In fact, he was made in charge of grouping pilgrims at a Tawafa office when only 10.

“Since then, I dreamt of becoming head of a field service office. The dream became bigger when I was appointed deputy head of one,” he said.

Miajan said only the lack of material resources stood in the way of his becoming a chief of an office. He recalled that about eight years ago, the head of the GCC Haj mission, Dr. Saud Katib, came to know about his abilities and asked him to take charge of a service office. “I answered him that I do not have the finances needed for the job but he would not acquiesce. He promised to provide me with all the moral and material assistance I needed,” he said.

Miajan said Saud discussed his case with his brother Adnan Katib, who was the chairman of the Tawafa Establishment for South Asian Pilgrims. Adnan agreed to appoint him as the head of an office.

“Since then I have been doing my job industriously and providing consummate services to pilgrims to perform their Haj rites in ease and comfort,” he said.

Miajan said his office is serving about 5,000 Indian pilgrims providing them with all necessary Haj services that include accommodation, transport and food. “The office supervises the accommodation of pilgrims electronically using SMS messages which can be  opened by an HTC device and then screened on a projector,” he said.

He added that the office also uses BlackBerry phones to transmit data from officials in charge of accommodation to the main office. “This is a faster means of dealing with any accommodation problems,” he explained. Miajan said his office provides free-of-charge meals to pilgrims in Mina for three consecutive nights. “This is not done by any other office,” he said.

He expressed pride at serving the guests of God. “We feel it a duty and a source of pride to serve pilgrims. We receive them inside the buses when they come to our office. We provide them with drinks and give all of them a bracelet and a card containing information about themselves before we take them to their accommodations,” he said. Miajan said his office uses projectors to showcase its achievements and those of its parent company, and to also welcome pilgrims in English and Hindi. He said staff under him visit pilgrims’ accommodation every day to ensure pilgrims are comfortable and have no complaints. The Tawafa Establishment for South Asian Pilgrims last year received the Makkah Prize for excellent Haj services.

This was the second year running that the establishment received the award, which was handed over at a ceremony by Makkah Governor Prince Khaled Al-Faisal.