Najeeb Muhammad

Some Lesser Known Facts About Najeeb Muhammad

• Najeeb Muhammad spent his childhood in Arattupuzha, Kerala.

• He used to work as a sand miner in Arattupuzha.

• Najeeb always dreamt of migrating to the Persian Gulf states for better work.

• A friend of Najeeb from Karuvatta informed him that a visa for a Gulf country was on sale. It was the visa of a helper in a construction company in Saudi Arabia.

• A Mumbai-based agent agreed to arrange a visa for Najeeb for Rs. 30,000.

• Najeeb arranged the money for the visa by taking a loan on his house and selling his wife’s gold jewellery. He also borrowed money from his relatives and fellow sand miners.

• He moved to Saudi Arabia in 1992. At that time, his wife was eight months pregnant with their first child.

  

• When Najeeb landed in Saudi Arabia, he was picked up by an Arab man from the airport. Najeeb thought that the Arab man was his Arbab (boss) and went along with him.

• The Arbab took Najeeb to a remote farm in the middle of a desert and handed him over to the farm supervisor.

• He was held as a slave labourer on the farm for almost three years. He worked as a goatherd, tending to goats, sheep, and camels. He looked after 700 goats all by himself.

• Najeeb lived in inhumane conditions at the farm. The farm supervisor used to keep him half-hungry and did not give him water to take a bath. He did not even have a spare dress to change into.

• The supervisor controlled Najeeb with a gun and binoculars and frequently beat him with a belt.

• He was abused to such an extent that he stopped believing that he was human. He started to identify himself as a goat. His dreams of earning money faded away, and he developed a mindset similar to that of the goats. He would talk to the cattle, eat with them, and sleep with them.

• He tried to run away from the farm numerous times, but the supervisor used to catch him and then punished him by denying him food and water.

• He survived eating stale kuboos (Arabic flat bread) with goat’s milk.

• One day, Najeeb and his friend Hakeem successfully escaped the hell-like farm with the help of Ibrahim Khadiri, a Somalian worker in the neighbouring farm.

• While crossing the desert, Hakeem died of thirst and fatigue, but Ibrahim and Najeeb kept moving on.

• Days after, they find an Oasis and take a rest for a few days.

• Ibrahim disappeared on the day they had planned to start moving again. Najeeb continued the journey alone after that.

• One day, Najeeb found a highway, where a kind Arab stopped for him and rode him to Al-Bathaa.

• In Al-Bathaa, Najeeb met Kunjikka, a fellow Malayali who used to help refugees.

• Kunjikka gave food and water to Najeeb and nursed him back to good health.

  

• Once Najeeb started feeling better, he got himself arrested to get deported to India, along with Hameed, whom he had met at Kunjikka’s place.

• Najeeb and Hameed were detained in the Sumesi Prison in Saudi Arabia. His prison number was 13858.

• Arabs used to visit the Sumesi Prison to spot any escaped slaves and take them back. Najeeb and Hameed spent months fearing that their Arabs might show up and take them away.

• One day, Hameed’s Arab appeared and took him away.

• Interestingly, Najeeb’s Arbab spotted him in the prison, but he couldn’t claim Najeeb’s custody because he did not have Najeeb’s visa.

• At that moment, Najeeb realized that he was kidnapped at the airport and exploited as a slave, while the visa was for some other job at some other company.

• He was deported to India in August 1995.

• His son, Safeer, was two years old when he first met his father.

• Najeeb worked as a daily wage labourer for two years.

• Then, he moved to Bahrain in the Middle East, where he worked in a scrap material company for over 20 years. He was given a free visa to Bahrain by his brother-in-law.

• He was felicitated by The Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS).

  

• He left the job and returned to India in 2021 after the Covid-19 pandemic.

• Thereafter, he started living with his wife and daughter in Pattissery, Arattupuzha.

• He worked as a daily wager for a while before becoming a fisherman.

• With his lifelong savings, Najeeb bought five cents of land and constructed a house.

• Inspired by Najeeb’s life, Indian author Benyamin penned the Malayalam novel Aatujeevitham (Goat Days in English) in 2008. The novel went on to become one of the best-selling novels in the history of Malayalam literature. It won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Novel in 2009

  

• Like Najeeb, Benyamin too has worked in Bahrain for years before he established himself as a writer and returned to Kerala. Najeeb’s brother-in-law’s friend Sunil knew Benyamin. It was Sunil who introduced Najeeb to Benyamin.

• Benyamin gave financial help to Najeeb at the time of his daughter’s marriage.

• In 2024, Najeed again came into the spotlight when his biographical novel Aatujeevitham (2008) was adapted into a Malayalam film titled The Goat Life, directed by Blessy. Najeeb’s role was played by Prithviraj Sukumaran in the film.