It was Muhammed Sunil who taught me how to ogle girls when we were in the tenth grade. We would take the same bus home after school, both of us sitting at the back. As the bus passed St. Teresa's Women's College, he would look at the girls walking on the side of the road and make comments, which I soon started imitating. This habit continued when I joined St. Albert's College for my pre-degree. We would often go to Maharaja's College just to look at girls.
Sachidananda Pai was another good friend of mine during the school days. He played the mridangam. He accompanied me on the mridangam for my violin debut. We often practiced music together and participated in musical events. Sachi's younger brother, Shivananda Pai, was later chosen as the head of their community and was known as Raghavendra Tirtha. Sachi and I studied together for a while at St. Albert's College in Ernakulam, an all-boys school. It was Sachi who introduced me to good cinema, films by Padmarajan, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, KG George, MT Vasudevan Nair, and Bharathan. We spent many days watching these films.
I had a strong spiritual side as well. I lived a dual life, balancing both desires. It was Sachi who introduced me to Advocate Govind Bharathan. We all called him Bharathan ji. Every Sunday evening, he held a Bhagavad Gita class at his residence, Chitravathi. I learned yoga and meditation from him for the first time. Bharathan ji was a devotee of Sathya Sai Baba and a follower of Sri Vidya. On Monday evenings, there would be Sai bhajan at his house. He would sing beautiful bhajans while playing the harmonium, and we would join in. Bharathan ji once took a group of us from Chinmaya Yuva Kendra to Amritanandamayi's ashram at Vallikavu, who was known as 'Amma'. We also had many opportunities to listen to Chinmayananda Swami's discourses on the Gita. I also eagerly read books by Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, which I found in my father's bookshelf.
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