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Ashish Jha
TheDreamSaver

Behind the handle

Not a name I gave myself.

Nearly six years freelance, four hundred-odd clients, and the same line kept turning up in the reviews: you saved my dream project. After a few hundred of those I stopped arguing and made it the handle. It has been every username I own since.

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Ashish, off the clock

Not everything needs a takeaway.

For the hell of it.

Some loyalties, a few rituals, and things that came home in my suitcase.

01 / The loyalties

Same name.
Same number.
Different sport.

Rajasthan Royals & Atlético Madrid.
Two teams on two continents.

Comfort was never the point.

The back of a Rajasthan Royals 2026 shirt: JK Lakshmi Cement across the shoulders, the number 52 in large white figures, and ASHISH printed below it.
The Royals kit, 2026. 52, and my own name on the back.

One of twelve. Allegedly.

Ardent Rajasthan Royals fan, and the joke I have made about it for years is that there are twelve of us. Pink and blue, the first team to ever win the thing, and roughly two decades of being told to support somebody else. I have the shirt with my own name on the back.

An Atlético Madrid home shirt laid flat with a matching cap and a sheet of club stickers. ASHISH is printed across the shoulders above the number 52, with the LaLiga patch on the sleeve.
Madrid, May 2022. Same number, different sport.

Ninety minutes of belief.

The other shirt in the cupboard. Both carry 52 and ASHISH on the back, but Atlético is a different kind of loyalty. Ninety minutes of defending, taking it personally, and doing it all again next week.

Cricket / Out in the world

A cricket fan’s 2026.

Ashish standing beside a shoe display at the one8 launch.
At the one8 launch.June 2026. “As a die-hard cricket fan, this has been the best project of my life,” I wrote that day.
Ashish taking a selfie with Arshdeep Singh at the airport in Mumbai.
Arshdeep Singh, Mumbai.Posted 15 March 2026. I’d hoped to catch a World Cup victory parade. I got this photograph instead.
Ashish and Ravindra Jadeja standing together outdoors at night in Sri Lanka.
Ravindra Jadeja, Sri Lanka.Posted 19 August 2026. “From one wily spinner to another,” as I put it.

02 / One more game

Daily.
Still losing.

I play chess every day, usually bullet. I also turn up for the occasional office tournament or Bangalore chess club meetup. I still lose plenty.

People seated in rows on the floor, playing chess at a club meetup in Bangalore.
Bangalore chess club.A meetup I went to. Boards on the floor, games all around.
Pieces on a green-and-white chessboard beside a digital chess clock at an office tournament.
More time. Somehow, not more composure.An office tournament, April 2025. My bullet-chess brain meeting a 10-minute clock with a 15-second increment.

03 / The words

Forty sentences.
Then a flight.

Hindi native, English professional, Spanish elementary. I built my own app to drill the phrases, because every existing one wanted to teach me a curriculum when what I needed before a trip was forty sentences. Building the tool is half of why I do it.

1,720 daysDuolingo streak as of 7 Oct 2026.

A personal update, not a live counter.

Duolingo profile (new tab)

In 2020, cancelled travel plans became Learn Lingo, an Alexa skill I built for practising a new language. Apparently even staying home led back to travel.

04 / The souvenirs

The things
that come home.

Not the itinerary. The little objects left over from it.

A silver fridge covered with travel souvenirs: plush pandas, a green crocodile, colourful skulls, Slovenian dragons, a leprechaun, and magnets from places including Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Singapore and Mauritius.
The fridge makes a compelling counterargument.The collection, a little fuller. Photo supplied September 2026.
“When I travel, I don’t usually buy travel magnets unlike most travellers”

The fridge would like a word.

I prefer souvenirs that represent a country’s culture. Some magnets made it home anyway.

The original confession / July 2025 (new tab)
A tiny red wooden Celtic fairy door, still on its Irish Folklore Collection backing card.
A tiny door. An entirely necessary purchase.An Irish souvenir. Posted 18 January 2025.
“I just bought a fairy door.
A Tiny Fairy Door.”
A purchase I felt the need to explain (new tab)

The things that don’t go on the fridge

Sometimes, it’s the people.

Ashish smiling behind a birthday cake with a lit candle in Valladolid, Mexico.
A birthday cake. Before my birthday.Valladolid, Mexico. When people at the hotel learned that this trip was my gift to myself for my upcoming birthday, they surprised me with a “Feliz Cumpleaños” cake. Posted February 2024.
Ashish and a companion sitting on coastal rocks in Ireland, reaching toward each other, with the sea and a hazy sun behind them.
Perfectly innocent. Terrible alibi.Ireland. The sort of photograph that looks like a very questionable deal at the end of the world. “People make places,” I wrote when I shared this trip in February 2025.
For where these journeys took me Explore the journeys ↗

05 / Other worlds

Gladly suspending disbelief.

Sometimes you want a story.
Sometimes you want the system to fall apart.

Ashish and a luchador in a silver mask standing together, both giving a thumbs-up, in front of a wrestling-arena backdrop.
A wrestling fan’s kind of holiday.With Místico in Mexico, 2024. Posted 3 July 2024.

Professional wrestling.

Yes, I watch wrestling. I know it’s scripted. I enjoy the characters, the rivalries and a crowd getting behind a match.

Ashish beside the ornamental pond in the Alcázar gardens in Seville, beneath an ornate stone gallery and a blue sky.
Seville, with a little Dorne.The Alcázar gardens. A real place from Game of Thrones. Posted September 2022.
Ashish at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, with futuristic white buildings and a sunset behind him.
Westworld, without the hosts.City of Arts and Sciences, Valencia. Posted July 2022.

Dystopias & other worlds.

The Expanse is my favourite series. I also like Westworld and Game of Thrones, and occasionally turn up where they were filmed. The Alcázar in Seville and the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia both made it onto my trips.

My recommendation: The Expanse
Promotional artwork for The Expanse: James Holden against planets and a starfield, alongside the series title.
The Expanse. Earth, Mars, and the Belt.Official series artwork from Prime Video, not a personal photograph.

Music / On my playlist

It started with listening.

Nearly seven hundred of my voice apps were radio, podcast or sound builds. I also worked on skills for Sony Music and Warner Music Nashville. Here’s some of what I listen to myself.

Spotify playlist

My Spotify playlist

This player connects to Spotify. Music does not play automatically.

Open in Spotify (new tab)
Send me something to listen to

06 / Showing up

Away from the desk.

A few days with the Okta for Good team.
Open any photograph for a closer look.

8 August 2023

A day at school

A group selfie of Ashish, Okta colleagues and pupils gathered around planters in a school courtyard.
My first Okta for Good day.With colleagues and pupils at a school, 8 August 2023.
Ashish standing beside a smiling pupil in the school courtyard, with other volunteers behind them.
An afternoon at school.The same Okta for Good visit, 8 August 2023.

My first Okta for Good day. An afternoon at a school with colleagues and pupils.

December 2023

Jeevitha

Okta volunteers leading a game, with children seated in rows at Jeevitha.
An afternoon of games.Jeevitha orphanage · Okta for Good, December 2023.
Ashish and other volunteers serving food from large pots at Jeevitha.
Serving food at Jeevitha.With the Okta for Good team, December 2023.
The volunteer team standing together beside the Okta for Good banner at Jeevitha.
The Jeevitha team.An early Christmas visit, December 2023.

An early Christmas at Jeevitha orphanage with Okta for Good. Games, warm clothes and food.

June 2024

Rise Against Hunger

Ashish in a hairnet and mask, portioning ingredients into a packet at a meal-packing station.
On the packing line.Rise Against Hunger · Okta for Good, June 2024.
Ashish holding a packed meal beside the Rise Against Hunger and Okta for Good banners.
One packet at a time.The team packed 5,000+ meals that day, June 2024.
The Okta volunteering group gathered for a photograph in the Rise Against Hunger warehouse.
The meal-packing team.Rise Against Hunger, June 2024.

Packing meals with the Okta India team. Together, we packed more than 5,000.

Australia / July 2024

OzHarvest

Ashish taking a group selfie with colleagues in yellow OzHarvest aprons around a mixing bowl.
Everyone in the kitchen.Cooking with Okta and OzHarvest in Australia, July 2024.
Ashish in a yellow OzHarvest apron, stirring a large pot in a kitchen.
My turn at the stove.The OzHarvest team day, July 2024.
Colleagues in yellow OzHarvest aprons preparing ingredients together at a kitchen bench.
Cooking together.Okta and OzHarvest, Australia, July 2024.

A team day in the kitchen. Turning rescued ingredients into meals with Okta and OzHarvest.

Okta India / 2024

Solar study lamps

Ashish and colleagues assembling yellow solar lamps at desks in the Okta office.
A different kind of assembly.Building solar-powered study lamps with Okta for Good, 2024.
Ashish holding an assembled yellow solar lamp and its solar panel in the office.
One finished lamp.The team assembled 200+ solar-powered study lamps, 2024.
A large group of Okta colleagues holding their assembled yellow study lamps.
The lamp-building team.Okta India office-opening volunteering, 2024.

Our office-opening volunteering day. The team assembled more than 200 solar-powered study lamps for children.

More community & volunteering

07 / The expensive lesson

This one came
with a cost.

8 lakh rupees lost.

Options trading. Not a recommendation.

From my earlier account

In 2021, I joined a Telegram tip group and paid a few thousand rupees a month for calls I had no way to evaluate. I couldn’t read a chart. I lost ₹8 lakh in two months. It took two and a half years to make it back. That is the part I would rather have printed alongside the loss.

Some things belong here precisely because they aren’t wins.