Review of Benyamin’s ‘Goat Days’

“After all it is only hope that makes a man go forward”, said he who had faced the misfortunes worth suffering a thousand lives, Najeeb. In the dreary deserts, with only the sands visible to the faintest eyes, grazing the horizons and beyond, the life of any Malayali who had come to the Gulf land with far fetched dreams; their lives can only be far from fathomable. ‘Goat Days’ poses as a mirage of that harsh truth. Under the veil of luxuries and moolah of the Arabian world lies the cloaked plight of these hapless men, cajoled by the knot they’ve let themselves get entangled in, yet apprehensive of the very chance of breaking free, lest they meet a greater catastrophe on the journey back. 

Beginning with the aspirations of any young married man of the 90s, proceeding onto his tryst with the austere realities of the Arab world; the anguish, pain, suffering, wrath, caress, love, death and ultimately defeatism, this poignant novel will make one contemplate the arcane insecurity of a human — the purpose of his very existence. Enduring misery in the lone planet that he believes he is in, with none to share a beautiful sight with, is one of the greatest sorrows of life, recounts Najeeb; exposing the painstaking secret dolour of our conscience yet again. 

As Najeeb wades through the flood of torments that deluge upon him, his mind in the company of Allah, his dear Hakeem and the saviour in disguise of a modern-day ‘Achates’ Ibrahim — the one that would read in between the lines, throbbing each second, would be us, the fortunates. All said and done, for definite, there exists no parallel for Benyamin’s master story-telling finesse. To reproduce a real life story with words spun into like that of a coronal of flowers, devoid of adulteration —that, only a genuine writer can. Proving his point conspicuously, through the pages of his sanctified work, Benyamin gives us the promising outlook that he’d never disappoint. As I said, this tale, is a reflection of ourselves —not the adorned physicality we’ve been exhibiting around, rather, expounding the real being in us, the woes of a human.