(A tribute to my friend and relative Mr Naseem, Alukkal, Areekode, Malapuram district, Kerala who passed away while he was in a trekking to Himalayas at Manali, Himachal Pradesh on 19/09/2016)
My dear friend..
Where you have gone even without a good bye? I still don't believe you departed us.
Since at what age we became friends? I don't remember. Only I know is it was since our early child-hood days. It was you who shared me the classical types of ghazals. It was you who suggested me books for reading. It was you with whom I have had long debates about ideologies and about everything under the sky. It was you who always had encouraged me to write down something. It was you who always prompted me to prepare for PSC although I was not much bothered about it.
An avid reader, ghazal lover, an adventurous traveler and what not you were! We had played together a lot. Our childhood days were colorful. Your village was our haven in vacations. We dived into the river Chaliyar together. We swam, we fished and we played hide and seek in the water.
We had completed our schooling same year. But you gradually turned an encyclopedia. At small age you started reading heavy books. Religious comparative study was your favorite topic at that time. You were the winner of all quiz competitions. You conquered the PSC barricade and became a government employee.
I don't know when was it that you fell in love with ghazal. I already was a music lover since my child-hood days. But when you started loving the Hindustani classical, you pushed me behind there also.
When I started trekking local destinations, you made it on the great Himalayas. There also I became smaller. Never I imagined you would say a good bye in your second expedition to Himalayas.
But I would say, this was not the right time to bid an adieu. Trekking was there in your breath like ghazal. But never I thought this would be your last trek. But it is the almighty who decides everything. We are just the puppets in his hand. Only we can do is just to play accordingly on his commands.
