Anecdote Aseem Sidhu 1
(Aseem Siddhu, a close friend, had known Syd since college days (2003). He runs Coffee Jar outlets in Pune.)
Hi Uncle,
I hope you are all keeping well. As we had discussed the last time we met, I wanted to share with you the memory of an incident that I shared with Siddharth.
It was a bright and sunny July afternoon and me and Siddharth were in the most beautiful place any of us had ever seen in our entire lives.
The More plains. A 40 km stretch on the Manali Leh highway, on a motorcycle ride that we had been waiting and preparing for, for years.
We had with us two other friends Anish and Amit, all of us riding our motorcycles.
In an unfortunate turn of events, Amit had a crash right before my eyes.
We packed him up on a jeep and Anish went along to get him to a hospital.
This left me, Siddharth and three motorcycles stranded in the middle of nowhere and turning what was the most beautiful place to the most treacherous one in an instant.
I remember running over multiple options in my head all the while being stressed and quite anxious if any of the plans from A to Z will work out.
Siddharth in his characteristic calmness assured me, we’ll do something, it will all work out.
Seeing that calmness, I drew some gumption from within and we set to the task of transporting all five entities to their destination.
How we did that is another story. We did manage to turn the place right back to an enchanting landscape in our minds.
The stillness of both of us sitting on the ground and watching the sky will stay with me forever.
Regards,
Aseem Sidhu
Anecdote Aseem Sidhu 2
The Plateau – Aseem Sidhu. March 30 2015.
Back when we had just joined an Engineering college, we used to be on the lookout for a short peaceful outing to soothe our harried souls.
A hill behind the college hostel leading to The Plateau as it was known back then came to the rescue.
It used to be Syd’s motivation that would budge us to get out on our bikes and go.
We saw many sunrises and late night stars there. Beautiful memories.
Anecdote Avneet 2
Sid was the coolest guy I had come across. We instantly became friends. Best thing about him was the quality of winning one over.
Man he was so good at that or what. He would have a random conversation with you on a sad day and your day then on would go on so happy.
I had once gone with him on a bike trip – Me, Sonali and Sid.
On our way back i insisted on riding the his motor bike as i was to bored to ride back on an activa!
Sid got really excited and since activa did not have any manual gears, he actually folded his legs up and rode the bike all the way down from lavasa in this position!
And mind you it was pouring… Can you beat that…he found happiness in the craziest of things.
Also in office i always saw him making notes on some random piece if papers.
He had no notebook or office notepad, but just random pages.
He would just note something on it an keep it with him till the task was done and then he would dump it.
I have never seen him lie to hurt others…he always did that to pull someone’s leg or for just plain nirmal anand.
I love the memories i have of him and will keep then safe deep down.
Thanks a lot for this opportunity uncle! Sid you rock!!
Anecdote Prachita
(Prachita, a close friend, had known Syd since Pune days some time around 2006.)
Hello Uncle and Aunty,
I first want to apologize for not quite being intouch. My parents complain quite often that I get lost in my world
and forget about everyone else around me. It’s not entirely true, I do get lost but I try to tell them that I love
them and I always think of them and that I just never get around to expressing it enough. I feel the same
about you as well and I as write this letter, I’ll remind myself to try more.
Life in DC has been good so far, I really enjoy my course. Coming out of engineering course, where
everything is a solution to pursuing graduate studies in Development Studies where everything is a discussion
has quite the life-changing experience. I love reading all my course material, being surrounded by students
from different parts of the world and in so many ways being at the epicenter of international affairs. Apart from
doing my course, I also intern part-time at the World Bank which has been a really great opportunity. At every
step of the way since I have been here and every single opportunity I’ve had, I think of Sid. I’m not sure I can
explain this entirely but he has become the force that guides my life. He helps me challenge myself, believe I
can do it and a lot of times not feel alone. To be honest, I don’t think I would have quite pushed myself to do
half the things I have if I didn’t have Sid with me.
I miss my travel plans with Sid the most. Even if most of them were plans set for the future and not
necessarily definitive, just the idea of planning them and having Sid chart out excel sheets and travel budgets
made it all the more possible. He would let me have my travel rants and most times, engage and even
encourage the group into it as well. I remember the first time I sat behind Sid as pillion on his bike and we
(Pune group) were on one of our many bike outings. On the way back, I couldn’t help but doze off. Poor Sid!
not only had to ride the Enfield slowly (which beat the whole purpose of going on bike rides) because he was
so scared I would fall off but also had to make conversations with me to keep me up. And, not once did he
complain or sound irritable. I don’t think I have quite met anyone else who is that incredibly sweet and
selfless.
I miss Sid everyday and he will always be with me. Thank you for making us part of your lives and I’m sorry
that I haven’t quite been intouch.
Big hug and lots of love
Prachita
Anecdote Vikas
(Vikas had known Syd since long, from the IIT Kanpur days when Syd was a child.)
Mithoo was technically my first cousin, my mother’s brother’s youngest child. But in my mind, he was and will always remain my brother. He was around 14 years younger than me, the darling of the entire family.
I have several fond memories of Mithoo but this one is special …
The setting is at IIT Kanpur nearly 20 years ago where Mithooalong with his elder brother Kedar and parents resided at that time. I enjoyed my stints at IIT Kanpur and used to visit fairly frequently.
This story is from one of those visits …
It is every child’s dream to steal from an orchard and Mithoo was no different.
The Big Hairy Audacious Goal was to burgle the regularly patrolled IIT Kanpur Garden Nursery which was famous in the region for its variety of fruits and flowers. It goes without saying that Mithoo was extremely excited about this adventure. He was heavily involved in doing a recce of the place, deciding on what to ‘take’ from the nursery, choosing the right time for this endeavour, clarifying roles & responsibilities for every family member and zeroing in on the approach as well as the getaway plan. Upon reflection, we would have put the entire crew of Oceans 11, 12 & 13 to shame J
I can never quite forget that night. Mithoo took it upon himself to be our Chief of Security i.e. warn us of any impending danger from the patrolling guards and was heavily armed with an old torch with new batteries. He gave us a few scares during the course of our heist when he accidentally flashed a few times and when asked later replied with his ever cute smile “Bhaiya, was just checking whether the torch was working or not”! All you could do in such a situation was to give him a bear hug. We successfully conducted our raid and escaped with an entire bunch of bananas (around 200 individual bananas), cannot tell you how crazily difficult it was to transport our spoils back home. We celebrated big-time upon returning home with cold-drinks etc. for having pulled this off.
I am extremely grateful to God that I got this opportunity to play a role in Mithoo’s rites of passage. Life has not been the same since the news of his passing but whenever I look at his framed photo I cannot help but think of all the wonderful times we had and the endless possibilities of what might have been.
I miss you Mithoo … a lot …
-Vikas Sinha (20.04.2015)
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