“He realized that any form of pain needed time to turn itself into art… In the cold face of tragedy, in the heat of pain reality, no one could express its gravity in poetry or any other form of art. Time has to work on sense of loss, squeeze the heart over lonely days and nights to churn out art from pain”
– Shamal Days by Sabin Iqbal
Theme –
Solitude has two different interpretations, it sculpts your soul to experience the most beautiful occurrences in the world, it makes you contemplate your existence, Solitude has an immense power to transform you, on the other hand, Solitude turns you cold, rigid, numb, the pain it’s inflicted upon you never fades, it deteriorates your heart and makes you yearn for the beautiful memories.
‘Shamal Days’ by Sabin Iqbal cloaks the second interpretation, this book is petrifying and strikingly veristic. Thinking about the novels I’ve read on expatriates’ issues, those novels intrigued, fascinated and overwhelmed me, but ‘Shamal Days’ emotionally destroyed me. I’m still traveling with Abbas and his regrets. I carry the cumbersome thoughts inside my mind, the thoughts of Abbas, Ratnam, Matt, Abimanyu, ‘Mirror’ magazine, Abdullah and Ed. The characters are flickering inside me.
The pivot of the story
This book unravels the horrifying issues that were happening in 1990s along with the life of our protagonist Abbas, set in Arabian Gulf, the story is told in a haunting, atmospheric narration. Abbas, our protagonist works at a small newspaper ‘Mirror’ in an anonymous country in Arabian Gulf. ‘Mirror’ is a hub of expatriates, the journalists are from different regions, China, India, Africans, Pakistanis. Abbas, who lived a lonely life since his school days, decides to work in Arabian Gulf without settling down in Allepey, his hometown in Kerala, India. Abbas travels with guilts, regrets, longing for those days he’s lost. His dark memories, memories of cheating, subjected to abuse in his childhood and the hoaxer inside Abbas plagues him.
From searching Saddam Hussain and arresting him in the end, the story delineates the political issues alongside the regretful decisions of Abbas. Sabin Iqbal has weaved the convulsing political issues with the disturbing personal life of Abbas. The characters are divergent, repulsive and conflicting. The realistic portrayal of expatriates in the Arabian Gulf is astonishing, the author has also created the backdrop with the Palestinians’ struggles and Zionists’ attack on Palestine, though the author has not extensively portrayed in the novel, the author sends a shiver down our spine in the very first page.
Conclusion
The novel ends with the quest, with a strange determination, the audacity of the few characters are flickering in the end, the novel is certainly a page turner with the Abbas’ interview with Saddam Hussain, the Sheiks in the Arab, the government controlling journalism in a desert country and the unforeseen betrayals of the characters. ‘Shamal Days‘ is haunting and idiosyncratic.
Eduindex 