Name: Goat Days
Rating: 4.375 (4 reviews)
ISBN: 9780143416333

Benyāmin

Joseph Koyippally

Winner of the Kerala Literary Academy Award in 2009.

Goat Days

"Shuf... shuf...' the arbab prompted me to look through it. I was curious. I was holding a pair of binoculars for the first time in my life. I looked through its twin lenses. Oh, how clear everything looksi I marvelled. Objects that were kilometres away appeared so near, so clear. Even the marks on the goats were plainly visible. I looked all around. I was happy. 'Shuf?' the arbab asked. I nodded in agreement. He grabbed it from me and took it inside the tent.

Then he lifted up the pillow and drew out a double-barrelled gun. He walked out and aimed at the sky. A bird was flying high up. He aimed at it and fired a shot. Bingo. The bullet hit the bird and it fell. The arbab smirked at me. I was petrified.

and just like that, a bird, the very symbol of freedom, of independence, of a less known privilege, is squashed. Never to witness another breath again.

Everything in this book, describes what a person is capable of doing, given the unwavering faith of their own will, sometimes if not most of the time, masked as a higher power. Sigh. How we always find the grass greener on the other side.

diya

"Shuf... shuf...' the arbab prompted me to look through it. I was curious. I was holding a pair of binoculars for the first time in my life. I looked through its twin lenses. Oh, how clear everything looksi I marvelled. Objects that were kilometres away appeared so near, so clear. Even the marks on the goats were plainly visible. I looked all around. I was happy. 'Shuf?' the arbab asked. I nodded in agreement. He grabbed it from me and took it inside the tent.

Then he lifted up the pillow and drew out a double-barrelled gun. He walked out and aimed at the sky. A bird was flying high up. He aimed at it and fired a shot. Bingo. The bullet hit the bird and it fell. The arbab smirked at me. I was petrified.

'Shuf,' the arbab repeated.

I nodded."

******************

and just like that, a bird, the very symbol of freedom, of independence, of a less known privilege, is squashed. Never to witness another breath again.

Everything in this book, describes what a person is capable of doing, given the unwavering faith of their own will, sometimes if not most of the time, masked as a higher power. Sigh. How we always find the grass greener on the other side.

Goat Days

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