October 1, 2009 at 1:02 pm · Filed under memories, music
I listened to this song first on some FM radio station while driving. It sure had an immediate effect and i loved the song as it was a breath of fresh air from the usual remixes which just murders the original song. The song in question is the ‘Alliyambal Kadavil’ remix song from the movie LoudSpeaker.
I had listened to it a few times and a couple of days back, i saw the picturization of the song from my brother’s new home. And it brought back a truck load of childhood memories. Something no words can explain, but anyone who has a small link to growing up in a village, might be able to relate. Not spoiling the feeling with words and just leaving the video below:
i’m quitting my job on 20th march.. it’s been a tough decision to make.. and mangalore is really an awesome place to let go.. i dont want to leave mangalore. It’s been a home away from home.. new people, trips, experiences, feelings, fun.. it’s given me everything.. but i guess its time now, to move on.. n i want to sign off by reminiscing my stay at mangalore.. including the last 6 months when i never blogged.. i want to keep the feelings alive. it might get mushy, but here goes…
the love for mangalore was not at first sight.. it was gradual.. the starting days at my old place at kottara chowki.. the sri ganesh shipping agency, which was my first home when corporate threw me to mangalore with no friend or batch mate to share a place with.. and then one day the polished bullshit guy, who was supposed to be the person who would get me out of mangalore by getting me a swap – smiled his way in from the food court queue.. by then gundu, my fellow dreamer reached mangalore after her corporate suppli exam.. and so with the only two people i know in mangalore, life started.. new faces and new characters kept on getting added… a new house near the beach at ashok nagar.. and life goes on well!!
jan 6th - the happiest day of my life.. when my sister gave birth to my niece – the first girl child in my family.. and i rushed home taking a day off from work to see and hold her for the first time.. it felt like something i’ve never felt before.. she’s 2 months old now and was named ayisha, my mother’s name.. leaving my job will mean i can spend a lot more time with her and manu..
jan 24th.. when 4 crazy dreamers set off on a weekend to explore.. the places did not matter much, but the feeling mattered.. the feeling of the wind on our hair when we cruised on our bikes.. the feeling of togetherness, when our footprints touched the sea… the feeling of freedom when we fell freely and just let go.. it was the best weekend in mangalore.. here’s the travelogue by my fellow dreamer…
loads of trips before and after that.. anandka falls, panambur, suratkal, jamalabad, sulthan bathery, calicut – mangalore drive.. all memories now.. i bought paathu (Bullet Electra) in december.. the sheer joy of riding it is out of the world.. then came the DSLR camera, which i wish to master in the near future.. the new year at chechi’s rooftop, late night drives, the walks, the train journeys, shubham.. everything happened when i was at mangalore.. everything is still fresh..
will i miss everything once i leave?.. i will certainly miss my office.. the people i meet only at office, the discussions, pulling everyone’s leg, breaking the silence, breaking the silence – gundu style, the journey to and from office, listening to my radio, birthday parties, chain mails, treats… other than that, everything will stay the same.. has to stay the same.. time flies… and it has gone by really fast.. i had blogged a few times after reaching mangalore.. and all those posts projected this deep-rooted desire to do crazy things!! and with time, being crazy has reached to such an extent that i’m quitting my steady job and breaking free.. will it make any difference?.. cant things be just the same even after i quit?.. i see all the answers in a future post.. and till then, i’m just letting time fly again…
long time my blog! been real long! 6months!! the guilt has always been inside.. the guilt of not coming to u all these months.. i’ve done countless crazy things all these months.. i’ve explored solid places.. i’ve felt umpteen feelings.. i’ve bought two things i’ve always dreamt of buying.. i wish i could tell u everything..
this is the problem of not blogging often.. the feelings fade away and i am not liking it one bit.. with the fact that i created this blog to capture those feelings, so that i can revive them when i look at the snaps.. i promise to blog more often from now.. i’d have loved to blog about all the trips and freefalls we had over the last few months, but this is for the start.. i’m stopping this post by showing off my two fulfilled dreams… the BULL and the DSLR..
keep the comments coming.. so that i know u all are still around
yet another train journey. yet another blog entry. i’ve been home the last 5 days. for onam actually. met with dili, deepak, pulli, vallyan, oy n joy. fasting month of ramzan has started. into the fifteenth day actually. people back in calicut say that i’ve lost weight and some say i’ve gained weight!! the fact of the matter is i dont know if i’ve lost or gained weight, n i dont care now
i saw the movie ‘into the wild’ again yesterday. it’s one hell of a tempting movie. and it keeps tempting all over again. leaving everything behind and going into oblivion, going away from the noise, going away from it all, on you own, into the wild. a very very tempting idea. i’d thought i wouldnt read any book for a long time to come, but i am planning to get the book that inspired that movie
sitting in this train, i got a call from a friend saying that there has been some communal riots in mangalore. some violence here and there, but still no clear picture. its kind of like going into the wild, only this time its wild because of the uncertainty of what is going to happen out there in the roads of mangalore. leaving a few snaps of the awesome trip to Anandka Waterfalls in mangalore. adios..
music brings joy, brings life. even to an empty mind. my taste for music have seen all extremes over the years. from the mushy songs of the boy bands – to the explicit raps of eminem – to the melody of rahman – to the foot tapping breakbeat music – to the soothing ghazals of jagjit singh n hindustani of ghulam ali. thats a lot of music
yesterday we were at dilis brothers wedding reception at trichur. it was a lot of fun, something like a hostel re-union. nothing much has changed and i am very happy about it on the way to trichur in train with the maharashtra teams, we bought a li’l gift for our kid at Gurgaon. to the dangerous KID
August 30, 2008 at 3:40 am · Filed under musings, travel
trains remind me to blog. dont know why. maybe because i like to travel so much. i’ve not blogged for more than a week and here i am. i set foot into a train and the next thing i think of is to blog previous weeks have been hectic, at work and off it. life goes on as usual entertained by small drives on weekends and pulling legs of people at the office. in this time i’ve started to love mangalore. i love this place now. i gotta start exploring more. places like jog falls, sita camp and others. wanna go trekking. everything!
my dream of getting a bullet will come true soon. i’ve been bullet hunting for more than a month now, hopefully i’ll own one in december then a DSLR camera, and off i go. thats about everything i want from life now. get all that and take off. nice to hear and tough to do i know but i will, some day.
my current project is almost over and i’m gonna be in support and testing for the next 3 months. only thing that i hope is not to have a lot of work to find time for all the crazy things my crazy head is planning. i might leave mangalore soon, but before that i want to do crazy things. make new friends. talking about that, i’ve started doing crazy things already!! i sang in the group song for independence week in office. eat that – world!! ‘desh mere, desh mere, meri jaan hai tuuu’…. i went on stage to sing for the first time and by god, what a song it was!! we got second prize thanks to a nightingale whose voice was soooo sweet. so much so, that our voices were not noticed by the judges and we got second prize
i am on my way to dileep’s brother’s marriage reception in trichur. hope to see everyone there. but i gotta come back to mangalore on sunday too. will post photos of the reception till then, leaving u with snaps of the scenic beauty of mangalore, uriyadi held on sri krishna jayanthi and a cultural fest at our office
at times i wonder, is this blog dead.. is my life not moving on.. it is moving on, but with little or nothing to jot down.. life has come to a standstill, at a place where all i can do is think about what lies ahead..
someone told me few days back, that the anticipation of what is to come is the thing that keeps you going.. the anticipation of something better, something surprising.. i’ve been thinking of doing a lot of things lately, but in the end nothing happens.. i’m returning to mangalore from home, in a train now..
the only thing i wanna say now is that this blog is not dead.. there will be lots more travels, portraits and ramblings here.. keep all the comments coming till the next post, i’ll continue to be a being stranded, there on the cosmic panorama in the pic is shanthakumar – one of my new friends in mangalore..
Posting Happened and i’m off from Mysore!! i’ve been posted to Mangalore by my company.. After around 4 months of training, me and my friend Divya Ramesh have been posted to Mangalore.. Just the two of us from our class.. Dasan got into Chennai, a place where you throw a stone to the air, it lands on one of our friends..
Mangalore is a place where not even one of our Batchmates or friends work or live.. And like an icing on the cake, on the day we got our posting, Divya’s father who is working in a bank in Mangalore got his Transfer!! Since we are a group of people who operate in a group, we tried a lot for a SWAP.. it is a procedure using which we can get into another location that we want, if some other person is ready to take our location.. but ours being a BIG class of around 45 people, we found out quite easily, that it was impossible so i had to join Mangalore and that was that
still makes me wonder why they dont give the posting of choice for everyone in the company.. according to me, it contributes a lot to a friendly work environment, but it seems the BIG management gurus tend to differ.. and in the end, policies will be followed.. but i enjoyed the days we tried for the SWAP especially something – the whole Bitch n Jimmy affair.. Even though life has given me lots of surprises, those days i was introduced to the Bitchiest female i’ve ever came across in life.. a person who needs Confidence to present her parents in front of others!! a person who is a lot of things, which i dont want to elaborate
so i moved to Mangalore on the 23rd.. Next day was my first day at office as an actual Software Engineer.. Mangalore is a happening place in terms of food!! i’ve been here only one day n whatever i have eaten was awesome.. maybe i’m exagerrating too much, but its really good when compared to the food at Mysore.. so it’ll be a lot difficult to have a CONTROLLLED diet here.. lets see, lets hope i liked the place and people i came across on my first day, though they were only 2 or 3.. n then i got leave for friday to go home!!
spend most of the days in calicut with Rahul and Thadiyan.. now i’m writing this on my return in the navayug express.. i know its a bit OVER to use the laptop in a train.. but the day has been so cruel to me that i wanted to jot this down.. another reason i’ve turned on the laptop is that, i’ve fallen in love with the song judaai from the movie jannat.. i Woke up today morning to find that my mobile was not working.. then had a BIG fight at home.. after that i found out from the railway station that my train is about 4 hours late.. so i sat there in the station at 2pm, and thought of listening to some music, but the iPod didnt have any charge.. after all this frustration the train came at 6.30pm and now here i am – still sitting here in the train, at Kannur Railway Station.. waiting for some stupid train to cross so that we can go.. another big thing that happened was i shaved my hair.. the metamorphosis.. adios amigos
23rd November 2007.. 18:08hrs..
Calicut Beach… walking in the breeze feels really good.. with deepak n ameeth.. we are almost all of the people who were left in calicut waiting for our joining dates.. life was boring, but it was good… it was fun at times like this.. went on to get a kite to fly… i’d flew one many times before, but somehow this felt like the first time.. it took some time to hold flight, but once it got off, there was no stopping it.. soon, the kite went so high that it was the size of a pupil.. we didnt want to let it loose, so we tied it to a stone near the beach bridge and walked away.. i kept looking back at it all the way and something struck me.. will i do this any time again.. a thousand times over.. hmm..
17th January 2008.. 00:44hrs..
sukhwinder singh screaming ‘bas bas bada bole, ab kuch kariye…’ in my ears.. i’ve entered corporate life.. i wake up at 8 and brush my teeth n then bathe.. get into my armour which includes a tie on mondays n tuesdays.. smelly shoes.. n ‘walk’ to the big colloseum for what everyone calls training.. the walk to the place is just around 400 metres, but it sends some kind of sweet pain from the toes up till the knees.. the pain i call sweet as its the fatigue caused by that which helps in idling thru the session till noon.. after december 18th, each working day of my life was the same.. i never reached the colloseum earlier, but left the place later than 6pm a number of times.. complains mostly stay confined to my head, but for some very close people.. but i gotta live this life anyways..
16th March 2008.. 11:52hrs..
slept long yesterday.. its raining heavily in mysore these days… training has reached its ending stage.. things have eased up a little lately.. we dont sit at office for long hours nowadays, unless we have a training project.. n the fact of the matter is we have one of those, every other weekend but i’ve started to like the work here.. mostly because i’ve tried hard to do that we get net in the evening from 5 to 9.. we cant access any public mails, so who needs net anyways.. walking to the foodcourt to have some food.. the umbrellas were kept to dry near my hostel.. it was refreshing to see the colours amongst the artificial lawns n gardens.. life goes on naturally..
6th April 2008.. 21:48hrs..
i’m home after more than 3 months.. lot has happened in these days… i couldnt blog much, even after the many times aana tried to make me… wanted to write about the first marriage in our batch.. our own amar govindan aKa Comedy cant digest the fact that he has done it.. wanted to write a lot.. but nothing surfaced.. everything just lost somewhere.. so i’ll be silent till the next time.. silence is countless sounds combining to play in a rhythm… silence is a symphony…..
Strange situation i’m writing this in.. Will come to that later on.. I had planned on writing the part two of my singapore trip a lot earlier.. But as usual, i dint sit down to write..
Anyone who cares enough to read this boring blog might know that i was planning to go to Malaysia.. To get my Visa extension and to see the new country.. But guess what, only the former happened.. We went to the nearest Malaysian city of Johor Bahru.. Its like, we cross a bridge n we’re in another country.. As simple as that.. But, believe me, there’s nothing to see there.. At Johor Bahru..
We went to a Beach Resort called the Danga Bay.. Even the people working in the nearby shops didnt know english.. (njan vann Malay aayathondu rakshappettu).. The only things that place is good for is shopping and eating out.. Food is so cheap that people from Singapore near the border go there to eat.. We absolutely owned the Pizza Hut at the Kotaraya Plaza that night..
After that long eating session, we walked toward the malaysian immigrations and checked out of the country.. At that moment, i was wondering which country i was in!! Cos i had checked out of Malaysia and didnt get into Singapore..
With that thought, i boarded a bus to the Singapore Check Point n from there, they refused to let me in.. N i was like Wat the?! The little girl sittin at the counter gave me ghastly glance and asked me why i wanted to stay thirty more days in Singapore.. I was supposed to leave singapore before oct 10th at that time, but i said i wanted to spend Hari Raya (Eid) with my brother n family in Singapore.. Then this cute lookin girl asked me to sit in the seat next to her n wait.. Obviously, I didnt mind..
I was sittin there like a VVIP when suddenly a heavy built officer in uniform came near me n said ‘this way!’.. I did not have any idea wat was happening, but soon i was in a room filled with lots of seemingly grumpy old officers.. But in that same room, my bro, sis n ehan were sitting.. N then one of those officers went thru my passport and called me to ask the same thing that silly girl had asked me few minutes before.. I told him the exact answer i had told the girl, only this time, i pointed at my bro n family while saying it.. Must’ve been the smile on Ehan’s face, he gave me an extension straight away.. That too for a month.. Hihi..
After reaching back to Singapore that night, i could hardly feel my hands n feet.. Hihi.. (Over aakkaling ~ Exaggeration).. Slept long that night n the most part of the next day.. On monday i went to the Indian Airlines office to change my return ticket date to the 17th..
Deepak Benny has been in Singapore for quite some days now.. I’ve not been able to meet him cos of all these n nombu.. He joined the Worley Parsons office in Somerset.. Decided to meet him after Eid.. Eid was pretty ordinary.. With no usual friends n things like that.. But the Foodings were extra ordinary.. Spent the evening at the east coast park with lots of malayali families.. I was watchin people skating there, most of the time.. Met a small girl who had sung with ‘kavi’ at singapore.. For those who doesnt know, The last years Idea Star Singer Kavi was my classmate!!
Toward the end of the trip, i had ran out of things to do!! So it was either shopping at mustafa or sitting online.. Bought a lot of stuff.. Including an ipod classic.. But in between all this, i’d not yet seen the famous Singapore Zoo and the Jurong Bird Park.. So the day i finally met Benny.. We decided to go to the zoo..
But i forgot to take the cam that day.. So had to take snaps using my good old mobile.. The zoo at Singapore is the best i’ve seen.. So far that is.. Because in all the zoo’s that i’ve visited till now, the animals never looked happy.. But this place is different.. Most of the animals r not caged.. N those that are, dont seem to mind.. Hehe..
The white tiger was the best thing we saw in there.. A big chunk of muscle and sheer power.. The best way to explore the zoo is to get the free zoo map which has all the details n the feeding times of different animals.. N go to those animals when they are being fed.. Only then do you get to see the animals doing wat they do best..
The whole day in the zoo was very tiring n after that, benny went to his hotel at Clarke Quay.. N i went to mustafa for a final shopping session.. We got back that day n i planned to go to the Bird Park the next day morning..
I’ve seen only very few mornings in Singapore.. Most of my days there started just before noon.. So it was after noon by the time me n bro got to the Jurong Bird Park.. N i loved it from my very first sight.. So many colorful n rare birds moving freely in there..
But my joy was short lived as it began raining heavily.. N we sat there in the balcony of a closed restaurant watchin a group of Flamingos below us.. We lost about 2hrs due to that bloody rain.. So we had to rush through the park to finish seeing every section..
There was a show in the Pools Amphitheatre with two parrots showing off their talking and singing talents.. One of the birds even sang songs in the 4 national laguages of Singapore.. But they had to cut short the show because of the heavy rains..
Then we walked into an Australian Coffee Shop without knowing the great surprise that was in store inside.. A big enclosed area filled with hundreds of extremely colorful birds called the Loris.. They were flying around coming near the visitors and making hell of a lot of noise.. N boy did i love feeding them?!! One of them even jumped onto my shoulder.. I fell in love with the park.. Hihi..
I’ve been spending loads of time finding music n other stuff on the net.. Most of the days at home i’d sit hours on end on Youtube searchin and listening to random songs.. Found a great malayalam ghazal ‘Neeyum Nilavum’ by Shahabaas and fell in love with the song.. Its a great song to check out for hindustani lovers..
N finally the next day, the 16th of october was to be the last day of my Singapore trip.. Was just sittin at home n packing all the stuff most of the time.. Its been more than 45 days here.. N i’ve experienced almost all feelings during this trip.. There have been times i’ve felt ecstatic, desperate, content, numb and also very lonely.. But when it comes down to it, i loved the whole trip.. As the sun sets now, on yet another journey, all i can think of, is my home, n the feeling of home..
My name is Abdul Hameed. I'm 23 and I live in Calicut, Kerala and finished my education in Trivandrum, i am now working in a Software Firm at Mangalore.
This is just a simple blog. If all goes well I will post photos and junk once in a while and you can see what I'm up to.
the starting days at my old place at kottara chowki.. the sri ganesh shipping agency, which was my first home when corporate threw me to mangalore with no friend or batch mate to share a place with.. and then one day the polished bullshit guy, who was supposed to be the person who would get me out of mangalore by getting me a swap – smiled his way in from the food court queue.. by then gundu, my fellow dreamer reached mangalore after her corporate suppli exam.. and so with the only two people i know in mangalore, life started.. 
and i rushed home taking a day off from work to see and hold her for the first time.. it felt like something i’ve never felt before.. she’s 2 months old now and was named ayisha, my mother’s name.. leaving my job will mean i can spend a lot more time with her and manu..
the guilt has always been inside.. the guilt of not coming to u all these months.. i’ve done countless crazy things all these months.. i’ve explored solid places.. i’ve felt umpteen feelings.. i’ve bought two things i’ve always dreamt of buying.. i wish i could tell u everything..
My name is Abdul Hameed. I'm 23 and I live in Calicut, Kerala and finished my education in Trivandrum, i am now working in a Software Firm at Mangalore.
