NOVEMBER 2017
The Beginning
Two guys. One hometown. Around 500 metres between our homes. The beginning of a friendship that would grow through school, college, distance, and adulthood.
The first page of our story.
a little trip down memory laneEST. NOVEMBER 2017500 Metres Apart.
For Pasha, on your 23rd.
500 Metres Apart.
Almost 9 Years Together.
Brothers by Bond.
To the guy who’s been part of my story for almost nine years —
Happy 23rd Birthday, Pasha.
Different cities. Different lives. Same old us.
Made for you. By your bhai, Sanket.ONE✳
Some chapters have fewer photos.
They still mean everything.
01 WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Every Great Story Has a Beginning.
Ours started in November 2017.
Back in November 2017, neither of us knew how many chapters this friendship would have.
We were just two guys from the same hometown, living barely 500 metres apart.
No complicated plans. No calendar invites. No long-distance calls across time zones. Just the comfort of having a friend nearby.
And somewhere along the way, that friendship became one of those things you don’t have to explain.
2017THE BEGINNING OF US
02 THE CHAPTERS
Different Chapters. Same Brotherhood.
Almost nine years, a thousand little memories, and a friendship that kept finding its way forward.
2018 — 2020
The Growing-Up Years
The years when friendship became familiar. The kind of bond that starts feeling less like making plans and more like having someone who is simply part of your life.
Same hometown. A growing bond.2021
Two Different Worlds
College took us in different directions. Pasha went to Pune, and I went to IIT Kharagpur. Suddenly, the guy who lived around 500 metres away was now roughly 1,500 kilometres away.
PUNE ↔ KHARAGPUR2022 — 2024
Distance Became Normal
Different schedules, different campuses, and different routines. Life kept moving, and we kept growing. We could not always be around each other physically, but distance became another part of our story.
A few kilometres couldn’t rewrite this.2025
From College to the Real World
Graduation brought another change. Years of campus life gave way to work, responsibilities, and a new version of adulthood.
New chapter. Same people.2026
Same Bond. New Cities.
Pasha is building his life in Pune, and I'm building mine in Hyderabad. Different cities, different routines, and plenty of new responsibilities. But almost nine years after this story began, one thing remains familiar: we're still us.
PUNE ↔ HYDERABAD03 THE DISTANCE THAT NEVER WON
500 Metres Became 1,500 Kilometres.
And somehow, that wasn’t the end of our story.
Maybe the best part of friendship isn’t how close you live.
It’s knowing that no matter how far life takes you,
some people still feel like home.
04 THE ARCHIVE OF US
Proof That We Were There.
Different years. Different versions of us. Same friendship.
Some memories were photographed. Others just stayed with us.
05 THE PEOPLE WE’RE BECOMING
From Figuring Life Out to Figuring Life Out.
Growing up was never part of the original plan, but here we are.
Somewhere between 2017 and 2026, life changed quite a bit.
We went from being two guys from the same hometown to figuring out college, careers, cities, responsibilities, and whatever adulthood is supposed to be. Pune and IIT Kharagpur then. Pune and Hyderabad now.
Our schedules changed. Our priorities grew. Our worlds became bigger.
But there’s something special about having a friend who knew you before all of that. Someone who belongs to the chapters before the job titles, the responsibilities, and all the serious adult conversations.
You’ve seen different versions of me, and I’ve seen different versions of you. And I think that’s one of the best things about a friendship that lasts.
06 THE THINGS THAT MAKE US, US
The Brotherhood Section.
Not everything important needs a photograph or a long explanation.
Same roots
500 metres apart. Same hometown. A friendship that started close to home and kept growing.
01Different paths
Pune for you. Kharagpur for me. Now Pune and Hyderabad. Life clearly had its own travel itinerary.
02Growing up
We've changed, life has changed, and adulthood has arrived whether we were ready or not.
03No formalities
Some friendships don't need a perfect conversation every day. They just need the kind of understanding that time builds.
04The long run
Almost nine years later, you're still one of the people I am genuinely grateful to have in my life.
05The next chapter
We don't know where the next few years will take us. But I hope they bring more memories, more laughs, more stories, and more reasons to celebrate this friendship.
06THINGS ONLY WE GETyou had to be there.
INSIDE JOKE TO ADD · 01Your legendary one-liner goes here.
INSIDE JOKE TO ADD · 02That story only we understand goes here.
INSIDE JOKE TO ADD · 03Our most ridiculous inside joke goes here.
07 A NOTE FROM YOUR BHAI
One Thing I Wanted to Tell You.
Dear Pasha,
Happy 23rd birthday, bhai.
It's honestly a little crazy to think that our story goes all the way back to November 2017.
Almost nine years.
When I think about it, we have come a long way from being two guys whose homes were barely 500 metres apart.
Back then, neither of us knew how different life would look a few years later.
Then came college. Pune for you, IIT Kharagpur for me. Around 1,500 kilometres between us.
And now, somehow, we're both working, trying to figure life out, building our own futures, and living in different cities again.
Pune and Hyderabad.
A lot has changed since 2017.
We've grown up. Our lives have become busier. There are responsibilities now, plans to make, goals to chase, and a whole future waiting for us.
But one thing I genuinely feel lucky about is that our friendship has been part of so many versions of my life.
Not everyone gets to have someone who has known them across so many years, so many changes, and so many different stages of growing up.
And I'm grateful that I have that in you.
I know we may not always be in the same city, and life won't always make it easy to meet whenever we want.
But I hope we never lose the comfort of this friendship.
The kind where we don't need to explain everything.
The kind where we can pick up from wherever we left off.
The kind that still feels familiar even when everything else around us changes.
On your 23rd birthday, I genuinely wish you happiness, good health, success, peace of mind, and the courage to go after everything you want from life.
I hope the coming years bring you opportunities that excite you, people who genuinely care about you, experiences that make you grow, and memories that you will look back on with a smile.
And I hope that somewhere in all those plans, cities, responsibilities, and new chapters, we keep making time for our friendship too.
Because almost nine years is a pretty good beginning.
There's still a lot of life left to live, a lot of stories left to create, and a lot of memories left to make.
So here's to everything that brought us here, everything we're figuring out right now, and everything that's still ahead of us.
Happy 23rd birthday, Pasha.
Dost toh bahut mile, par bhai jaisa tu hi mila.
Stay the same at heart, keep growing, keep winning, and never stop being the person you've been all these years.
Bhai, abhi toh picture baaki hai.
Always rooting for you.
08 BECAUSE IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY
Okay, One Last Thing...
Because a normal birthday message was never going to be enough.
THE STORY DOESN’T END HEREHere’s to the
Here’s to the
Next Chapter.
From 500 metres apart to building our own lives in different cities,
we’ve already come a long way. And this story is nowhere near finished.