$ git tag -a v25.0.0 -m "kartikeya"

Happy 25th,
Kartik.

New job secured. Breakup arc survived. Cake destroyed. Somehow every serious photo still looks like an album cover.

Kartik in a black hoodie posing with hands on hips — the pose had purpose

Kartikeya portrait in denim — subject: sukdya

Kartikeya by the ocean — deep thoughts, probably

$ git log --oneline --since="last birthday"

One year of Kartik, fully documented.

Every incident was committed. Nothing was squashed. The history is public now — sorry, that's how version control works.

~/friends/kartik — zsh

25a0000feat(life):turn 25. major version bump(HEAD → main, tag: v25.0.0)today

c4ke9fatest(cake):face-first integration test — passedtoday

f4ce001test(face):main-character stare still fully operationaldaily

b1gj0b2feat(career):corporate kartik loading… offer signed2 months ago

e7f2a91refactor(self):remove deprecated relationship dependency5 months ago

9d8c3b0fix(heart):patch memory leak from breakup arc6 months ago

rev5le9revert(sleep):revert "going to bed early" (again)nightly

a5c0a57feat(travel):merge branch 'coast-trip' into main8 months ago

f0t0d0cdocs(camera-roll):add 34 photos, zero explanationsall year

ch41r55style(pose):dramatic chair sitting — do not reviewrecurring

6r4dffffeat(grad):ship graduation with the usual suspectslast year

$ git checkout -b vegas

vegas loading soon…

exhibit A — printed & taped up

For Sukdya, unfortunately famous now.

Printed, taped to the internet, impossible to delete. Like everything else you've done this year.

Dear Kartik,

Happy birthday, Sukdya. You are 25 now, which is basically ancient in group-chat years, so naturally you get a whole website.

This year had plot. Bad chapter, recovery arc, new job, cake attack, and enough random photos to build a legal case against your posing choices.

The full Kartik experience remains undefeated: serious face, random wisdom, sudden plans, dramatic silence, and then one sentence that makes everyone lose it.

Hope 25 brings money, better sleep, good food, fewer Ls, and at least one photo where you look normal. No pressure.

Stay dangerous. Stay employed.

With a lot of anger, obviously.

tonight, fresh out the kitchen

Post-cake evidence.

Taken right after the cake cutting. No notes, except that the birthday officially survived contact with frosting.

img_2844.jpg · taken tonight · unedited

Kartik after the birthday cake cutting with cake on his face

the official record

Twenty-five looks solid on a man with too much evidence online.

Graduation crowds, hikes, beaches, car rides, inside jokes, dramatic chair poses, blurry nights, and now a new-job chapter. Decent resume. Questionable camera roll.

$ ls evidence/ | wc -l → 34

The year in saved photos.

Mountains, coast days, car rides, graduation frames, cake evidence, and multiple photos that require no explanation because none would help. Click any of them.