I reared goats abroad

When I was sitting in my cabin in office, I was surprised to see a man in brisk white jibba (an unique attire) with a big identity card hanging displaying "I reared goats abroad", carrying a suitcase with the same details.

He is Mr. Seran, a skilled tailor. In his early youth stage he was lured to Saudi Arabia by the words of the fake agents. People from rural areas are sent to various places for a mere commission of Rs. 5000 per person. Human traffic is in alarming rate. Even educated people are no exemption to this trap. This man who completed SSLC but skilled in tailoring (was earning Rs. 4000 per month by engaging four persons in his own shop) was excited to go abroad. He even dreamed of getting 20,000 - 30,000 per month. To fulfill his dream he sold what all he had - land, jewels and all resources, even got loans from money lenders to fly abroad, as he had to live in Mumbai for six months. Then he was successful to fly to Saudi Arabia.

He says, the only happiest hours were the hours which I flew in flight. He was received by the landlord for goat rearing. He could hear people talking "Here comes the goat rearer". He was shocked to know that his visa also said the same. He was warned by many terrible things if any initiates were taken to escape or act against the owner. He decided to submit to the authority.

His daily routine was like this - gets up at 5 am and he must be ready for goat rearing by 7 am. He must complete his breakfast containing Tamees. His daily ration is one Tamees (in picture) and little quantity of lentils (daal), five liters of water. Night he has to cook on its own. He was given 35 brisk white jibba as soon as he joined for work. His logic of his generosity is -  the dress will act as an indicator of whether he sat / slept somewhere while grazing. He was grazing the herds in desert, grazing not to feed grasses but to keep the animals walking to maintain their stamina. The livestock will be fed with nutrition feed ignoring the health condition of the man who grazed the animals. The owners had no sympathy at all. Being an Islam some day he may be giving some left overs to him in the month of Ramadan. This went for three years. After he completed his tenure of work, his last month salary was not paid to him instead his return tickets was purchased with that. You know what his salary was? 450 Riyal! (about Rs. 5000 which includes his food expenses too), which is not enough to have even a decent meal.

He returned homeland and decided to act against human trafficking.  From that day (now 10 years have rolled) he wears the attire,   identity card and carries the suitcase and turned into an activist. He was independently walking a lot, counselling students and youngster warning them not to be attracted by the false hope the agents.  Usually any foreign return person will be proud of working abroad and tell stories of luxury, where would have worked one of such 3D (Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult) jobs. It is rare to see such personalities to admit reality and attempt to stop those heading towards disaster. Hats off to such noble personalities. If the youngsters head to his advise, they can live a dignified life in their homeland itself and the nation would have less brain drain.

He dedicated his life for this purpose. Cheran can be reached by aaduseran@gmail.com. He is President of Meetppu Trust, working mainly on awareness among unskilled laborers and rescue the suffering migrants in alien land.