Losses

 Lost a young nephew, Nikhil, short of his 30th birthday, last week. He was a helicopter pilot, and his chopper crashed while he was on duty, ferrying passengers. One of the two passengers survived, miraculously. 

He was unconventional in his choice of careers. Dropped out of engineering, and taught himself/trained for Welding. Worked with a firm for a couple of years, and then trained to become a helicopter pilot. He was quite good at it too. Bad weather probably caused this crash, that turned out to be fatal. 

Maybe our leaving the planet is pre-determined, because there is no easy explanation for deaths of this kind, and survivors at the other end. 

Anyway, we live on, and try to cope with mishaps. 

When he was young, above. When he was grownup, and visited India, below, sitting, left.

A Pune Gathering of Cousins

 On June 1st, we met with cousins who were available in Pune. The purpose was two-fold. To celebrate the birthday of our youngest aunt, mother of our host Jyotsna, and to remember Nikhil, my nephew whom we lost unexpectedly in a helicopter accident in Atlanta USA. The second came out of the blue, and we were still coming to terms with it.

Some of the cousins/families present. 

Nikhil is sitting, left, in the pic above. That was my Mom's 88th birthday in 2017, at Pune. His parents are behind him.