Aniketh Turns 20 – March 20, 2021

I dearly miss him on his 20th birthday, now that he is in the US studying at Purdue. Thanks to Covid, I got to see him in Hyderabad for over 6 months during the last year, while he attended school from Home. I am hoping to see him again this Summer. He is my stress buster, hangout buddy to chill, and talk about pretty much anything other there, and a great company in everything that I do, and most importantly great chauffer for me. Like I said earlier too, his life is a perfect mix of friends, fun, family time, sports, studies, hangouts, movies, internet, outdoor sports, travel, humour, positivity, enthusiasm, loves cooking, respect for elders, gentle dose of anger, irritability, eagerness to help people around him,  appreciation for spirituality, diversity of opinions and culture, and more.

Aniketh Turns 16 – March 20, 2017

Aniketh turned 16 today.   Pic on the left side is one of my favourite pic of him, taken when he was about 6 months old.  One on the right side is taken few months ago, when we were at Maldives for family vacation. Raising Aniketh continues to be both, fun and enlightening for me.

I am already scared, and counting down number of years, he would be at home, as he is surely go out of town to pursue his dream of becoming commercial airline pilot.  Again, given our entire family’s love for travel, he becoming a pilot, wouldn’t be such a bad thing too :-).

I think Aniketh living a perfect life compared to many kids that I know of.  His life is a perfect mix of friends, fun, family time, sports, studies, hangouts, movies, internet, outdoor sports, travel, humour, positivity, enthusiasm, loves cooking,  respect for elders, gentle dose of anger, irritability, eagerness to help people around him,  appreciation for spirituality, diversity of opinion and culture, and more.

I am blessed to be his dad, and wish great life ahead for him.

Here is the rest of the write-up from previous years.

Aniketh Turns 15 – March 20, 2016

Happy Birthday to the dude of the Chintala Clan. It’s Aniketh’s 15^th birthday. Aniketh insisted that I do not do any sort of video or blog about him.  Given that he is my project for life time, I did not heed to it :-).  I took significant amount of time to sieve through several dozens of video clips that celebrates our good times with Aniketh.  I enjoyed viewing all those clips and wished so hard that I can go back in time to relive those moments.  Since the videos were in different formats (because they were shot with different phones and cameras), it took some time to compile the 5-minute video ‘Amazing 15 Years with Aniketh” which is available below.

In this video, you will see him as a chubby one-year-old, cute nursery rhyme singer (which he made me edit it out now), kindergarten school goer, arya style dancer, sincere kid receiving honour at his school, mischievous and naughty kid during vacations, kid enjoying sliding in the snow, as a classical singing student, skater, skit player, scuba diver, robotics builder, big kid giving a emotional ode to grand parents, fashion show & ramp walk participant, drummer, basket ball player, and a teen with a gang of buddies, and more.

Like most folks who know him well, I am also proud of him for several reasons. Most importantly, because he is kid who always seems to be in the current moment, and enjoying life in pretty balanced and independent way, while oozing lots of positive energy and enthusiasm.

This year was little special to me, as I got to spend more time with Aniketh, eating junk food, watching movies on big screen at home and outside, and beginning to listen to his music, and watching my first anime “Death Note” series, all in a period of few weeks.  They are not so boring, after all 🙂

All of the credit goes to everyone in the khandaan (and his friends) who has deep influence on him directly or indirectly, with special credits to Radhika who took keen interest in making who he is today, and my Mom / Dad who immensely influence all of us at soul level, sometimes without even saying a single word

Since he has an exam on Monday, he asked for no celebration tomorrow, and deferred it to next weekend.   Thank you in advance for all your blessings and wishes for him to continue to be happy all the time.  Nothing matters more for us.  If one is happy without a reason, everything will fall in place automatically.  It is ideal state of nirvana, though not an easy one.

Aniketh Turns 13 – March 20 2014

Aniketh completes another year today, but it feels lot longer, given the number of changes I see in him during last one year.  I see all the classic signs of teenager in him, one of which is “Leave me alone” syndrome :-).  I am looking forward to spend more time with him this summer, helping him build Mindstorm robots using new EV3 kit, and possibly help him write some code too.   It was fun documenting his tryst with Lego Robots last year.  I am glad that I am in India on his birthday, and looking forward to celebrate at Little Italy tonight.

Aniketh Turns 12:

Aniketh, who turns 12, is another special person in my life.  Now most of my free time is spent with him. If I had remote to reverse or pause time in my life, I would love to spend more time with him. He is one of the youngest kids that I have seen, can converse like a mature adult. He appears as if he truly understands what’s going inside me, both when I am happy and when I am tensed.  He gives cute gesture and a nudge indicating ‘take it easy, dad’ , when I am tensed.

He is one of the few kids I have seen who truly enjoys life, seems to be living in the current moment all the time, very similar to the way kids used to do in 90s, spending time on the road and getting dirty in the process.  He is street smart, has good general and current knowledge, can survive if left alone for some time, and engage in reasonably smart conversations with both young and adult in their respective frequency. He is always handy to me and Radhika in many of the small and big things that we do.  He enjoys helping in cooking process, and can actually cook some dishes on his own with little or no supervision.

He enjoys hosting friends at home, arranging or going for sleepovers.  He loves to run with Radhika & me for errands around the town, and the world too (if given a chance).    He shares my craziness for movies (animation, action, and comedy) and loves to give me the company anytime of the day. He is well known kid around and attracts attention because of positive vibes that he oozes.  He loves dogs, and they seem to respond to him very well too.  One of my few fantasies that I have and that I can afford to realize is to have a huge house with nature as a backyard, with multiple pets, for the kids 🙂

My brother fondly calls him, ‘he is my guruji’ and i agree with him.  Radhika used to say, that it was meditative for her to watch him and see him in action, when he was young. I am looking forward to spend little more time with him building Lego Robots (which is his favorite pass time now) this summer with his second kit that I got him for his birthday.  I am also looking forward for my later years to spend more time on the road with Aniketh and Revanth, as if we are teenagers, siblings, friends, and loving kids with his dad.   He is another kid that I am very proud of and confident that he will do well, wherever life takes him.

Please join me in wishing Happy Birthday to Aniketh!!