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SMILING Gulzar Ahmed - the world's friendliest car park attendant - has attracted thousands of fans on a website page set up by a mall visitor amazed by his cheerful endeavours.
The 'Legend of the Bahrain City Centre' has been attracting hundreds of new 'members' each day to a page on the social networking site Facebook.
By early this week a staggering 8,265 people have joined his fan club and management have been so overwhelmed by the positive feedback by customers that they have awarded the jolly security guard with a medal of appreciation.
Bashful Gulzar, 45, was totally unaware his car park antics had created such a storm of satisfaction and said it came naturally to him to offer people a warm wave and a genuine friendly smile.
Gulzar, from Salmabad, a former corporal in the Pakistan Army, broke into tears of happiness when GulfWeekly told him about the adoration he has been building in the hearts of the island's shoppers.
Dabbing at his wet eyes, he said: "I never, in my wildest dreams, imagined I would be coming to Bahrain and would be gathering so much praise and appreciation for my work. I feel so happy and grateful."
Gulzar captured shoppers' affection at his regular station in the heat saying farewell as drivers queue to exit the mall visitors heading towards Manama.
They are usually tired and irritable after hours shopping and desperate to get on the road to home.
SHOPPER Hanan Ali Marhoon was so overwhelmed by the courteous behaviour of a security guard she encountered that she created a Facebook page entitled 'We love the legend of City Centre'.
Hanan, 19, a third year banking and finance student at BIBF, from Sehla, never thought the open group would exceed more than around 60 members from her friends list, but overnight the response was amazing.
She said: "My friend and I noticed him the first time we went to the city centre. He had the biggest smile and the smoothest of waves... and you couldn't help but start smiling too!
"I soon found out that all my friends had noticed him as well and really liked him. I decided he definitely deserved something and created the Facebook group so that others could join and comment on how lovely he is.
"I woke up the next day and was shocked to find 300 people had joined! Within the next four days the site attracted 2,000 people and within a short space of time hit 6,000.
"I thought that would be it ... but a night later it reached more than 8,000 with 914 comments left on the profile page!
"Everyone was taking about how their grandfather, mother, brother, children and wives love to wave back and how they drive as carefully as they can to catch up with Gulzar.
"He is an amazing example of what any human being should be... he is 100 per cent loyal to his work.
"You can roam around any comfortable air-conditioned mall all day long and not get a single genuine smile from anyone that is similar to Gulzar's, and he works outside no matter what the temperature!"
Ever since Gulzar joined the shopping centre 13 months ago, the Bahrain City Centre shopping complex has received a stack of feedback on his amusing mannerisms.
General Manager Derek Rossel said: "We get feedback from our customers on a daily basis. They contact our customer service desk and people even phone me directly! To have customers track down a general manager and offer this kind of feedback is really unheard of and exceptional.
"He has been based in the car park, a tough location, and has done a brilliant job. He is a role model for all our team. I have been working in shopping centres for a long time and have seen a lot of traffic management crews and he has got to be the single best operator I have ever seen.
"He is one in a million and we are very proud of him.
"We try and give a lot of guidelines to our staff and what we expect from them. All the staff strive to do their best and we as managers try to tell them what their responsibilities are.
"Gulzar is the epitome of that. We demonstrated it to him how we want him to operate but then he added all his panache, style and charisma to what he does. He has made a difference."
Visitors amused by his friendliness and hard work have started to shower him with chocolates and tips to show their appreciation.
Gulzar said: "Sometimes people stop their cars and tell me it is a pleasure seeing my happy face and that I please the children as well. Some give me small gifts and so on.
"When I wave at the mall visitors, I like to smile as well. Seeing me smile, makes them smile, parents and their children, and that pleases me."
Gulzar hails from Mirpur in Pakistan, and had been in the army for 20 years before retiring in 2004.
He then joined the Muslim Commercial Bank for four years before being offered a job by Batsco Security Services which is commissioned to carry out the mall's security.
Anudeep Beniwal, the centre's senior operations manager, explained: "He was offered the job by the general manager of Batsco who was an ex colonel in the Pakistan Army. And, with Gulzar's army background, he was trusted to do a good job here."
For Gulzar the move to Bahrain meant being able to save money for his children's education.
He said: "I have two daughters aged 10 and 15 and one son aged 17, all of whom go to school. I wasn't able to complete my education but I want my children to finish theirs."
Facebook fans have also started collecting money so that they can buy him something for Eid as a token of appreciation for his hard work and high spirits.
Other security staff are also following Gulzar's example and it is hoped the smile culture could soon swamp the kingdom.
