royal birth notice to the delight of his
siblings Mazhar, 20, and Sameer, 14, back home in Calcutta. Mazhar said: “We
were all so proud of him, especially our parents.” After losing his battle to
stay, Badar is now expected to try to use his unique experiences to land a top
job at a leading hotel in India.
Buckingham Palace and the Home Office
declined to comment. Badar earned £15,000 a year as a new recruit at the
palace. Bed and board was provided free as part of his package. The palace has
830,000sq ft of floorspace and the largest private garden in London. Staff are
given flats above the Royal Mews stables at the southern end of the grounds.
Badar will live with his parents two
brothers and five other relatives in a two-room house.
His dad works as a welder and earns just
£33 a month. In the city’s crowded slum areas, the average wage of a manual
worker is just 27rupees (30p) a day.
More than 1.5million people live in Calcutta’s slums.
Culled from London Mirror
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