Khalil S Journey
Khalil’s Journey: Not the Tail of an Average Man
Our story of our protagonist opens in 1983 when the elderly Khalil is lying in Groote Schuur Hospital, trying to gather his memories to “make a good yarn”, or story although no one is there to hear it (p.2). We soon find that his end in this life is imminent, and what follows is his journey from birth to childhood, adolescence and adulthood in the Cape Muslim community, and returning in the end to the scene at his demise in the hospital.
After this prologue, the tale starts in 1903, when Khalil is still in his mother’s womb. Khalil’s Father has passed away and Amina, Khalil’s mother is left to raise the boy alone. Amina is faced with challenges as a young mother, that involve economic and societal pressures, as well as major tuberculosis issues that arise the attention of the District Surgeon as she is eventually pulled from her home and away from baby-Khalil. Khalil is then raised by his extended family, the Monsoors who attempt to provide a fair education and childhood for Khalil and enroll him into Prince Edward Primary. As Khalil grows older, the economically strapped Monsoor family struggles to provide enough for the Orphan Khalil, and forces him onto another extension of Khalil’s family, Farzana and Rizwana Khan. Farzana renames Khalil Bhai, which subsequently symbolizes a completely new livelihood for Khalil; he becomes an apprentice of the Khans’ convenience store, and is surrounded by an urban atmosphere on ‘Woodstock Main Road where the Khans lived in their apartment above their convenience store’(p.52). As Khalil reaches the early stages of teenage adolescence, news from India in regards to the health of Rizwan’s Mother notify the Khans. The R. Khan convenience store was shut up as Rizwan, Farzana, and Bhai all headed for Mombasa on a hulking steamer (p.66). In India, after the long and arduous journey across the Indian Oceam, the three finally made it to Chhatrapati and were slowly but surely
Our story of our protagonist opens in 1983 when the elderly Khalil is lying in Groote Schuur Hospital, trying to gather his memories to “make a good yarn”, or story although no one is there to hear it (p.2). We soon find that his end in this life is imminent, and what follows is his journey from birth to childhood, adolescence and adulthood in the Cape Muslim community, and returning in the end to the scene at his demise in the hospital.
After this prologue, the tale starts in 1903, when Khalil is still in his mother’s womb. Khalil’s Father has passed away and Amina, Khalil’s mother is left to raise the boy alone. Amina is faced with challenges as a young mother, that involve economic and societal pressures, as well as major tuberculosis issues that arise the attention of the District Surgeon as she is eventually pulled from her home and away from baby-Khalil. Khalil is then raised by his extended family, the Monsoors who attempt to provide a fair education and childhood for Khalil and enroll him into Prince Edward Primary. As Khalil grows older, the economically strapped Monsoor family struggles to provide enough for the Orphan Khalil, and forces him onto another extension of Khalil’s family, Farzana and Rizwana Khan. Farzana renames Khalil Bhai, which subsequently symbolizes a completely new livelihood for Khalil; he becomes an apprentice of the Khans’ convenience store, and is surrounded by an urban atmosphere on ‘Woodstock Main Road where the Khans lived in their apartment above their convenience store’(p.52). As Khalil reaches the early stages of teenage adolescence, news from India in regards to the health of Rizwan’s Mother notify the Khans. The R. Khan convenience store was shut up as Rizwan, Farzana, and Bhai all headed for Mombasa on a hulking steamer (p.66). In India, after the long and arduous journey across the Indian Oceam, the three finally made it to Chhatrapati and were slowly but surely