By the end of the 20th Century, many of Kerala's male population worked in the Gulf Countries. Poverty and unemployment were the push factors for the 'Gulf Boom' in the 1970s and 1980s. Business was booming on the other side of the Arabian Sea, and petroleum was hitting record levels. Soon, sob stories started appearing about the abuse and pathetic living conditions amongst the Kerala Gulf diaspora.

In 2008, a Malayali writer, Benyamin, narrated the trials and tribulations of Najeeb Muhammad, a Malayali guest worker stranded in Riyadh airport. Not knowing Arab, Najeeb innocently followed an Arab man he assumed was his employer. His initial contract was for him to work as a cashier in a supermarket. Instead, he ended up herding hundreds of goats in the middle of the desert. He had no living quarters, time off, food, or pay. For more than two years, he had not seen any living soul except for his 'owner' and the owner's brother. He was scrutinised and beaten up every time they did something they did not like or tried to escape. In simple terms, he was a bonded slave. He had no dignity and lived with the goats. He was denied water to wash himself and even a change of clothes.

Before and after pictures.

The Malayalam true story became a bestseller and was translated into eight languages. It is currently in its 130th edition. Of course, it was banned in the Gulf States as it depicted Arabs as barbaric. Of course, an Arab also helped him to safety when Najeeb finally found the courage (and a friend) to escape.

Now, before jumping the gun and condemning Islamic clerics for never openly condemning slavery, one should remember that all Muslim countries, in accordance with the UN Charter, ban slavery in any form. All ancient belief systems have accepted the presence of slaves in their societies. It is common knowledge that slaves were given free status when they converted to the religion of the ruler or invading army. People are people everywhere; they want to dominate others.

Author Benyamin and Najeeb

When the British banned the transatlantic slave trade, it was done under a different name. As the French benefitted immensely from the slave-intensive sugarcane plantations in the Caribbean, Napoleon even legalised slavery there. It ended with the Haitian slave revolt and their declaration of Independence in 1804. In the USA, the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution effectively ended slavery in 1865.

Even in this age and time, we hear of maids enduring slave-like living conditions in both first-world and third-world nations. A sliver of hope suddenly convinces us that humanity has not died. We pacify ourselves; we all love our fellow humans, only to be slapped with gruesome stories of abused maids. Surprisingly, we treat our pets with more dignity.

(P.S. I think the filmmakers were trying to make Prithviraj, the main actor, do a Tom Hank role—as in 'Cast Away'—to emphasise the desolation and hopelessness of being stuck in the vast desert. Unfortunately, it did not turn out as such. The director thought it was necessary to include song numbers to drive home the point of what a good time he had back home with his wife. I do not think it worked here. By the way, Najeeb would not have left if it was all hunky dory back home.)

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Friday, 5 March 2021

Just a file number?

Liar's Dice (Hindi; 2013)
Netflix

A good 10 years ago, as the mass rail transit tracts were being constructed, amidst all the chaos of redirection of traffic, a restless driver overtook me as I was carefully manoeuvring my vehicle through the diversions. He barged into a blockade and collided head-on with a general worker who happened to just minding his own business, clearing some debris. I saw him being flung into mid-air, landing on his back after doing a full-body somersault. From my rear mirror, I could see the victim lie motionless as the driver alight his car to attend to the victim.

That incident left an uneasy feeling within me the next few days that followed. I often wondered what thoughts went through his mind just before he was hit. Was he thinking of his young daughter, whom he had not seen or wondered how she would react to the present that he had bought? Maybe he was just going back home for Eid? Or was he thinking of pleasant memories of his childhood? I also wondered what things would be found in his body when he brought to the hospital; maybe his wife's portrait, his child's father, his dream house.

Imagine, after all the debt, sacrifices, sweat and tears, he is just to return home in a body bag, with shattered dreams, broken bones and fractured bonds. Is it all worth it? Did his sacrifices alter the path of the family? Did all the penances push his family up the ladder of affluence? Or is he just another file number in the statistics of human casualties in the chase to make Malaysia a developed nation?

In a way, this film may give an account of the aggrieved family members of the above example. Kamala has not heard from her husband for the last five months. Her husband had gone off to work in town previously. Kamala lives in the interiors of India, bordering China, with her three-year-old daughter.

The daily phone calls just stopped abruptly, and her calls went into voicemail. Despite reassurances from friends and neighbours, she had a gut feeling that something was not right. One day Kamala took the bold move to go out to town to search for her husband herself. With a little money, her daughter and a kid (a young goat), she embarked on a long journey searching for her husband at the last given address.

The trip appears to be not as straight forward as she thought. Encountering shady characters at every corner and conman at every turn, she wonders if Nawazuddin, a dice-throwing gambler, is just another fraud with tricks up his sleeves?

A slow-moving intense low budget drama that brings out human emotions and transports the viewers into a breathtaking spectacle of the outdoors and the scrutiny of the back lanes, as well as the not so savoury glimpse of India that most visitors would give a miss.

(P.S. The running around looking for the missing husband reminds me of a Japanese cartoon that my sisters and I use to enjoy in our childhood - 3000 Leagues in search of Mother, where an Italian boy goes on a long journey to find his mother in Argentina.)

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.