Displacement and Narrative: The Desert as a Diasporic Space of Existence in the Goat Days by Benyamin

Emerson in his essay ‘Experience’ brings forth the idea of the cosmological relation between the universe and the human being. What we perceive as truth is not the reality because it exists in space and it is not an absolute entity. But Life – from minute particles, sub atoms, plants, animals, humans – creates the environment and the universe. Universe is the complete spatio temporal logic of the individual self. Thus from the mist to man-made things we try to understand and give meaning to ourselves and to the world around us.


Introduction
The place of exile is often regarded as a desert-an unfriendly, hostile, dry, dangerous, empty, naked, rough and endless landscape. The desert as a metaphor is often described as a landmark that can never be mapped and where nothing grows. It is a space of unparallel lives and meaningless values. Benyamin's Goat days analyses the desert as a space of asserting faith, brotherhood and love for humanity at large. Najeeb, narrator and protagonist of the novel calls his life in the desert "a cocooned existence" (135), a lonely being with no sense of time. The SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 125 novel can be rightly called "a desert odyssey" (201). Najeeb says that the desert never gave him any kind of spiritual enlightenment but looking at the novel closely one can find that his life in the desert is a kind of spiritual lesson of faith and perseverance. It is a journey of understanding, motivation and creating self-consciousness. Thus Najeeb's life narrative is a desert odyssey of will, strength and prayer. It purgates the reader's soul with questions of existence, fate, destiny and God. So, truly this desert saga has a spiritual significance.

Transnationalism and Migration
Globalization has marked an existence of borderless economies between nations losing the significance of nations and nationalities; instead creating nation-states.  Transnationalism can be further distinguished as "transnationalism from above" and "transnationalism from below".( Guarnizo and Smith 1998) The former refers to crossborder activities conducted by governments and corporations , while the latter encompasses activities of immigrants and grassroots entrepreneurs. Focusing on "transnationalism from below" allows us to capture the local and specific dynamics of power relations in the transnational arena.
In the sphere of transnationalism, there is linkages or multiple memberships either with another nation state or with any other social institution such as religious groups, political organization or families. These linkages are differently named as forms of being and forms of belonging which people combine in different ways within transnational social fields. Ways of being refers to the actual social relations and practices that individuals engage in rather than to the identities associated with their actions. They have the potential to act or identify at a particular time because they live within the social field. In contrast, ways of belonging refers to practices that signal or enact an identity which demonstrates a conscious connection to a particular group. These actions are not symbolic but concrete, visible actions that mark belonging, thus combining action and an awareness of identity that action signifies. In other words, the experience of the migrants is simultaneously in the middle; integration within societies of receiving countries while also maintaining a strong link with their places of origin. Migration flows influence the local context structure at local, regional and national levels.

Existence of a Migrant as a 'Goat'
The Gulf attracted the labour market from continents during the oil boom of the 1970s.
Especially migrants from South-Asia were the first beneficiaries of the petro-dollar driven economies. The migration studies extol the 'push -pull' process; that is unfavourable conditions between the burning sands and freezing nights, wracked by loneliness and finding no way to escape, the narrative provides a stunned response of an immigrant to survive. Najeeb's story is a chilling account of the extreme subjugation of body and mind, a journey into darkness that could easily lead to defeat or self-annihilation but for the existence of that third entity-the spirit.
Najeeb's first response to the job is fear, sorrow, anger and hunger. But later he accepts the life and the surroundings, makes the desert goat farm a 'locality'. He is able to create a structure of feeling, a property of life trying to establish a home. He tries to identify himself with the only other living beings on the ranch except the arababcamels and goats. Especially with the goats-helping a pregnant goat, naming the new born lamb, caring and sharing with the goats ,even sleeping with them. He gradually "accustomed to an uncommon situation."(104) Najeeb recalls the secret wish he had when he was a child-that he wanted to become a shepherd; "to saunter with flocks of goats through meadows and hillsides. To pitch one's tent everyday in a narrator when he was in Kerala was a sand diver who chose to spend from dawn to dusk in the river. But when he reaches Riyadh and later to the masara, Najeeb is astounded by the vastness of the desert as he calls it, "a sterile wasteland." (74) Bruce Chatwin in his book The Songlines a half-fictionalized travelogue says that man was born in the desert, and by returning to the desert he rediscovers himself. the narrator also reinvent himself after walking and understanding the desert. Eventhough we may not see greenery in the desert it is also a hub of life, it has an ecosystem. That is why Najeeb later calls it a forest, swarming with living beings. Travelling is a mode of finding a way home and also understanding the self. Every displaced migrant travels from his home country to his host country. This kind of a displacement gives the migrant a cultural competence of accepting the other life in the diasporas of existence. Najeeb too in the masara develops a kind of responsibility in taking charge of his duty and that's how he survive under the harsh conditions.
Najeeb's account of the winter in the desert propels the optimism of the downtrodden and subjugated other that there is a day for everyone: " Winter was also the time when I learned that it was impossible to wipe out life on this earth whatever man's misdeeds" (144) after months SMART MOVES JOURNAL IJELLH e-ISSN: 2582-3574 p-ISSN: 2582-4406 VOL. 8, ISSUE 11, NOVEMBER 2020 www.ijellh.com 131 of scorching heat in the desert finally when it rains a green carpet is laid on the sand. He also learn a lesson about life: The realization that those plants and animals had been lying quietly-preserving their lives, withstanding the heat of the desert-filled me with delight…. Those plants taught me life's great lessons of hope. They whispered to me: Najeeb, adopted son of the desert, like us , you too must preserve your life and wrestle with this desert. Hot winds and scorching days will pass. Don't surrender to them. (144-145) Najeeb's escape from the desert is only because of his patience to wait for the appropriate time. Even he realizes his abode in the masara as a safe place: "Every prison has its own aura of safety. I didn't feel up to bursting that bubble of security." (141) Najeeb's waiting come to an end when a third one came to the midst of Najeeb and Hakim; Ibrahim Khadiri from Somalia. He knew the desert before and agreed to help them to escape from there.
The philosopher Alain de Botton signifies the existence of desert as a space of sublime experience. The sublime is a feeling of powerlessness being aroused in places of extreme natural beauty: deserts, glaciers, mountains and canyons. When one comes in contact with these places one would rather be wonder struck than appreciate the beauty of the place. These spaces of vast voidness illustrate the reality and truth of basic human nature. As de Botton himself puts it rightly; that the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves. Our perception and knowledge of knowing this world is minimal when we encounter natural spaces of less survival. Najeeb had to suffer throughout the exodus in the desert, the only consolation is the help and support of Ibrahim Khadiri. Khadiri knows the desert by heart; he can understand the tad changes of the vast ocean of sand. Their escape before the sand wave and his Najeeb's life as a migrant and his escape from the torture in a foreign land can be seen as a transnational experience. The multi-local life-world or the transnational social life has a set of conditions in the construction, negotiation and reproduction of social identities. Najeeb's identity of being a shepherd in the desert is positioned well off because of the perceived belonging in the space of attachment. Thus Najeeb's adaptation in the desert is due to his inherent perception of belonging to the space of existence and to attain this he was helped by the goats.
Immanuel Kant's views on space and time discloses the fact that space is not something objective or real instead it is subjective and ideal and originates from the mind's nature , for coordinated everything externally.

Conclusion
Space does not merely produce a background for cultural arrangements rather it is an integral part of cultural and political processes. This extends beyond 'space' as the bone of contention of territorial struggles, beyond questions of cultural location and beyond spatial metaphors of resistance. The transnational life of Najeeb has been implausible in the sense that, he never had any sort of communication with his family, or his workplace was never a place of economical advantage , nor he had any friends . The life of Najeeb in the Arabab's farm , rather than the slave content of the last century are close to the apperception of a 'new migrant' of this century.