New Delhi:
Google Doodle is celebrating Sake Dean Mahomed --- the man of many talents, the Anglo-Indian traveller, surgeon and entrepreneur who built important cultural connections between India and England during the course of his life. He is credited for introducing shampoo baths to Europe. He also opened the first Indian restaurant in Britain, the Hindostanee Coffee House, in 1810. In 1794, Mahomed published The Travels of Dean Mahomed, an autobiographical narrative about his adventures in India. It's for his writings that Google honoured him with a Doodle. It was on this date in 1794 that Mahomed became the first Indian author to write and publish a book in English, as reported by CNET.
He was born in Patna, in the erstwhile Bengal Presidency --- the largest subdivision of British India. He was taken under the wing of a British Army officer at the age of 10 after his father died. He then emigrated to Cork in Ireland in 1784. He studied there at a local school to improve his English language skills. It was in Cork that he fell in love with Jane Daly. He eloped with her in 1786. Mahomed converted to Anglicanism to marry Jane and they moved to Brighton, England, at the turn of the 19th century where he began to make his mark on Britain.
According to a report, he served as a trainee surgeon in the army of the British East India Company and remained with the unit until 1782, when he resigned from the army and accompanied his benefactor to Britain.
After moving to London in 1810, Mahomed opened the Hindostanee Coffee House in London's Portman Square. The luxurious restaurant gave Georgian Brits their first taste of curry and the hookah, but financial pressures forced the establishment to close two years later, as reported by CNET.
In 1814, Mahomed moved to Brighton and opened the first commercial "shampooing" bath in England, providing a combination of a steam bath and an Indian therapeutic massage. His business flourished, promising to cure diseases and provide relief from various physical pains.
He was so successful that soon he became known as "Dr. Brighton," with hospitals referring patients to his care. He was also appointed shampooing surgeon to British kings George IV and William IV, the CNet report further stated.
He died in 1851 in Brighton and was buried at the town's St Nicholas Church.
