wutheringheights

  I never knew Narendran Nair maintained a blog till I ran into ‘Thoughts’ hours after his death. He never liked the idea of even chatting online. A totally different character very few people could understand. He was often misunderstood by colleagues, but he didn’t bother much. Our friendship started with migraine way back in 2005 when he joined Express after quitting his job in Bombay. We both were suffering from that serious painful disease for long time. I don’t know whether he liked me, but he used to talk to me a lot. I still remember the day he left The New Indian Express and joined The Hindu. Many in Express thought Narendran would never find a job in Hindu , but he got a good, a senior post with the paper’s Madurai edition. After joining there, he used to call me from Madurai to share his displeasure with the former organsiation. The conversation went on and on. When I went to Madurai to cover an official event three years ago (I was Deputy News Editor with the New Sunday Exp

I don’t remember when I met Sunil. But I remember the day I took some photographs of him, using my favourite Pentax K1000. The year was 1999, soon after we finished our journalism course at Press Club, Trivandrum. One evening, Sunil handed over a roll of Konica and asked me to take his pictures in different angles. I took him to first floor of the Press Club building and started clicking. Close-ups, medium shots and long shots followed one after the other... Finally, we both went to Babas (a famous studio) and got it developed. Sunil didn’t tell me what was the purpose, and I didn’t even ask him. After two days, Sunil told me that the pictures were sent to London. For a moment, I was shocked. London always evoked a kind of nostalgia. It was my dad’s favourite place. The smell of London always surrounded him although he left the place when I was seven. The chocolate bags, toy planes and post cards… Everything he brought in from London had a smell of the town. So London was always a