🛵 The Ride to a Memory Called Malampuzha

           🛵 The Ride to a Memory Called Malampuzha

                              Because some rides are more than just journeys—they’re time machines.

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😓 That Weekend Feeling We All Know...

You know that feeling?
Lunch is done, the plate’s still on the table, your stomach is full, and your mood? Undefined. It’s a weekend, you should be relaxed—but instead, you feel… sad?

I sat there staring at the computer. Nothing made sense.
Work fatigue? Screen fatigue? Or just the post-lunch blues?

Whatever it was, I knew one thing for sure—

“This is not how I want to spend my weekend.”

So, what did I do?

I cracked open my trusted folder—my time capsule—labeled:
“Old Photos – 2010”

And just like that, I found my way back.

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⏳ The Time Machine Starts With One Photo

I opened a photo — and BOOM! I was back in Palakkad.

It was just an ordinary photo.

Me. Cousin. Bike. Dam backdrop.

But the moment I saw it, it wasn’t just a picture anymore—it was a portal.

That year, 2010—life was full of energy, work was great, and personal life was dancing to the right tunes.

And in that snapshot was a trip I’d nearly forgotten, but never stopped feeling.

More about that beautiful town soon in another blog, but for now, fasten your helmets. We’re going on a joyride.

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🚌 Friday Nights and Nano Vibes

Back in those days, we didn’t plan months in advance. A simple Friday night was enough.

I’d finish my shift, pack a small bag (really small—I believed in minimalism before it became a hashtag), and hop onto a KSRTC bus.

Music? My trusted iPod Nano.
First song? Probably “Dil Chahta Hai.” That was my bus anthem.

I don’t remember falling asleep. All I remember is waking up with the conductor yelling,

“Palakkad! Palakkad!”

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👬 A Cousin, a Bike, and 106cc of Freedom

There he was—my cousin, fresh out of college, waiting with the biggest grin and an even bigger plan.

His ride? A sleek red Yamaha Libero.
Not a powerhouse. Not a showstopper. But oh boy, did it have personality!

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🍽️ The Breakfast That Deserves a Statue

Home sweet home. Aunt was already awake, in the kitchen, weaving magic.

Puttu and Kadala Curry.
The kind of breakfast that makes your stomach clap and your soul do backflips.

With every bite, I remembered why I kept coming back.
Not just for the food—but for the feeling.

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We sat in the sit-out—a spot that deserves its own Instagram page.
From that single bench, I could see life unfold.
The temple across the street, private buses revving up for the day, the occasional bullock cart. All under the lazy watch of coconut trees swaying in approval.

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My cousin came out with his coffee.

“What’s the plan?” he asked.
“Your place, your lead,” I replied.

He grinned. “Malampuzha?”

My heart smiled before my face could.

“Let’s ride.”

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🧳 Checks, Cameras, and a Red Roar

Pre-ride checks:

• Helmet: ✅

• Petrol: ✅

• Tyre Pressure: ✅

• Bike Mirror Position (for posing later): ✅

I was the co-pilot, with a camera slung around my neck like a war medal.
We zipped past Mercy College Circle, cruised through Melamuri, and joined the Palakkad–Malampuzha main road.

What a route! Fewer buildings. More sky. Fewer people. More trees.
Each turn brought us closer to the Western Ghats, rising like gentle giants in the distance.

I swear, it felt like nature herself was calling:
“Come closer, child. I’ve got something to show you.”

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🏞️ Malampuzha — More Than Just a Dam

Let’s get this straight—Malampuzha is not just a dam.
It’s a mood. A vibe. A proper emotion.

Built in 1955, it’s the largest reservoir in Kerala. But for me, it was the first time I realized silence could have a voice.

We didn’t go to the main dam area just yet. Instead, we wandered toward the backwaters, where tourist buses don’t reach and silence still lives.

Cameras out.
Random poses.
Tree-hugging (literally).
One weird “deep thinker” pose by me that still haunts me.

“Why did I look like I was solving climate change?”
No one knows.

 

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🐍 The Snake Park Shenanigans

Okay. Now the Snake Park deserves its own paragraph.
Mostly because we walked in expecting drama and walked out laughing.

A few snakes were asleep. One python was halfway into a nap and a stretch.
One cobra gave us side-eye like,

“Another camera? Bro, please…”

Still, it was entertaining. Not the reptiles—the reactions of people.
One guy dropped his water bottle because a lizard moved.

Lesson: The humans were the real wildlife.

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🕒 Back Through the Breeze

By 4 PM, it was my turn to ride.
The Libero hummed like it was happy to have me back in control.

The ride back was magical. That warm evening light, the roads half-empty, and the Ghats waving goodbye behind us.

By the time we reached home, it was 5:30 PM. We were two things:

1. Tired.

2. Extremely, record-breakingly hungry.

☕ Tea and Semeya = Hug in a Plate

Aunt had saved the day again.
Hot Semeya (vermicelli) upma with coconut flavor, and freshly brewed tea.

Honestly, Michelin stars mean nothing here. This was five-star in every way that mattered.

Post snacks, we slipped into comfy clothes and jumped into our last plan of the day—movies on his desktop.

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🎬 Cinema, Cousin Banter, and Sleep

We didn’t watch the movie properly.
It was mostly:

“Remember that guy…”
“Oh, did you see how you posed like SRK?”
“Bro, your hairline was better back then.”

Laughter. Sarcasm. Good-natured roasts. And then, slowly… sleep.

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🌍 Why This Memory Came Back Now?

Because maybe my soul was asking me,

“When was the last time you felt fully present?”

Those days, we respected where we went.
We didn’t leave garbage. We didn’t scream into nature.
We just became part of it—humbly, quietly, joyfully.

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“Be a visitor, not an invader.
Let every place you go remember your silence, not your selfie stick.”

💭 A Final Thought

So yeah, maybe you’re feeling low today.
Maybe nothing feels exciting.

Open that old folder.
Find that cousin.
Plan a ride, even if it’s just around your block.

Because joy isn’t expensive. It’s just buried beneath the rush.

And when you go somewhere beautiful next—
Don’t just click a photo. Leave behind a smile. 🌿

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From Floppy to Cloud: A Dusty Discovery and a Digital Tale

 From Floppy to Cloud: A Dusty Discovery and                                 a Digital Tale

              — A Nostalgic Tech Journey That Starts with Cleaning and Ends in Cloud Storage

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🧹 The Weekend Cleaning That Uncovered a Memory

Marriage teaches you many things—like the mysterious ability to locate socks you swore you never owned and, more importantly, the art of cleaning things you forgot existed. It was one of those weekends. While my better half was on a mission to Marie-Kondo the wardrobe, I decided to declutter my digital assets.

Now, by "digital assets," I don’t mean cloud backups or email folders. I mean that black plastic box under the table. The legendary dumping ground of every old, unused gadget that once had purpose and pride.

As I dug through tangled wires, broken chargers, dusty mouse pads, and ancient USBs, I stumbled on something that instantly pulled me back in time.

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🧠 Guess What I Found?

It was square. Flat. Familiar.
You’re already thinking it, aren’t you?

Yes. The floppy disk.
Our tech lifeline back in the day. It sat there like a sleepy old uncle at a family reunion—tired but still proud.

I pulled it out, blew off the dust, and couldn’t help but smile. This 1.44 MB piece of plastic once carried my entire world—assignments, Flash games, and saved music (I know, with 1.44 MB, it was difficult to take all the songs my friend had in his system, and I took a selected ones).

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👧 “Appa, What Is This?”

And just as I was in my memory bubble, came the inevitable question.

“Appa, what is this? Is it a toy?”

Ah. The joys of parenting in a generation that thinks the "Save" icon was just designed to look cool.

So I sat down with my daughter and began a little story…

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💾 The Rise of the Floppy Disk

I told her about how the floppy disk was introduced in 1971 by IBM.
How it came in three generations:

• 8-inch floppy: Used in mainframe systems. Could store just 80 KB.

• 5.25-inch floppy: Became common in personal computers in the late ‘70s.

• 3.5-inch floppy: The superstar of the '90s. Sleek, compact, and could store 1.44 MB.

To her, this sounded absurd. One PDF from her school project is over 4 MB!

But I reminded her that in those days, we worked with what we had—and made magic out of it.

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🧒 A Middle-Class Dream Machine

Being a Computer Science student back then meant learning languages like C, C++, and COBOL. We didn’t have laptops or home Wi-Fi. Even visiting a cyber café cost money. But my mother—soft-spoken, loving, fierce when needed—decided to get me a computer.

That little floppy meant the world to us. I still remember walking to the computer store with my mother and father—my two superheroes. I had asked them for a computer. It wasn’t just a machine; it was a dream. A big one.

For a middle-class family like us, even a floppy box was a calculated expense. But my mother, the epitome of patience and unconditional love, simply said yes. My father, silent but always supportive, walked with us to buy it. We didn’t get the fanciest system, but we got what we needed—an HCL Frontline desktop, launched in 2005. Running Windows XP. Complete with Winamp (remember that legendary MP3 player with those wild skins and visualizations?). And yes, that 5-pack floppy disk box. Like owning gold.

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🎮 Floppy Adventures: Flash Games & Winamp Days

Once the PC was set up, I wanted what every kid with a computer dreams of—Flash games. And my floppy disks became the transport trucks for joy. From friend’s houses to my PC, I’d copy tiny Flash games, compressed to fit that sacred 1.44 MB.

Alongside games, there was Winamp—the most stylish MP3 player of the time. Do you remember the wild skins you could choose? Every theme made it feel like a different app altogether.

Later came writable CDs. Then USB drives. Then external hard disks. Then SSDs.
And today? We live in the Cloud.

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☁️ From Plastic to Cloud

From floppy disks to cloud storage, the journey is almost poetic. We once treated a few megabytes like treasure. Now we scroll through gigabytes like we scroll through memes.

I showed my daughter a YouTube video about floppy disks. She watched it with a mix of curiosity and disbelief.

“We’ve come a long way, haven’t we, Appa?” she said.

Yes, we really have.

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❤️ What the Floppy Meant to Me

That little piece of plastic wasn’t just a disk.
It was a ticket to learning, a container of dreams, and a symbol of what my parents did for me. Every byte it stored carried my childhood, my ambition, and my parents’ love.

Now it sits on my shelf—not as junk, but as a reminder.
A reminder of how far we’ve come.
Of how little things once held the biggest value.

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📝 Final Thought

Next time you find an old gadget, don’t toss it right away.
Maybe, just maybe—it’s not junk.

Maybe it’s a story.

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My Floppy Disk  Pic

My Floppy Disk

Do you have any stories like this?