Pitaji and Mataji embarked for East Africa by ship and arrived to the shores of Zanzibar. They travelled to Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanganyika. Pitaji and Mataji were not alone on their journey. As early as the 1890’s a large majority of the Sikhs who had immigrated to East Africa had already settled into their new land. These early Sikh settlers were skilled laborers who were integral to the development of the British East African Railway.
At the time Pitaji decided to advance his journey to Uganda, the railway only went as far as northwest as Kisumu. In order for Pitaji and Mataji to reach Uganda, they would have had to have taken a dhow or other type of small vessel to head towards Southern Uganda.
Not long after they arrived in Uganda, they headed North to a small village off of Lake Kyoga called Ngora.
It was here that they were blessed with their first son, Amrik Singh, in September of 1926. Shortly after the birth of Amrik, they moved Southeast to the equally small village of Mbale. It is here that Pitaji’s entrepreneurial endeavors began when he purchased a few trucks.
