The hero in Skinless Goat in Somalia is Omar, a Somali student, who meets Sunita, the beautiful daughter of his

professor, and the two fall in love and it takes an interesting turn as it jeopardizes the lives of many African students in India. Osmans stay in Jabalpur offered him interesting insights into India. He would tour the villages, interact with the public and share thoughts. In Jabalpur, a Somali student still had curiosity value. That was not to be in Pune, where he moved after one year. The message in the book is that love is borderless. No boundaries, no politics can stand in the way of true love. An experience every foreign student in India might encounter: This is not just about love; it is about two different personalities and their sharing of the cultural differences between Africa and India.

AWES AHMED OSMAN

SKINLESS GOAT IN SOMALIA aWES aHMED OSMAN

Awes A. Osman is a graduate of Fergusson

College of the University of Poona in India. He was born in the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu and completed his high school there at 15 May Secondary school. He landed into the remote town of Japalpur for his search of good and economically reasonable university education. After the first year of B.Sc, Mr.Osman got transferred to Pune where he started concocting the story. On his graduation, Awes Osman has come to start his career life in the Gulf Arab countries UAE, where he completed this book. He now lives in Sweden as a political asylum holder after he fled the civil war in his country. Awes Osman has contributed with many international political articles and is still an active writer.

SKINLESS G OAT IN SOMALIA

A NOVEL

s the train travelled at a high speed, Omar started enjoying the atmosphere. He stretched his right hand and the wind breeze went through his ngers and he enjoyed it. He was sitting a coach at the window side with Ali next to him while Sunita sat in front of him. e compartment was divided into coaches with each one having seats. ere was an old lady with a small girl, two Indian gentlemen in the same coach with Omar group. e train bid farewell to Jabalpur and its messy situation and hit the long journey to Pune. Omar was all smiles. Silence was everywhere except for the two young gentlemen who enjoyed a friendly chat. e train passed dierent places which made the Somali passengers quite awestruck. It passed an open dry desert like area with small green grass and it passed through a tunnel to a huge rocks and mountains which seemed to be designed so as to reect the beauty of the nature. When the train approached a small shanty town, it came to stop at a station. Many vendors sold dierent eatables like peanuts, soft drinks and other eatables. e two young Indians got down from the train to take a break. Omar bought three bottles of soft drinks from the window. His favourite drink, which was energy milk for himself, and two colas for Ali and Sunita. No sooner had they paid for the drinks, the whistle of departure was again heard and the train slowly moved. e fortunate residents of the town occupied the shanty huts as many others made their bedrooms just few meters from the railroad. Everything they had inside their family was apparent to the passengers. ere were other smaller huts with very narrow doors that one wonders how the residents
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enter these huts. ere was a small boy outside one of the huts. e boy was on bare feet, knelt down to defecate and in front of him was a small girl with mud on her ngers. ey were happily playing together. A lady was taking a siesta on a carpet like sheet near the children. She might be taking a rest from the tiring morning, searching for the days bread. Also there was another lady sat on a stool chair and she was combing the hair of a small girl. No sign of discontent on their faces as the train moved. Shanties of similar status and families became visible. e wind started blowing giving the residents of the town a chill to make them feel at peace with nature. Omar let his ngers feel the fresh air. He watched the girl sitting in front of him. He looked at her beautiful eyes. ey reected innocence, honesty and courage. All in one. ree in one person. She abandoned her family, house, education, society and everything Indian for his sake. For the sake of his love. rough the same eyes, he saw himself. ere he was, well dressed and elegant on his way to an unknown destination. He came all the way from Africa to get a university degree and ended up returning with a fair and beautiful girl. What a victory, his parents should be happier, if he presented them to Sunita instead of a one hard paper of a degree. Anyway, there was not much knowledge he would gain from an Indian professor like Mukherji. e train slowed down and stopped at another station. Another team of vendors came near the windows with drinks and eatables. Smokers went out briey to have a smoke. Omar stood up and came out of the train to take a look. ere were groups of people around. Children in a begging operation, led by an old blind man. e old man sang a good song while the children also sang in a beautiful chorus. It was pity that only two passengers felt pity and gave them alms. e whistle was again heard and the begging group hurried out of the train. When Omar went back to his seat, he made sure that Sunita was enjoying the trip. rough the window, he watched the cows and goats grazing the pasture. He thought of their life and experiences. Do they have any problems? Do they worry? Animals! ey live and die easily. No
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psychological problems, among them. ere is no law and governments, no discrimination, no black and white, no minority or majority, no language barriers or religious dierences. Interestingly, there was no jealousy from the inferior against the superior. No, Omar swerved his thinking direction. Since no human being ever had the chance to belong to the animal race and get transferred to human status it would be hard to imagine the exact animal life systems. All the observations that shed light in the internal life of animals are based on not concrete proofs. Is it not the fox that enjoyed the position of the wisest of all animals while lion claimed the dictatorial empire under him? How did they manage to achieve these titles without policy and strategy of understanding or manipulation of power? While Omar was enjoying the reverie, Ali looked the two young gentlemen sitting next to him and one of them was reading a newspaper. His eyes caught at a news headline that gave him a shake. AN AFRICAN STUDENT KILLED IN A FIGHT He requested the gentleman to let him read and passed it to Omar and Sunita. Ali gave back the paper with thanks. e story covered the murder of the Ethiopian student in detail. As the news reached the media, the problem became public and made things dicult for Omar in his adventure to realize his dream. Jama escorted his friends to the railway station. He waited till the train departed and waved a sorrowful goodbye. He took a rickshaw and headed back to Napier town. Even though he was bravely helping his friends to leave Jabalpur safely, he felt insecure. Never did he nor his sister encounter any problem since they began to stay in Napier town. e grocery shop keeper, the vegetable man, the butcher shop owner and the bakery man around the city knew them well and trusted him a great deal. Omar, Ali, Abdirazak and Abdisalam had all left and they had left with an Indian girl, the daughter of a well-known professor. is would denitely provoke anger among the residens of the neighbourhood. How could he and his sister protect themselves, should they be attacked by the goondhas. He started feeling uneasiness and wondered if he was being followed. All the inhabitants of Sadar and its neighbours and
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residents of Napier town were aware that a Somali boy lived there with his sister. Would it not be easy for the gang to locate the house and kill them? Fear lled his being and he asked the rickshaw puller to speed up. Oh God! What safety had he provided for his sister while he was trying to rescue his friends? What if they had already reached the house and were beating up his sister. No, I will not permit this to happen to Sahro. I will kill all of them should they even touch her. e rickshaw pulled up in front of the house and Jama jumped out and run away. e puller shouted after him for the payment. He returned and threw at him some amount and did not know how much he had paid. He knocked at the door and waited for his sister. When there was no response, he opened the door and went inside. His sister normally opened the door pleasantly for him even though she knew he had his keys with him. She used to open the door for him and start telling him the news of the day even before he came in, always joking and laughing. He now started missing it. Sweat started draining down his body, as he suspected that things were not normal. He could not breathe when he saw bloodstains on the ground in the entrance of the room. It was Sahros bedroom. His mouth went dry due to shock. His eyes followed the bloodstains to the room. It led him to the butchers desk. He followed it to the bed where Sahros body lay. ere were three knife stabs in her. One was on the chest, the other on the stomach and third on the shoulder. She might have struggled to escape and bled to death. Jama started wailing loudly but something from behind him stopped him. A hard blow threw him on the oor and a stab slid his chest open and blood owed out of it. Jama fell on top of his sister mixing his blood with hers proving their devoted fraternity. e killer, a top gunman in Krishnas group, believed strongly that he was not only doing an assignment but also a sacred religious duty. He repeatedly stabbed the knife into Jamas body until he died. His partner who was watching the action nodded with excitement. e killer took out a handkerchief and rubbed the sweat from his face. He cleaned the
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