Salvi hosted a house party and all of us were in Bangalore. After a beautiful trip after all those gloomy years of COVID, this is the start we all want. A room full of yellow and orange lights, chatting with the cold breeze at the 8th-floor balcony.

So, who's the first one to get married in the class? That's the million-dollar question.

Sai Prasad found his amazing soulmate to start his life, and for the rest of us, a great chance to see our classmates and talk about what each one of us is up to in our lives.

Saketh took me to Cubbon Park on a weekend in Bangalore. New to Bangalore, I didn't know much around. That day was a realization of a perfect community. People bring their pets and simply spring into each other talking about a shared topic (pets!). And hey — I never imagined Cubbon Park to be the size of a mini-village.

She's my counselor, Ramya Mam — a mixture of sweetness and strictness. I still don't remember the reason I went back to my university in specific, but I missed the touch I had with Ramya mam and I'm so glad I was able to build the bridge that never was meant to drift away.

I stayed for a few days with Saketh at his PG at Kundanhalli Signal. It was like getting back to college days with youth staying in hostels and nights that are young. Saketh kept playing with an uprising tool in the market called Midjourney AI. You give it a prompt, and it returns an image. Seems that I was thinking of a romantic scene, and my prompt returned to that cute image of the Eiffel Tower. But, that one on the left? That's Salvi's! How can someone think of a girl drowning and watching an asteroid hit the earth combined?

A busy weekend hit us with an idea to take two-wheelers and drive for hours straight called Hogenakkal. Neither did I expect the hard drive, but getting that ride on a floating boat is something worth getting there. Because I don't see it every day, I had tens of people springing onto me offering to give oil massage. Not because I looked hot, but because that's how they make money. 😂

Vijayawada doesn't usually have many places to go and spend time with family except for regular places of food. We visited Bhavani Island. Mom, Dad, Neha didi, and Nadiya joined. I was coming from a place where I could allow my parents get out of routine. This did a reasonable job! Mom got to swing!

Revanth has a list of To-do lists for the places that he wants to cover in and around Bangalore. That week, HAL was on our cards.  I did not see these many Air vehicles, not these many kinds for sure. Don't ask me why there's a photo of me, doing gardening... That's a Saketh's click!

Finally, we went back to university. This time our university arranged an Alumni Meet allowing all the students to return to college and talk about their memories. Thanks to enthusiasm, this gang had. We went to Chennai and spent our time visiting the corners of campus and recalling our set of memories at same places!

That's Salvi and this picture is taken at Street 1522. Salvi likes places with great ambiance and this place was on her list. We had dinner, joined the group dancing, and roamed along the place. Thanks to a photographer, who dropped by our table, and took this nice memory for both of us. The hero of the day has to be Salvi's Oneplus phone. Her 1% battery is equivalent to probably my phone's 45% charging. I still tell her to get an iPhone to this day, and she still loves the phone she gifted herself.

Bhargav is a name you should remember when you think about gang fun. We planned an activity weekend and went to play Paint ball, bowling, and watch kids (very professionally) play football. Never was I so engaged in watching football. Perhaps, that day I saw parents, even family cheering for their 8 yr-old on the football ground, passionately. Such a revealing experience in person.

Growing up, I was sort of about an age range, that kept me at the middle of both the generations of kids in our family. This picture is my long-time wishlist to recreate! Did you notice the hand on my left shoulder in both the pictures? We never figured who's and angle that crept in. 🤦‍♀️

This has to be a historic decision in our family. Probably made possible because Nadeem Bhaiyya was around. We booked a resort for the entire family with a beach combined. We saw all our elders worry-free that day and enjoyed the waters and swings. I truly feel happy and see it as a milestone we pulled off together. Thanks to Mubeena chachi <3 :D

There you go. Nadeem Bhaiyya finally got married to Rubeena Bhabhi. This is a time a lot of us were looking forward to celebrating together. Lovely. Although it feels new, I am not used to calling Bhabhi, still. Probably I will get used to it along the way.

After the developer summit concluded, this gang, DevRels at Freshworks, joined together. Kautav broke the news that he is leaving Freshworks and gearing towards a role I would like to take up. We are super happy for him! It was a nice evening and probably the first time all of us discussed the future forward at Freshworks with a sprinkle of uncertainty.  I wish Kaustav and Satwik were in this picture. Hey, Menaka too.

I was speaking to a company that works in a low-code arena and wanted to meet its founders in Mumbai. That's an opportunity that I can use to see Mumbai and meet Nikhil. I took it, and we visited Mumbai around based on amazing instructions from Meha (an amazing teammate at Freshworks) to really experience Mumbai. It is really the New York of India.

Revanth is very good at keeping secrets and surprises. Salvi is very engaged in celebrating events of the group. That day was my Birthday, and Salvi had on-call, and Revanth told me we would have dinner outside. It's not new, we often go out for dinner. However, this time, Revanth took me too far, and as soon as we got to the restaurant, I guessed it right - Salvi organized something, and Bulbul, and Neha would be there in a few minutes.

Going back to Revanth's list and Saketh's enthusiasm, we hit Gokarna and Murudeshwar. I did not know what kind of places they were, but I did want to go along with them. So we took a budget trip and went to a lighter unplanned bachelor trip, I would say. We struggled to get back to the hot climate coming from Bangalore, but the time we spent at Jatayu Theertha was literally a peak for the three of us.

Salvi is a solo, duo, and multiple trios. Revanth, I, and she are a good trio and we packed a month-end to go to Chikmangluru. She comes very prepared with proper things related to the destination. I should probably learn that from her. Nevertheless, we had a packed with activities and trekked to z point. Revanth and Salvi successfully walked up to the higher peak in Karnataka.

To watch cricket from a stadium wasn't really on my bucket list. When Revanth and I met Salvi and Neha, we chatted for a while and took a wild step to book seats at a cricket stadium about two months early! But I must admit, that's an experience I only valued after being there in person. A lesson for us: Don't take anything except for your clothes and ticket to the stadium. Everything else will not be allowed.

I did want to go to Home for Diwali this time. I wanted to do less traveling and probably wasn't willing to leave Bangalore. Bulbul suddenly texted me and invited me to join her and friends to celebrate Diwali. While I wasn't sure at first, Salvi convinced me by telling the stories of Diwali and Durga puja. Thank god I did not miss the fun of decorating the home, rangoli, fun with Akash, and lots and lots of crackers!

Probably a scene like this will only happen in Bangalore. It's at the final match of the ICC World Cup. Revanth and I were watching the score, and finally went into sad mode, and did not want to continue the match. So prepared ourselves and went to Nexus Shantiniketan and found this crowd. An amazing sight to see and be a part of!

That's Samanvith. He's energetic, and fun and has the magic of keeping you engaged all day and every day. That's how Satwik and Roopam raised him, wonderfully! On the right side, is a Satwik's classic expression returning from a Maggie party Roopam arranged for us.

Sajid took a break from the US and came for holidaying in India. A very strong stunt dad and I pulled off was driving that old car from Tenali to Hyderabad and bringing him back. We were enough careful and successfully did that. Along the way we as a family went to the amazing Ramoji Film City, probably not even letting Sajid recover from his Jet Lag.

The year ended on a high note with a wonderful reunion with Arun and most of my college friends in Vizag. We spent the entire night playing Mafia, a thrilling game that you should definitely try if you haven't already! It had been years since I last caught up with some of them, like Vinay, Vikasha, and Satya, so it was great to reconnect after such a long time.