GOAT DAYS

 GOAT DAYS

                                   -Benyamin

Introduction
        Benyamin is a famous Indian novelist and short story writer in Malayalam language from Nhettur, Kulanada, near Pandalam of the south Indian state of Kerala. He has lived in the Kingdom of Bahrain since 1992, from the age of twenty, and his works appear regularly in Malayalam publications in Kerala. His orginal name is Benny Daniel and Benyamin is his Pen name.

 Benyamin has written 17 books so far, including memoirs and short story collections and the main theme of his novel is Christianity and the Middle East. Benyamin, the author of the humongous bestseller Aadujeevitham (Goat Days) that has gone into its 100th print run in Malayalam.His 2011 novel, Manjaveyil Maranangal, which has sold over 40,000 copies, has now been translated into English as Yellow Lights of Death (Penguin Random House) by Sajeev Kumarapuram. The novel won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2009, was shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature and longlisted for the Man Asian Literature Prize.  In malayalam book is published in the year, 15 July 2008 and in English 1 July 2012.
His other famous work are Abeesagin, Pravachakanmarude Randam Pustakam, Akkapporinte Irupatu Nasrani Varshangal, Manja Veyil Maranangal. He got many awards and honours. In 2009 he received  Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award, for the novel Goat Days and in 2012, Man Asian Literary Prize, longlist, Goat Days.

Brief Summary
  The novel is based on real-life events depicting the life of Najeeb Muhammad, an Indian emigrant going missing in Saudi Arabia. Najeeb's dream was to work in the Persian Gulf states and earn enough money to send back home. But, he achieves his dream only to be propelled by a series of incidents into a slavelike existence herding goats in the middle of the Saudi desert. In the end, Najeeb contrives a hazardous scheme to escape his desert prison. The book is divided into four parts (Prison, Desert, Escape and Refuge). Najeeb Muhammad, the protagonist of the novel, a young man from Arattupuzha near Haripad, Kerala state. He is a poor, illegal sand miner from Kerala dreams of going to the Gulf and earning big bucks, just like millions of his Malayali compatriots. He is newly married and dreams of a better work in any of the Persian Gulf states. He is given the chance when the brother-in-law of a friend has "a visa for sale". Najeeb pledges his home and all his wealth to buy the visa and make the journey to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

     However, at the King Khalid International Airport, he gets trapped and is taken away by a rich Arab animal farm supervisor to his farm. He is being used as a "slave" labourer and shepherd and is assigned to look after goats, sheep and camels for almost three and half years in the remote deserts of Saudi Arabia. He is forced to do backbreaking work, is kept half-hungry and is denied water to wash and suffers unimaginably.Denied the use of any water for sanitation or bathing, he is given just enough food to survive. He is regularly beaten and his life is spent in the stinking animal pens, herding them, feeding them, milking them and walking them. His 'Goat Days' have begun. The farm's brutal supervisor keeps Najeeb in control with a gun and binoculars and frequently beats him with a belt.Najeeb does not find himself a worker on a construction crew, as he had imagined. He finds himself in the middle of nowhere, on a goat farm:

    

 I lived on an alien planet inhabited by some goats, my arbab an me.

    In a country where he does not know the language, places or people, he is far away from any human interaction. Najeeb steadily starts to identify himself with the goats. He considers himself as one of them. His dreams, desires, avenges and hopes starts to become one with them. He talks to them, eats with them, sleeps with them and virtually lives the life of a goat. Still he keeps a ray of hope which will bring freedom and end to his sufferings some day.
Finally one night with the help of Ibrahim Khadiri, a Somalian worker in the neighbouring farm, Najeeb Muhammed and his friend Hakeem elopes from the horrible life to freedom. But, the trio fumbles across the desert for days, and young Hakeem dies of thirst and fatigue. Finally, Ibrahim Khadiri and Najeeb manage to find their way to Al-Bathaa, Riyadh, where Najeeb gets himself arrested by the Regular Police in order to get deported to India. Najeeb spends several months in the Sumesi Prison before being put on a plane to India by the Saudi Arabian authorities and thus he come back to Kerala.
  Najeeb finds himself in a situation that, in its outlines, resembles one he always dreamed of -- yet when it becomes reality:

I realized how painfully distant it was from my dreams. We shouldn't dream about the unfamiliar and about what only looks good from afar. When such dreams become reality, they are often impossible to come to terms with.

Critical Review
     When sorrows fill our thoughts tears spill out. When life spill out from a book the reader get its tears. Benyamin's 'Goat Days' is one such book which is full of life which spill tears from our eyes; which will fill our minds with thoughts, help us to appreciate the conditions we live in and look at life on a positive note. More than this, the book will raise the humanity in an individual to sympathise to a fellow human's suffering.
Penguin Books India's introduction describes the novel as "the strange and bitter comedy of Najeeb’s life in the desert" and "a universal tale of loneliness and alienation".
The novel is written in a first person, conversational style, the language feels simplistic when read in English. But one gets the feeling that the lines were probably more pleasing and intricate in the original Malayalam. The reader is transported with Najeeb into that slavery. His fate quickly becomes our own, for we have to dwell with him and his suffering. The desert and isolation overcome us, and so does the drowning feeling that Najeeb will never escape this misery. So when he does get the chance, finally, and nearly refuses to take it, we clench our jaws and goad him for the loss of “the urge to escape.”
The book almost has two angles. On one hand, it is a simple story about a Malayali being taken to the Gulf under false pretexts and being abused by his Arab master. It is an engaging read even if that's all you get out of it. The daily struggles and grand escape attempt of Najeeb will keep you turning the pages. On the other hand the book is also about how Najeeb dealt with his loneliness, his broken dreams and his pain. The pull of this angle to the story is that it is told without any gimmick or trope.  Najeeb's connections with the animals that are ironically, and innocently, the reason for his bondage are the highlight of the tale. One does get the feeling that if we were in his place, this is probably how we would have dealt with it also. And that is how the tale gets to you. At 253 pages of widely spaced text, it is not a particularly long or heavy book, which makes it perfect for a journey or a day at home.
Somewhat disappointingly, an 'Author's note' at the conclusion explains that Najeeb's is a true story -- Benyamin eventually insisting: "This is not just Najeeb's story, it is real life". Suggesting that the novel is, in fact, fictionalized reportage, with Benyamin merely assuming Najeeb's voice,. Goat Days doesn't need the justification of being based on real events, and could stand well enough on its fictional own; it's clear enough that whatever it is based on it reflects real conditions and experiences. An unusual worker's-tale from the Gulf States where, instead of (technological) modernity, building and consumer frenzies, and oil-related activity one is confronted almost only with the most desolate of rural locales, Goat Days is an interesting slice of Saudi life -- but one that also reaches far beyond its specifics, much of the novel's strength coming from how universal the tale is (even as few actually experience what Najeeb did, at work, in the desert, and in prison).

Conclusion
   'Goat Days' is credited for heralding a second wave in Malayalam literature, as well as for introducing a lot of the younger generation to the reading life. Benyamin is humbled by the letters he receives from young readers, a large number of them asking him one question – what should I read next? Reading, he says, is a bit like climbing a staircase. We all grow as readers with every book we read. A book that didn’t agree with us the first time round might have become really meaningful if we had read it at a later point in our lives. “Let Aadu Jeevitham only be the first step,” Benyamin usually tells them.
   The writer spoke at length about books that left a deep impression in him at different stages of his life as a reader. Based on a true story, Aadu Jeevitham is the heart rending true story of Najeeb who migrates to Saudi Arabia and is unwittingly enslaved by his abusive employer. The book has an 'Alchemist' look at places and it borrows an idea or two from the 'Secret'. Then it will be wrong to say it got inspired from the Alchemist where Alchemist is a pleasant journey where 'Aadujeevitham' is a journey through the road of flames. The books cover says, 'all lives which we didn't experienced are fables for us'. One has to read the book to experience the pluses of it as words may fall short to explain it.
     The book is a garland of emotions. One cannot read it without personally involve in the reading and feel for the characters. The book leaves us in the middle of the desert and we see a world which is never heard before. Life of the desert opens before the reader to whom there is nothing left but to get astonished.