AADUJEEVITHAM - BOOK REVIEW BY NITHYA

AUTHOR : BENYAMIN

                 Aadujeevitham is a novel portraying the real life of Najeeb who was a migrant worker in Saudi Arabia. My father bought this book for me to read. On this occasion, I would like to thank him for giving me such a wonderful book. This novel made me understand the real problems of people working abroad. When I started reading the book, I had many expectations, whether the novel is about goats or the life of a person which is like goats.

                 The story tells us about the life of Najeeb who went abroad to fulfill the small dreams in his life, leaving his pregnant wife at home. But unfortunately, instead of reaching Riyadh, he reaches a goat rearing farm somewhere in Saudi Arabia. He gets trapped by the supervisor who is shown as a brutal and cruel man. Najeeb was forced to look after the goats. He was starving quite a lot and at other times, he was given 'khubboos' and cold water. He did not have many clothes to wear. He was not allowed to take baths as the supervisor considered it as a waste of water. As a whole, I felt that he was not even getting the considerations that the goats got. His job was to take the goats to the nearby hilly area to feed them. He spends almost all his time with the goats, eating and sleeping with them. Nobody was there to speak with him. The only Keralite was a truck driver whom he met very rarely. So he found satisfaction himself by speaking with the goats. He assigned names to each goat and spoke to them. He wrote letters to his wife though he knew that he couldn't send them. He never wrote the hardships he faced in these letters. He tried his level best to withstand and survive through all the difficulties he faced and never tried to commit suicide. He was surrounded by the vast desert and he tried to find shelter, even behind stones. Whenever he tried to escape from there, he was caught by the supervisor. Najeeb feels that he has become a goat, living with the goats. Finally, he escapes from there.

                     This is a real life story and I cannot even start to imagine how hard it would have been. This is a book that brings tears to the eyes of the reader. There are many people who go abroad, legally or illegally, who fall in the traps of heartless agents and merciless job providers. The cover of the book quotes, "All life which we didn't experience are just fables for us." One gets to experience the pulse of a person who suffered a lot in the desert, by reading this book. I highly recommend everyone to read this novel, Aadujeevitham.