Fan Forever... Rest in Peace Adi

 

27 March 2004. It was a Saturday. The day of Chaitra Chhath, an extremely pious day for the natives of Bihar,  Jharkhand and Eastern UP, when they offer Arghya to the setting sun as well as the rising Sun. 

That's when he, a descendant of the family of Sage Gautam, entered this world of mortals. He was promptly named after the Sun God. Aditya. Destined to create a Leela and spreading a cycle of happiness, positivity and eternal optimism around him. Chosen by Him to be born to an Indian Army wife. 

Aditya Gautam spent his childhood years all over the country among the Indian Army fraternity. By the time he finished his Class 12th, he had spent time in Bihar, UP, Uttarakhand, Jammu, Gujrat, Assam, Karnataka and West Bengal... and studied in eight different schools. The diversity of Indian Culture which he engrained in all these years developed him into an extremely adaptable and friendly young boy. His tall, fair and handsome personality only added to an infectious charm, wherever he went. 

Out of sheer interest, he  developed into an outstanding musician whose fingers floated on the keys of an acoustic piano like sea waves, strummed guitar strings like a man possessed and his vocal chords with a raw voice and dimpled smile earned an ever-growing circle of friends and fans. Guitar lessons from the Prayaag Sangeet Samiti and the Grade 7 in Western Classical Piano from the Associated Board of Royal School of Music (London) stands testimony to his musical prowess of which there was much more to follow in the years to come. Ms Sreejoya Dubey, his Piano teacher from 2018 onwards, was more of a mother than a teacher to him. Somewhere during these years, he also developed an interest in physical fitness and immersed himself in a devoted daily regime of Basketball and Gym sessions. The teenage desire of good looks, to add on to all his skills, was prepping him up for a Greek God persona. 

Aditya's Class 10th Board Exams were interrupted by CoVID-19. The lockdown months which followed thereafter, gave him an opportunity to upskill himself with A-1 level qualification in German language and an online web-designing course. This was also the time when he took the decision to weigh his career choices and decided to aspire to be a lawyer. The next two years of Class 11th and 12th at Bengaluru were devoted towards preparing for the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) exam besides all his other diverse interests of music, sports and friends. His dimpled smile on receiving accolades of "Mr Army Public School - Runners Up" during his School Farewell in January 2022, still could draw honeybees. These two years saw him giving new meaning to friendship and bonding in the times spent with Tarang, Aashay, Venya, Suhani and other friends in Bengaluru.

Adi's hard work bore fruit when he secured an All India Rank 1181 in CLAT-2022, which earned him a seat in the National Law University Odisha (NLUO Cuttack). He also qualified in the selection procedure for admission in Army Institute of Law (Mohali), Symbiosis Law College and National Forensic Sciences University (Gandhinagar). This was also the time he tried his hands at Blogging and Content Writing.

https://adityawritess.blogspot.com/2022/07/CLATCut-off-1.html?m=1

https://portfolio-website-31ab97.webflow.io/

His entry into the portals of NLUO defined everything about him thereafter, wherein his desires, ambitions and youthful energy got renewed wings.

He immersed himself in a world of new friends, Faculty, Lectures, Projects, Committees, Centres, Online Meets, Gym, Basketball, College Festivals and late night jaunts inside the Campus premises. 

Divyanshu, Advait, Anwesh, Ashutosh, Devika, Ishani, Chaitali, Priyal, Mrinalini... they were all a happy bunch,  loving each other and fighting with each other with equal zeal. Carefree, getting ready to take the world by storm and dreaming to change everything that they felt was wrong around them. He shared his pocket size hostel room with Harshit and they tried to give meaning to the word "roommates". He was as much at ease with his seniors too, which Shivansh and Sahil recollect with fondness.

His musical prowess too found ever-willing takers. Adi loved singing and playing guitar with his friends inside some hostel room, on the stairs of Academic Block, in the College Lawns, on the Auditorium Stage.... basically wherever he could find an outlet to put everyone around him in a trance. 

The one person who had a special place in his heart and life was Ayush Akar. Aayush was a student of 5th Year when Adi joined NLUO. They were as unlike as chalk and cheese. Nothing could explain as to how they got attracted to each other. But the next one year saw Ayush becoming Adi's friend, mentor, guide, brother, guardian... a symbiotic relationship with prospects of immense personal and professional growth.

Adi's professional learning started taking shape wherein he joined several premium bodies in NLUO like the Internship Committee, Centre for Research and Management in Natural Resources, Centre for Industrial Relations and Labour Law, and Intellectual Property Analysis and Advocacy Centre. Aayush mentored him towards the nuances of legal research, co-authored several research publications and guided in online legal moderation sessions. Within first three semesters, Adi had an enviable experience of three offline internships and two online internships to his credit besides as many as six research publications and presentation of Papers in three Seminars (One each at Hidayatullah National Law University Raipur, Narsee Munji Institute of Management Studies and Gandhi Institute of Technology and Management). All India Legal Forum, a start up co-founded by Ayush, gave him opportunities to be an integral part of lot of research work as well as oversee the editorial direction and content quality. He even got a chance to moderate an insightful session on International Arbitration and Foreign Direct Investment through AILF. An envious journey within eighteen months, to say the least.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aditya-gautam-1406a8245

He was exploring the NLU life in all its hues and colours. With his NLUO Contingent, he attended the annual college festivals of Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, National Law Institute University Bhopal, National University of Juridical Sciences Kolkata and AIIMS Bhubaneswar, wherein he enjoyed the Basketball matches as part of NLUO team and the musical nights with his groovy and chirpy gang. 

Chiasma-2024, the annual students festival extravaganza of AIIMS Bhubaneswar... thats where he played a Basketball match on 29 Feb. A musical concert of Mohit Chauhan was planned on the night of 02 March. He could not have missed it for anything. The day was special as it was the birthday of his younger brother, Anikait, with whom he loved to fight, loved to boss around and loved to do musical jams. He wished Anikait in the morning, attended his lectures thereafter, and followed it up with an afternoon gym session. Normally his daily gym session was late in the evenings, but today the evening was committed for the concert at AIIMS. 

After his gym session, he took bath and got set for a musical evening of fun and frolic with friends. Music was his first passion and thats where he was spending his evening. The concert must have been lively, Aditya must have enjoyed to the full and he must have had a great time,,, we will never get to know everything. 

On his way back to NLUO from AIIMS with his four other friends in a car, Aditya was seated towards the right side on the rear seat. At approximately 0015 hours on 03 March 2024, the car met with a road accident. All the children were injured, but Aditya could not survive the accident. A life cut short in a jiffy. A life full of promises, a life full of charm and grandeur, a life full of life. Aditya would have turned 19 years old on 27 March 2024. He did not see that birthday and left us all as a teenager still. Come to think of it, his last moments on the canvass of life were created by God to his complete liking,, since, when the accident happened, he was relishing an Egg Roll, something he really liked, sitting besides a couple of his closest friends who he loved, and was returning after attending a musical event which was his first passion. These were exactly the circumstances which he would have probably preferred if given a choice of circumstances to leave the world. And thats how he left us all. It was all extremely sudden and probably he did not feel the pain at all. That pain was left to be felt by his family and friends, and for anyone and everyone that he had ever met even for a short while.

Fuelled by his upbringing, Aditya was committed to evolving into a exceptional individual and a lawyer of repute. His experiences had instilled in him a deep sense of responsibility and a desire to make a positive impact on any team he joins. With a strong foundation in both Academics and character, Adi was poised to navigate the complexities of the legal profession with integrity and effectiveness. His journey was marked by a profound determination to uphold his principles while striving for excellence. He understood that his path will require continuous learning and growth, and he approached it with humility and resolve. With his values guiding him, he was prepared to contribute meaningfully to the legal profession and leave a legacy of integrity and professionalism, while simultaneously enriching the world around him with an infectious energy and endless positivity.

Adi has only left behind positivity and smiles for anyone and everyone he ever met. This world would never be the same without him. In the hindsight, he seemed to be a young man in a hurry. In a hurry to make friends. In a hurry to charm everyone around. In a hurry to seek blessings. In a hurry to set targets, and achieve. Gods had sent him to us to perform his Leela for 20 years only,  and when the time came, He called Adi back up there to look after the happiness of Swarglok. 

Rest in peace sweetheart. I would remain your biggest fan. A fan forever.

Please keep him in your prayers. 

He is smiling up there, and telling us to do the same. 

Chin up.

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Revisiting this page on 03 March 2025 and fondly remembering our beloved Adi on this unfateful day.

आज एक साल हो गया उसे हमें छोड़कर गए हुए। जब भी आंखों से आंसू निकलते हैं, तो ऐसा लगता है कि अपने dimpled smile के साथ कह रहा हो कि "हम यहां बिल्कुल ठीक है पापा, आप लोग खुश रहिए प्लीज़"।

What a bloody charmer he was. Enjoyed childhood and early youth and went back to the Almighty’s lap without seeing the vagaries of life, which lay ahead. 

Well we have accepted the harsh reality, assuming God has done all for some good or the other.

This morning, as we sat performing the Pooja, I was somehow convinced that he is playing his favourite numbers on a guitar or a grand piano, in the company of some bedazzled Apsaraas up above.

May he continue to hypnotise everyone in the heavens and mesmerize the Gods, who I am sure, will bless him and take even better care of him than what we or life would have.

Miss you Adi boy. Don't worry about us.... Mumma is getting better, Ani is doing good in School. 

Keep Smiling, Keep Shining.

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