The Old Sanawarian fraternity, the world over, condoles the sad demise of Lokesh Handa, Siwalik House, Batch of 1987. Lokesh passed away in Chennai a week before his 51st birthday. 

Our heartfelt condolences to his parents, elder brother, Naresh (OS 1980), wife, Chetna and daughter, Nayamat. He will be deeply missed!

Brownie, My Friend - A Eulogy (By Uday Mahajan, Lokesh Handa’s batchmate Sna 87) “Beta get ready - your new school mates are going to be here soon” my Mother reminded me that warm March morning in 1979. Soon I was at the beautiful home of the Handa family at the Mohan Meakins brewery in solan interacting with the special race of people who continue to be a part of my life today 40 years later - the one who is not anymore with us is Brownie, our dear friend Lokesh Handa, and also our gracious host that day - ‘Dharamveer’ at the Sundar theatre and the smell of beer at the solan brewery included, we had the most memorable day of our childhood thanks to Uncle & Auntie. I joined Sanawar a month after in Nilagiri and was homesick - the one pillar standing by me was Brownie the Siwalikan who would often start sobbing with me at the thought of family yet always giving me that warm hug of the brother that I needed to get my strength back and go to class, Lower 3B. Yes it was Miss John our class teacher or ‘Addi’ as we fondly called her, who had accompanied the group to Solan that day when I met them all for the first time - Bopa, Vioin, Viraj, Iqbal, Nikku, Setha, Namita, Shalu, Sukhamar, Attri, Katoch, Manjot, Banta, Nitu, Nagi, and I am sure I am missing some famous names from the list - more because this is not about us but about Brownie - the first from our batch perhaps to leave us and be with the Creator who will one fine day have all of us in attendance. Handa as he was known to many of us was a commendation/sat case like most of us, semi active in sports and dramatics again like most of us but a gem at heart like very few. Years went by, we left school, got married, life went on and we continued to be in touch every now and then by pure coincidence or shall I say by an unwritten prophecy would end up meeting one way or another. Once when my wife and me dropped in while crossing his hotel in Solan, seeing him standing on the road, while driving from Shimla to Delhi and on another day when I was on summer vacations in shimla at my parents, while from my base in France, my newly acquired india mobile phone flashed ‘Brownie’ perhaps for the first time in years - I think it was the summer of 2006. Joey and me were driving down to one of our favourite fishing spots close to shimla. “ uday kahaan hain yaar tu? I hope you are still in shimla?” He blurted not knowing that I had moved to France a few years ago and was coincidentally in shimla on vacation - “I am opening the Restaurent in my Hotel Winsum and you need to be here today evening for the inauguration” - next thing we knew Joey and me were driving down to Solan to be with the man who commanded our presence. Few years later another call - “Yaar Uday how have you been - main thora bimaar hoon so have moved to chennai with my family”, It was then that I came to know that he was awaiting a kidney donor and that’s why he had shifted base from solan to chennai. We kept in touch thereafter and I’d often ask after his health / he was always positive sometimes teasing me for having started my family late as his little daughter Nayamat had by now grown up and moved on to become an independent young girl in the world - little did I know that he had other plans ! Rest in peace my friend - you were a gem and will always be remembered as the indoninable cannibal king with the big nose ring as Tuhin puts it ! 

Rest in peace my brother - till we meet again!

 - Uday Mahajan