This story is set in the casinos and streets of London, UK.
Rafiq Miah, Shafiq Miah and Makon Miah came from Sylhet in Bangladesh to settle in London in 1982, Rafiq Miah was 12 years old, Shafiq Miah was 11 years old and Makon Miah was 9 years old. They came over with their mother as their father had married again and settled in London.
They had miraculously managed to come over to London from Sylhet in Bangladesh. They struggled in their childhood in Sylhet as their father decided to live with his new wife in London.
Once they came over to London, their mother struggled to make ends meet for the family. Their father did not come to visit them, he was totally out of their life.
Rafiq Miah and Shafiq Miah enrolled at Warwick School for Boys in Walthamstow, London. Makon Miah enrolled at the local primary school. They were bullied at school and found it hard to manage without a father figure in their lives.
Life in London was significantly different from the village life they were accustomed to in Sylhet, Bangladesh. They were struggling in a new land to pick up the language and somehow fit into the community.
The family had some help from their cousins from their mother’s side. They had helped them to make applications to come over to London. They also assisted them with the expenses in the form of a loan, which they would have to repay once they started working in London.
Rafiq Miah and Shafiq Miah started working part-time at their cousin’s Indian restaurant called Baburchi in Leyton, London. Even though it was owned by Bangladeshi’s, the cuisine was Indian. The cuisine in Indian restaurants was developed mainly by Bangladeshi’s from the Sylhet region to cater for the British curry lovers.
Their cousin’s restaurant was extremely busy and both brothers worked long hours on minimum pay. It was still a blessing, as they could not find any other jobs, especially at their young age and lack of proficiency in English.
Rafiq Miah finished school in 1986 and Shafiq Miah finished school in 1987. They both enrolled at Waltham Forest College, Rafiq Miah pursued an electrician course and Shafiq Miah enrolled on a motor mechanics course. They worked in their cousins Indian restaurant in the evenings whilst continuing with their education.
Eventually, both of them dropped out of education and started working in Indian restaurants full-time. They had to repay the loan that was given to them by their cousins. Rafiq Miah became a waiter and Shafiq Miah became a chef. Their younger brother Makon Miah continued with his education and became a stock trader, married an English girl and moved out.
Rafiq and Shafiq opened their own restaurant in Stratford in London called Darjeeling and put in endless hours of hard work to build up the business. Rafiq Miah had the gift of the gab and attracted customers with his charm, whilst Shafiq Miah dished out exquisite Indian cuisine.
Within a few years, their restaurant business boomed, and they expanded the seating area. They were taking on average over £15,000 weekly from 1994 onwards. This cash flow allowed them to open another Indian restaurant in Camden Town in London called Maharaja, which also become a success and started bringing in weekly takings of over £17,000.
Rafiq Miah and Shafiq Miah managed to buy 4 houses. They managed to pay off the mortgage on these houses within a few years. Their luck had miraculously changed from living in poverty to experiencing the affluence London had to offer.
Rafiq managed the Maharaja restaurant in Camden Town, whilst his brother managed the kitchen at the Darjeeling restaurant in Stratford. Rafiq took care of the financial side for both restaurants as he picked up these skills whilst working in and managing other Indian restaurants previously.
Shafiq did not excel in education and preferred to be more hands on. He managed to become one of the finest chef’s in London and also trained many others. He trusted his brother to take care of the takings and manage the restaurants.
One afternoon in 2002, Rafiq walked into the store room at the back of his restaurant in Camden Town. He noticed that the cases of Cobra beer were opened up. After taking a closer look he noticed that there was an empty bottle of beer in each of the partly opened cases.
Rafiq knew that somebody was drinking these beers secretly. He decided to keep watch and one the second day, he noticed the kitchen porter sneaking into the store room and quickly rushing out after a few minutes.
Rafiq smiled and let this continue for a few weeks. A contents of a few beer bottles disappearing just amused him. One day Rafiq confronted the kitchen porter as he came out of the store room, he could smell the beer on him.
The kitchen porter confessed his guilt and asked Rafiq to forgive him and not to tell anyone else. The next day the kitchen porter backed up his belongings and told Rafiq that he was leaving.
Rafiq escorted him to the staff bedroom above the restaurant and told him to put his belonging back. He assured him that he was not going to sack him. He told him that he should have placed the beer bottles in the bin after drinking them.
The kitchen porter was shocked and thanked Rafiq for keeping him on. Rafiq asked him if he knew anyone that wanted a deliver driver job. The kitchen porter recommended his friend Badrul.
In 2002 Rafiq Miah hired Badrul Miah as a delivery driver for his Indian restaurant in Camden Town. Rafiq Miah developed a close friendship with Badrul Miah, as they both enjoyed a drink and also smoked. They were about the same age and had many things in common.
There was a William Hill bookies a couple of doors from Rafiq Miah’s Maharaja restaurant in Camden Town. Badrul Miah used to pop into the bookies on most days and early evenings. One day Rafiq Miah followed him into the bookies and watched him put money into a machine and select a few numbers on the screen.
Rafiq Miah did not know what Badrul was doing, he knew that it was some form of gambling. He approached Badrul and asked him how it all worked. Badrul explained that it was a Roulette Machine and proceeded to explain the rules of the game and the odds.
Badrul explained that it was possible to win £7.20 from a 20p bet placed on the machine. Rafiq took out a crisp £20 note and fed it into the roulette machine next to the one that Badrul was playing on.
Badrul went through a few bets with Rafiq and slowly he started to understand how it all worked. Rafiq managed to win £50 from his initial betting amount of £20. Even though the amount was small, it gave Rafiq a taste of the gambler’s high.
Rafiq started to pop into the bookies on a regular basis, betting £50 to £100 daily. This was not much for Rafiq as the restaurants were doing really well. He looked at it as a way to pass time, and did not consider it as gambling.
He won on the roulette machine a few times, eventually the daily roulette betting loses started to reach around £500. It was still manageable, but it was draining money away from the businesses.
Rafiq started to think that the roulette machine in the bookies were rigged. Bardul advised him to bet live at the casinos. Rafiq had never been to a casino before, so he asked Bardul to take him to one after work.
Soon Bardul started playing roulette frequently at casinos, Saturday night was roulette night. He had tried a few casinos in the west end of London. He became a member at Napoleon’s Casino in Leicester Square, but the atmosphere in there was not to his liking.
Rafiq also became a member at the Golden Nugget casino in Shaftesbury Avenue. Every Saturday he took £4,000 to £5,000 in cash to play at the roulette tables in the Golden Nugget. He enjoyed the atmosphere inside the Golden Nugget and became a regular punter.
He had some significant wins, a number of times he walked out with over £30,000 in cash. The sound of the money being counted through the machine and the sight and smell of the fresh pinkies gave him an ecstatic buzz.
The Indian and Chinese restaurant owner that frequented the Golden Nugget started to notice Rafiq Miah. Many of the Indian restaurant owner knew Rafiq, as he had worked in their restaurants previously. They started to refer to him as “The Whale Of Walthamstow”, due to the high stakes he placed on the roulette tables.
Rafiq Miah usually played with £25 chips, and he always placed bets on 3 numbers. He did not bother with splits, corners, sections or red/black, even/odd.
He used to place £100 bets on black after watching Wesley Snipes’ movie “Passenger 57”, where Snipes plays the character of John Cutter.
The dialogue in the movie is as follows:
John Cutter: Charlie, ever played roulette?
Charles Rane: On occasion.
John Cutter: Well, let me give you a word of advice. Always bet on black!
Rafiq found out the hard way, betting on black is not guaranteed to result in a win. The additional nuisance of zero slot also messed up the odds.
He had tried many roulette system and eventually stuck to his own favourite numbers: 5, 8, 11, 10, 14 and 19. He played a combination of three numbers from his list of numbers.
Badrul Miah was his right hand man on casino nights. He told his wife that he was out with Badrul whilst gambling away the profits from his restaurants.
Rafiq used to buy Badrul couple of packs of Benson Gold before setting out for the casino. He used to give Badrul £200 of chips to play along with him on the roulette table. Badrul used to play £5 chips whilst Rafiq stuck to his £25 chips.
One Saturday night in late October 2003, Rafiq was at the Golden Nugget in Shaftsbury Avenue. He was playing roulette at his favourite table and Robi was the croupier. Robi was from Sylhet in Bangladesh and Rafiq used to tip him well after every win.
Rafiq used to joke with Robi and tell him that he would buy him land in Sylhet, if he managed to hit his numbers. He knew that it was impossible for the croupier to hit an exact number on the roulette wheel.
There were a couple of middle aged restaurant owners playing at the same table, but luck was not favouring anyone. After a multitude of spins, the older gentlemen dusted off his hands and remarked that it’s all gone in the hole.
Rafiq followed the uncles to the balcony smokers area and ordered some drinks and lit up cigarettes for them. The uncles had told him that Satan had got hold of them and had they not been introduced to roulette, they would have become multi-millionaires.
They advised Rafiq to get out whilst there was still time, and that it was too late for them to change their ways. Even though it was good advice, it had no effect on Rafiq.
After a few minutes of puffing on the Benson to relive the tension, Rafiq and Badrul got up and headed over to the roulette table. Rafiq placed his last 5, £25 chips on number 14 red. Robi called out no more bets and spun the wheel. To the surprise of everyone, the ball landed on number 14.
Rafiq picked up £4,000 worth in chips from his winning and left £500 on number 14. Robi called no more bets and spun the wheel, and it landed on number 14 again.
Rafiq picked up £17,500 in winnings and left £500 on number 14 again. Robi called no more bets and spun the wheel for the third time, Bardul looked over as the wheel stopped and slapped Rafiq on the back and started to shake his hand.
The ball had landed on number 14 for the third time. Rafiq picked up another £17,500 in winnings and left £500 on number 14 again. Once the fourth spin, the ball landed on number 19.
Badrul grabbed Rafiq and took him over to the cash out counter. As he was leaving the roulette table he flicked two hundred pound chips to Robi. The chips were counted at the cash out, they totalled to £38,800, Rafiq asked for it in cash. The counter staff opened up the safe and bought out 39 sealed packets containing £50 notes totalling £1,000 each.
They opened the packages and ran the notes though the cash counting machine and handed over 776 crisp pinkies to Rafiq. The smell and sight of the notes added to the ecstasy of the winning buzz.
From time to time Rafiq experienced major wins like this, but the majority of the time he ended up losing around £5,000 within a few hours of playing at the roulette table.
Slowly the losses started to pile up and the addiction started to grow. Rafiq started to chase his losses, thinking that a few more major wins will enable him to recover from the debt that he was piling on.
Rafiq’s gambling addictions started to spiral out of control, it was not limited to the Saturday night casino slot anymore. He started to visit the local bookies to play roulette on the machines.
He started to pop into any high street bookies that he came across whilst driving around London. Rafiq was addicted to the roulette machines. He did not care if it was William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral, Paddy Power, Betfred or any independent bookmaker. There was always a roulette machine inside to quench his addiction.
Rafiq kept on chasing his loses and piling up excessive debt. He maxed out all his lines of credit and could not pay the suppliers for the products and services used in his restaurants.
The situation worsened as he could not pay the wages for the staff at his restaurants. The service and food quality deteriorated.
Eventually the bailiffs came in ceased whatever they could find in the restaurants. The restaurants were auctioned off to recoup the debts. The houses were all repossessed as they were registered in the parent company name.
Shafiq was shocked at what his brother had done, they were both in the streets along with their families. Rafiq did not have any answers to Shafiq’s questions regarding what had happened.
The brothers stopped talking to each other and fell apart. Everything they had built up had vanished within a few months. None of it was Shafiq’s fault, but he should have kept his brother under check.
Rafiq was now bankrupt, the restaurants, houses, Mercedes and Range Rover had all vanished leaving him to find social housing. Going back to the casino was out of the question.
Eventually, Rafiq started working as a mini cab driver, after suffering from a long stretch of depression. The shame of working as an waiter in a restaurant within the Bangladeshi community was too much for him, as most of the owners knew him.
Driving a mini cab was the only thing that he could do, as he did not like taking orders from anyone. As he drove through the streets of London, the double fronted houses reminded him of the 4 houses that he once owned. It broken his heart every time he drove past an Indian restaurant, as it brought back memories of his affluent days as a governor of two successful establishments.
Rafiq avoided community functions for many years, as he could not accept what had happened to him and the whispers amongst the elders of the Bangladeshi community.
Eventually he started to attend weddings and community functions. Most of the Bangladeshi restaurant owners knew him as “The Whale Of Walthamstow”. He was the only Bangladeshi in the casino to have played with stakes of over £100 on every spin of the roulette wheel. He was a legend with this niche group of gamblers.
One Friday afternoon whilst doing a mini cab trip Rafiq remembered the famous words uttered by Bashir Miah, a seasoned gambler at the Golden Nugget casino… “At any moment you have the ability to change your future!”.
Rafiq Miah kept on think about these words and his current financial circumstance. After dropping off his customer, he parked up and went into a newsagent to buy a pack of cigarettes. After paying for the cigarettes, he placed the packet along with the change in his jacket pocket.
As he was about to exit the shop, he noticed a display with the words “National Lottery £20M Jackpot Must Be Won, Saturday 7th November.” Even though Rafiq had stopped gambling, these words and the thoughts in his head started to tempt him.
Rafiq headed over to the Lottery stand and picked up a play slip and imagined what life would be like if he won the £20 Million Jackpot. He filled up the slip with the six lucky number that he used to play at the roulette table: 5, 8, 11, 10, 14 and 19.
As he filled up the play slip he started to experience a strange feeling. The same feeling that he had experienced back in the casino when he hit number 14 three times in a row and walked out with £38,800 in cash.
He handed the play slip to the cashier and pulled out a pound coin from his jacket pocket. The cashier processed the play slip and handed him the lottery ticket. As he was leaving, the cashier wished him good luck and Rafiq replied back with a thumbs up gesture.
Rafiq could not sleep for the next couple of nights, he did not know what was happening to him. He started to experience the same feelings that had kept him awake during the time he was addicted to roulette.
On Sunday morning, he woke up, still sleep deprived, and had a proper desi breakfast to try and boost up his strength. He could not get the words “At any moment you have the ability to change your future!” out of his mind.
After breakfast he picked up the lottery ticket and walked over to Arvind’s Convenience store to get it checked.
Arvind placed the ticket into the lottery terminal and advised Rafiq that he had won a major prize. Rafiq froze in shock, as he envisioned the words “National Lottery £20M Jackpot Must Be Won, Saturday 7th November.” He was certain that he had hit the Jackpot, there was no doubt in his mind.
After checking with Camelot, it was confirmed that he had in fact won the £20 Million Jackpot on the Saturday night national lottery draw.
Rafiq phoned up Badrul and told him to meet him in the evening as he had some news to share with him.
Rafiq started to wonder if this win was planned by the devil to lure him back to the madness of his roulette addiction days.
Is the £20 Million win going to cause more problems and emotional devastation for Rafiq?
Is this the resurrection of “The Whale Of Walthamstow, even though he now lives in Ilford?”
– The End –
“This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.”-
Mujibur Rahman
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