Loving memories with Naseem…

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 3^rd 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.

With Ghoorkha in Kurseong - people are always craze for him

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.

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…”