Expatriate writer publishes 3rd Novel

The Gulf Today reports on UAE-based Indian author Mujeeb Jaihoon’s third novel—a historical fiction exploring themes of identity, belonging.

By Muhammad Yusuf, The Gulf Today, 19-09-2004

JAIHOON (pen name of Mujeeb Rahman, Sharjah-based writer) has come out with his third novel The Cool Breeze From Hind. His first two books were Egoptics and Henna for the Heart.

“As the world continues to expand in knowledge, breaking the man-made idols of political boundaries, the modern mind is getting narrower day by day. He fails to accommodate others’ views and beliefs, let alone give them respect.”

“The dilemma situation is that when one is in love with his own culture, he develops prejudice against others’. Or he neglects his own heritage and his eye glitters with others’. Very few can dare to remain firm in one’s own convictions, and simultaneously appreciate the diversity in human societies.”, says Jaihoon. The Cool Breeze appreciates both “sand dunes (Arabia) and paddy fields (Kerala, India).

An Indo-Arabian writer, Jaihoon specializes in what is called expat writing. Indian expatriates in Arabia, unlike their counterparts in the West, are unique because they are not permanent residents here.

One day they have to make their way back home. Since they could not put down their roots in their adopted countries in the Gulf, half their mind is always turned to India. This is a fact, however long their innings here or however deep their love for their host countries.

But they pick up memories. They add this to the remembrances of their mother country. They fuse these experiences in their works. Jaihoon’s Cool Breeze belongs to this genre. The book was launched on Aug. 3, Calicut, Kerala, India by Sayyed Iqbal Hasanain, vice-chancellor of Calicut University.