nair later the migrant hero now an arriviste puffed with money and arrogance returns home to find that he is a misfit everywhere these two films bookend an array of celluloid migrant stories including the visually delectable perumazhakkalam 2004 later made in hindi as dor and at least two films with political subplots the classic satire varavelpu 1989 was the tragicomic story of a jobless gulf migrant returning home dreaming of love and mango pullisseri only to be faced with the greed of his moneygrubbing family he sets up a small transport business that union bullies scupper he now has no choice but to return to the harsh marubhumi desert arabikatha did the reverse sent hardcore leftist cuba mukundan to the gulf and teaches him that humanism is above ideologydesert storiesif you get the zimbly jokes you get why each of deepak unnikrishnans short stories in temporary people is a chabter and why there is one story dedicated to a fone evocative rich and funny the 2017 book spoke of the migrant experience in a land of guest workers where you can never be a citizen unnikrishnan is a second generation of such temporary people and his experience of the gulf is more settled confident and less homewardlooking than most such writingthe biggest gulf saga so far was aadujeevitham or goat days 2008 by benyamin a malayali who worked in bahrain the horrors of a hapless jobseeker caught in a slave racket that lands him in a remote desert ranch in saudi arabia the book catapulted benyamin into literary fame the book soon to be a movie incidentally stranded the prithvirajled film crew in jordan through the pandemic that has brought thousands of gulf malayalis back home