Benny Benjamin, a leading writer in Malayalam, writes under the pseudonym Benyamin. He has published many Malayalam literary works like Euthanasia, Irunda Vanasthalikal, Abishagin, etc. He has written the novel Goat Days based on a young migrant’s real-life bitter experiences in his diasporic life. The novel, originally written in Malayalam as Aadujeevitam, was later translated into English by Joseph Koyippally as Goat Days in 2012. Benyamin (2013) who has been in Bahrain for several years describes Goat Days as a compilation of his own memories and the experiences of the character Najeeb. Najeeb, like many other youngsters in Kerala, decides to go to a Gulf country for improving the quality of life and to meet the increasing demands of life. The Gulf dream, which is similar to the American dream, sows the seeds of dreams of an ideal land in his and his companion Hakeem’s mind. But everything turns upside down when they are taken from the airport to be slaves. As the novel proceeds, Benyamin describes how Najeeb is constantly tortured and threatened to death by a merciless “arbab” (master) in his workplace. Finally, Najeeb manages to escape from the masara (goat farm) with the help of Ibrahim Khadiri, a “godsend person” who helps Najeeb and Hakeem escape from the masara. The long weary journey through the desert takes the life of Hakeem. Finally, Najeeb reaches the jail and from there his homeland.
In this novel, Benyamin portrays the downsides and challenges in the life of an immigrant. Apart from exposing the common themes of alienation, nostalgia, and homelessness, Benyamin discloses the harsh realities of slavery and further the psychic disposition of the individual. The tension between remembering and forgetting and the use of memory as a tool are notable features of this novel. He also recounts the traumas of leaving home, dealing with a new language, coping with rejection and repression, etc.
Dislocation is a major part of migration. As a result of dislocation, the immigrants experience a kind of estrangement and separation that would further lead to alienation. It suggests a special condition of powerlessness. In Goat Days, Najeeb talks about this helpless condition; in one of his monologues as if to the arbab, he says, “We are two poor things, arbab, who do not know anything at all. Why are you angry with us like this?” (Benyamin 2012, 54).1 Everything in that land is new for him: the arbab, the gun, the language, the masara, the khubus, the goats, the camels, the desert, the climate, the job that is assigned to him, the life situations, and a number of things like this. Thus everything demands massive adjustment on his part. In order to overcome this alienation, he tries to adapt and adjust with the culture of his master. |
