Our Self-Written Obituaries – Lesley Esteves, Alaknanda

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Lesley Esteves, Alaknanda

The 43rd death. [Text by Lesley Esteves; photo by Shuddhabrata Sengupta] Lesley Esteves, who passed away at 82 from complications of type 2 diabetes, grew up in Mumbai and later settled permanently in Goa, but spent the prime years of…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Padmini Vaidyanathan, Sector 29, Noida

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Padmini Vaidyanathan, Sector 29, Noida

The 42nd death. [Text by Padmini Vaidyanathan; photo by Nameless Memory] All she wanted was an epitaph that read ‘Love’. That is how Padmini Vaidyanathan defined her crazy life and her penchant for everything crazy. If she knew it was…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Sadia Dehlvi, H. Nizamuddin East

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Sadia Dehlvi, H. Nizamuddin East

The 41st death. [Text by Sadia Dehlvi; photo by Mayank Austen Soofi] There was an unmistakable scent of roses in the room. That night she dreamed of a luminous being telling her she would soon journey to the other world….

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anurag Dixit, Ashram

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Anurag Dixit, Ashram

The 40th death. [Text by Anurag Dixit; photo by Anjali Dixit] The Unseen He died Before that, he trembled And before that, he suffered He suffered Before that, he walked He walked and he travelled And before that, he explored…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nishtha Gautam , Deshbandhu College

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nishtha Gautam , Deshbandhu College

The 39th death. [Text by Nishtha Gautam; photo by a French woman traveller] Nishtha Gautam died in a motor accident on the evening of 8 September. She was observing her weekly ritual of going to Agra, when her car rammed…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Zoya Singh, Lady Shri Ram College

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Zoya Singh, Lady Shri Ram College

The 38th death. [Text by Zoya Singh; photo by Vijay Singh] Zoya Singh always thought that she didn’t belong here. Even the words that she spoke carried in them some sense of oddness and misunderstanding that belonged to some other…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Pupps Roy, Kailash Colony

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Pupps Roy, Kailash Colony

The 37th death. [Text by Pupps Roy; photo by Unknown] Seize the day. Indeed, the phrase “carpe diem” was coined for Pupps Roy, a migrant who came to New Delhi with steely determination and went on to climb the pinnacle…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nammita Bhatia, Noida

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Nammita Bhatia, Noida

The 36th death. [Text by Nammita Bhatia; photo by Sanskriti Mohta] Nammita (the ‘mm’ was her attempt at being different from all other Namitas out there) Bhatia, 52, finally died of heart failure during siesta yesterday, after dying a thousand…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Arunima Mazumdar, Dwarka

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Arunima Mazumdar, Dwarka

The 35th death. [Text by Arunima Mazumdar; photo by Hindol Basu] On the day she was going to die, Arunima Mazumdar got up rather early to go for a morning walk. She never went for a morning walk in her…

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Phebe Bay, Singapore

Our Self-Written Obituaries – Phebe Bay, Singapore

The 34th death. [Text by Phebe Bay; photo by Marcel Sim] Born to a middle-class couple, Phebe Bay did moderately well, although she was not exceptional. As a student, for instance, she was neither the best in her classroom, nor…