A Gurdaspur nurse’s journey to Dubai’s healthcare industry

Ever since she was a school-going ponytailed girl, Sarabjot Kaur Malhi has had a strong intuition that her calling was to work in Dubai, a place where, she says, ambition is a currency that never loses value.

Malhi, a daughter of modest middle-class parents, did her schooling at her native village of Qadianwali and proceeded to complete her senior secondary education from a Gurdaspur city-based school.

She later completed her bachelor’s in science (nursing) course in Jalandhar.

Her father, Paramjit Singh Malhi, is a former Congress Sarpanch of the village, while her mother Bhupinder Kaur works at the village Anganwadi.

Nine years ago, armed with nothing but her vision, she boarded a flight to Dubai — a city she believes was built on business and trade, where she could give wings to her dreams.

For others, the city may have been a concrete jungle, but for Malhi, it was her soul, a place where she had the independence to earn millions.

Like others, she was a bit apprehensive when she started the first of her eight companies.

She said she knew first-time entrepreneurs always received a negative response.

“When penicillin was invented, it was rejected. Likewise, the airplane was considered impossible, so was the power-loom, and anaesthesia was regarded as sinful,” she said.

Nevertheless, the first-time businesswoman took her first steps and finally emerged successful.

Malhi’s Dubai firms provide medical care to oil and gas conglomerates, and also to marine organisations.

The latest in line are her cleaning, recruitment and patient management companies, all which have achieved success in double-quick time.

“I quickly realised how streamlined the process in the UAE is. My success is due to the country’s pro-business environment,” she said.

Her link with Qadianwali, though, stays strong as ever.

She indeed provides weight to the adage ‘You can take a girl out of the country, but not the country out of the girl’. As Malhi makes heads turn in Dubai, here, in Gurdaspur, she has become an icon of sorts.