NB: All photos from our first himalayan trek together at Sandakphu, near Darjeeling in West Bengal.
It was the kind request of prophet Ibrahim (AS) to the ALMIGHTY
that “…so fill some hearts among men with love towards them…” (Quran 14:37).
Believers are always loved and cared by people; or differently put true
believers have such a kind of heart that everyone would like to interact with. I read Kunhiman (Naseem) from this angle. He has done much
things in short span and more importantly many things that we all couldn’t do
or are not concerned about. I understand that Kunhiman is loved because he has
dealt the human relationship part wonderfully and through simply means.
My relationships with him start from childhood and in my
initial memories itself (when I was in 3rd std) he is a man behind
explorations. We used to do science experiments and he used to collect all
kinds of news and special GK notes from all children magazines and papers. I do
remember a vast collection of paper cuttings in his custody and it was nicely
arranged, this was back in 1992& 1993. During 1997, when I was staying at
mother’s house for my high school studies, we used to have daily interactions.
By that time his father (my uncle) was died and I, his sister (Kunhimal) and he
were under the custody of our Grandma (Ummamma). It was the golden time when we
discussed and explored many things. He was regular reader of Hindu daily which
he used to crack using 6/8 volume Malayalam – English dictionary. We used to
play games with english words and he even used to update me new english names.
That time, I used to see paper notes with word meanings. There were lots of discussions
on the current affairs, various scientific topics etc. Being attached to
reading, he used to store newspapers and magazines for years, which made a big
room our home a storage space; and that time he had to face questions from many
one for keeping the rooms filled paper stuff. There was a time when he started collecting all old Malayalam
songs, and discuss the meaning of the song. During those days, he didn’t had the
habit of reading books regularly, rather main concentration was on magazines
and weeklies.
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| With Ghoorkha in Kurseong - people are always craze for him |
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It was the time when he got strong interest in Islamic dawa activities
and started exploring many new things. That was the time when computer and
internet were not available, and he used to talk to many eminent people and
collect articles, video cassettes etc. We used to have hours of long
discussions on various topics on these lines. Personally my interactions with
him has helped a lot to shape myself – the vastness we need to keep, the depth,
the mentality of exploring things etc.
He has lots of knowledge on comparative religion studies and
he has surprising good memory too. His initial collection on books were on
religions. I remember, he used to write small articles and letters; and I used
to write them as my handwriting was good.
Relatives are always a boon who motivate us always; Kunhiman
was one of the important personality among that. Once you meet him, he will ask
everything about you, your life and motivate& encourage you in natural way.
The way he comprehends and acknowledges things is special – it’s really
natural. I remember in many personality development camps, when someone ask for
the best friend, I had mentioned his name and the main reason I noted is he
will listen to you and give you enough room to talk. But I never got a chance
to inform about this to him.
He lead a simple life, he used to have only limited pair of cloths
and the money that was given for buying cloths (in eid times and all) was used
to buy books. There were many occasions where we went together to buy cloths and he used to give preference to my selection.
After joining government service he spent more time for
reading, identifying books& buying them, keeping updated on all current
issues, interacting with all kinds of people, motivating young generation for
higher studies and niche jobs (including government jobs) etc. His book
collection in last 10 years is awesome and surprisingly he has read most of it.
The interesting part is, you won’t him reading a book in day time, and rather
most of his reading happens at night.
In last 5 years, we used to have very serious interactions.
He has suggested many books to read and I had found out some rarer publishers
at Bangalore and got the books for him. The longest time I spent with him was
when we went for Sandakphu trek to Darjeeling in Dec 2012. I had lots of
moments where I knew him closely and revealed his heart feelings to nature and
all kinds of good things. Some things I remember is his expressions to
Rabeendranath music, the broadness of Brahmaputhra river, his joy when we met
Bavul singer in the train, his response to naturality of people of Goorkha
land& beauty of himalyas etc.
Last September trek to Hampata pass, where he had the
cardiac arrest; he had asked me initially to join with him, but I couldn’t join
him because of various reasons. He is a true lover of Himalayas and travel, but
you won’t see him travelling a lot in nearby areas. His biggest dream in
trekking was going to Sarpass.
After his death, I came to know more about his local activities
for the future of next generations with tracking, monitoring, following up,
motivating and financially helping many students to grab a job and his focus
for helping to target for PSC exam was different. I had written a PSC exam in
2007 and that was through motivation from him and one of the last message he
sent to me was about a PSC exam.
I am sure, he has utilised his life to the maximum; but I and
sad that I am not satisfied with the time I spent with him, there were many
things to discuss more with him. He is rare of that kind, who can come up with
new topics for the live discussions. He is a real loss from every angle – a different
person with interests in multiple things, most kind hearted, loving,
encouraging always etc.
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| Reached the last camping station - Rimbik
May ALLAH forgive all sins, create continuity for things he dealt with, accept everything as sadaqathun jariyya and bless him and all of us with jannathul firdouse in the here after… Aameen
I know this records are incomplete, but I wanted to note down some things that I remember about him and that are not mentioned in notes written by others.
The capability and capacity of people are understood once they disappear; I strongly feel we should correct this culture in society, in the context of sad demise of my loving cousin. That is why prophet told to develop human relationships deep and showed us examples of acknowledging the joy of relationships through saying “I love you my friend…”
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