Some

Arvind Katiyar

Bittu Baniya

Sudhir Gangwar

Neelam (wife of Katiyar Doctor, Sister of Gangwar)

Sandeep Biswas

Lalla Uncle

Rinku Gurjar

Chotu

14.12.2018

Like the most unexpected beautiful little things in life, he simply arrived one day. Chotu was his name.
The first few careless moments with him will always be deeply engraved in your memory as a mark of simpler times - one without much rhyme and reason, without the pretence of something logical, something with meaning and hard concrete sense. Something just for the sheer childish happiness and delight and love of it. Chotu, we will miss you. I will miss you.

Just as I look back, I recal a tiny moment of sadness and loss. He came with another - a little she - a sweetheart. But her heart was too frail to survive this ruthlessness of everything real. She just closed her eyes and said good bye. Chotu stayed, strong and willing. But maybe, this left Chotu alone to experience the remaining part of this entity called life.

Chotu, my little motu rabbit - I don't know when exactly you got that name. I guess there was no defined time, the name just started existing like the silly little things in life we don't pay a lot of attention to - but which end up mattering most to us when we reflect to the moments that have passed like footsteps on the sands of time. Mum once called you that in her love. Her warm caring voice calling you when she got back from office, asking you how you are, echoes in the back of my mind.

Mum in recent times talked a lot about Dad wishing to let Chotu away. I think he felt the pain of him being alone - only one of his kind, staying in a trap of metal bars, just living a programmed life. He wanted to let him away to his freedom. Now this brought two different (disconnected?) thought horizontals in my mind -

1. Aren't we all living in an isolated cage of programmed dynamics? Much like Chotu, we were born free, wild, notorious, innocent. But somewhere down the line, living in this cage for so long, we forgot what it meant to get out - we found comfort and security and predictability and sense and linearity and logic in this little cage we were in, and so we stayed back. We grew up, 'matured', and slowly inched towards our end. What my father provided him was an escape - only because HE could empathize this isolation which Chotu felt in his little universe.
2. Chotu was the one home when we two were rushing in our 80% of our 'lives'. Now that he is gone, a natural low surrounds me thinking how it would be all alone at home. Could he have thought about himself and let Chotu be. Instead he thought about Chotu and let himself be. How much strength does it take to surrender. I just hope for isolation to not be where Chotu was. And to walk along is my responsibility.

Closing my eyes, I hope he's jumping, snorting, feasting on the delicacies of his green veggies, munching and munching away in happiness, messing around with his fellow ones and standing strong, stubborn, and notorious with a spark of happiness in his eyes.

That you Chotu for coming into our lives, and thank you God and Dad for bringing Chotu into our lives. Farewell.

01.03.2018 Chotu comes home :-)

10.03.2018 Poser kahin ka (maine banwaya pose waise :P)

15.03.2018 Messing around with Chotu at home

17.04.2018 Did not take permission from Dad to upload this one, but did anyway as it's super cute :)

26.04.2018 Random day at the Bajaj's

02.06.2018 Chotu goes for a ride in Honda

11.11.2018 Chotu at one of this favourite hiring spots

Snapshot of my times - 2018

2018, thank you for making me happy so far.
Yes, there is a lot to thank for...

Beautiful movie with Papa Mum - Wonder

Experiencing peace at the BrahmaKumaris in Mt Abu

Lohri at R-Block Pan Oasis

Pops training classes

Happy Valentines day

Airport welcomes & farewells

Pops at Auto Expo

Dance-Adobe-Dance

Happy Holi at Adobe

Toastmasters awesomeness

Our new ride

Devil's circuit with Adobe folks

Team parties

Random happy dhaba dinners

Bringing chotu rabbit home

Delight Bhanga at Adobe

Dadi's stories

Getting into the fittest version of myself

Recovering from an almost-broken back

Managing to somehow deliver Toastmasters speeches till Division level

Mayank's shaadi

Birthday surprise at Lucknow

Sanju together

Happy birthday Mum <3

Masti and cracking interviews - Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Gurgaon

Re-syncing with buddies

A Lansdowne summer

First flight together

Quick Coorg trip

A tough good bye to Adobe

Farewell with the besties

New world at Rivigo

Happy happy rakhi with Ma'am Goyal

New chaska of Cult-fit

First Canvas Laugh experience

My happy birthday

Happy birthday Papa <3

Tiny hopes of a happy future :-)

Gratefulness

Trapping tiny memories of happy times here because time does fly by. Our lives are like silent machines on a highway and we're driving fast.

One of the many lessons I learnt in the last few years is that we should stop at times to sip a cup of chai. And over that chai you breathe in deep, look around, close your eyes and acknowledge all the milestones you've left behind, all the beautiful memories, beautiful people, beautiful reflections, slowly piecing blocks together to make you who you are.

Our destination is the same, but it is the magnificence of the journey that makes the drive called life, worth it. Thank you.

DigiLocker - Linking Driving License (Uttar Pradesh)

Quick tip for adding your UP Driving license in DigiLocker -

If your license number is of the form 25/05/012345
Then interpret it as - UP25 2005 0012345

On the DigiLocker portal, go to -
Issued Documents -> Check partners section

Select 'Ministry of Road Transport and Highways' and 'Driving License', and fill the details (DL# as per above format) in the form -

Click on 'Get Document' to finally link it!

PS This format is also true if you want to perform DL services on the Sarathi portal -

Hope this helps save you some time :-)

Cheers.

Adobe Bucket List

1. One last faadu design document (carefully hiding the component names :P)

2. Memories with few awesome wale dosts

3. Gym selfie and reverse push ups

4. Balcony chai with Sachin

5. Cheers with the leaders - Atul, Abhigyan, Rajeev

6. One last Zumba class with Megha

7. Bansuri in the balcony (or at least on the stairs :D)

8. Singing songs on stairs column with Purwar (and Kathu :P)

9. One last Adobe Toastmasters speech (and a lot of Thanks!)

10. Disturb Cha & Neha (or just Cha, coz Neha left early for home, and Cha is waiting for his M.Tech. mentor :D)

11. Coffee with Karan & Tea with Tanvi :)