Saturday, 22 February 2014

Abu Qais and Saad



Apart from the social and financial difference between Abu Qais and his friend Saad, the latter seems to be a privileged character in that he ‘emigrated’ to Kuwait, a process that seems orderly and respectable. He must have had to bear expenses for it but that narrative is never presented to us; Saad emerges as the respectable migrant who enjoys a job as a driver and comes back with “sacks of money”. Abu Qais on the other hand has to be “smuggled” into Kuwait, a term that immediately derives negative connotations such as secrecy and illegality. He has to suffer humiliation while negotiating a fair with the fat man and is unsure about his safe arrival in the country. The term “emigrate” also has no hints of dependency on the other and therefore, Saad in his easy transition to Kuwait is enjoying a stable life there. Abu Qais on the other hand has to depend on other people to be “smuggled” out of Basra. For one, it is his friend who presents him with the idea, reminding him of his prevalent pathetic condition in “Ten years have passed and you live like a beggar”. Secondly and more importantly, Abu Qais also has to suffer humiliation at the hands of the fat man while negotiating a fare for the smuggling process. He is also unsure about whether or not he will safely arrive in Kuwait after a tedious journey, something that Saad again does not have to worry about as he is well-settled in the new country.
Apart from this, Saad also has the privilege of knowing what Kuwait looks like and through this knowledge he bereaves Abu Qais of romanticizing Kuwait as the land of opportunity that he imagines it to be. While he pictures “men and women, and children running between the trees” there Saad shuns the imaginative faculty saying that such things “exist in your head”. Trees are important for him as he yearns for olive shoots and can only make a living out of them. But through Saad’s announcements of there being no trees in Kuwait, Abu Qais is deprived of even the opportunity or hope to see him and his family happily living in the new country. His imagination of a better future is put to a stop.

No comments:

Post a Comment