Francis Lobo-In Spite of Adversities Never Gave Up Hope

By Dr. Eugene D’Souza, Moodubelle
Bellevision Media Network

Dubai, 1 August 2010:  People do have ambitions and dreams, and people do succeed due to these dreams and working hard to achieve them. However, sometimes in spite of such noble dreams, extraneous circumstances come on the way of realising such dreams. This happened in the life and career of Francis Lobo from Moodubelle. After having a graduate degree and Hotel Management Diploma, Francis rose in hotel management hierarchy and dreamt to start his own hotel. However, the world-wide recession in general and in Dubia in particular shattered his dreams. In spite of these adversities and a year of unemployment and lack of opportunities, he never gave up hope and became the General Manager of the prestigious Karama Hotel in Dubai.

Francis Lobo was born on 22nd January 1968. He was the last among four children, three sons and one daughter of late Lazarus and late Christine Lobo of Moodubelle. All his siblings-brothers, Wilfred and Stany as well as sister Genevieve are settled down in Mumbai.

Francis had his primary and secondary education up to PUC in the Parish educational institutions in Moodubelle. While in school and Junior College, Francis did participate in sports and even acted in few plays in the high school.

After completing PUC course in Arts subjects in 1983, like other young boys of his age, Francis too migrated to Mumbai in 1984 in search of employment and success. While staying at Marol, Andheri in his father’s modest room, Francis took up part time trainee job in Oberoi Towers at Nariman Point, Mumbai.

Realising the importance of education, with the financial support from his father who had his own taxi, and encouragement from brothers, Francis decided to continue his studies and joined the MVLU College at Andheri and in 1987 acquired the BA degree with Economics as the major subject.  

After graduation, as Francis had an interest in the hotel management, he did the correspondence course from the Government Catering College at Dadar, Mumbai and within six months acquired a diploma in the Hotel Management. Meanwhile, Francis also did apprentice course at the Oberoi Towers in Food and Beverage department.

Being armed with a diploma in Hotel Management and experience in reputed Oberoi Hotel, Francis aimed higher and decided to move to the Gulf counties for better prospect. His choice was Bahrain or Dubai, the emirates which were relatively liberal than other Gulf countries. 

Francis got an opportunity to work in the Ramada chain of hotels in Bahrain in April 1991 as Food and Beverage Supervisor. After four years of experience, he got a break in the Gulf Hotel at Bahrain  in 1995 where he worked for another four years before shifting to  Tylos Hotel with promotion as Food and Beverage Manager. After two years of dedicated and efficient service, Francis was promoted as the General Manager of Food and Beverages in the same hotel.

As luck would have it, Francis had his first encounter with Dubai in 2003 when he came to the city of dreams to participate in the exhibition in Arabian Travel  Mart where the Hotel and Travel Agencies had their yearly promotional exposures. When Francis saw for the first time the city of Dubai, he felt that he should find an opportunity to work in Dubai.

With a determination to come to Dubai for work and residence, Francis contacted his friends and sent his bio-data. Finding an opportunity to enter the hotel industry in Dubai, Francis came on a visit to the city and appeared for an interview and luckily got selected in Ramee Group of Hotels in Deira Dubai in 2004 as Manager in the Food and Beverages department.

After working for four years in the capacity of a Manager in the hotel, Francis became ambitious and decided to open a hotel on his own with the help of an investor partner in Dubai in 2008. However, his ambition just remained a dream as the recession hit Dubai and shattered the plans of Francis to establish his own hotel.

During the planning period of a new hotel, Francis had to give up his job as the Manager in the Ramee Group of hotels as he wanted to concentrate fully on establishing the hotel. However, with the recession setting in Dubai, he had to shelve the hotel project. With no job and his dream being shattered, Francis had to spend one year without any earning. The situation in Dubai was going from bad to worse. The job opportunities practically disappeared with retrenchment and even if one could find a job, the salary offered was too meagre for a decent living.

In spite of these difficulties, Francis never lost hope or balance of his mind. Meanwhile, he came across an advertisement for the post of a General Manager in the Karama Hotel. Francis grabbed this opportunity and applied for the job and was selected. He has been working in the Karama Hotel since last year and is quite happy with his present status.

Meanwhile, Francis still wants to improve this qualification in the hotel management and has been preparing to appear for the Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA) examination conducted by the American Hotel Motel Association (AHMA).

Francis has been participating in Outbound Travel Mart (OTM) and Travel and Tourism Federation Exhibition in different cities of India such as Delhi and Mumbai.

Francis married Hilda Lobo of Mattar in 1999 and they have two lovely children. The elder, Langston Lobo is eight years old and studies in fourth standard at St. Mary’s Convent School at Vasai. Younger, Melisa is seven years old and is in the third standard in the same school. For the sake of the education of their children, Hilda has to be with them in Vasai.

Being tall and handsome, Francis has a pleasing personality and is extremely polite, soft-spoken and friendly. He has been a strong supporter of various Konkani cultural groups in Dubai. His association with Bellevision is quite strong and has been one of its staunch supporters.