For Vijay Rupani, the number 1206 wasn’t just a combination of digits—it was a quiet omen of fortune, a thread that stitched together the story of his life.
From his first scooter in his youth to the official convoy that escorted him as Gujarat’s Chief Minister, every license plate bore those four digits. Friends would nudge him playfully, calling it his lucky charm. He’d respond with a knowing smile—never confirming it, never denying it. Over time, 1206 became less a number and more a personal talisman.
Campaign victories. Cabinet appointments. A briefcase gifted to him by his father. Even his former home once carried the same digits in its address. To Rupani, it felt like the universe nodding in silent approval—a private code etched across the milestones of his life.
But fate, as always, plays by its own rules.
On June 12, 2025—12/06/2025, Vijay Rupani boarded Air India Flight AI171 from Ahmedabad. Minutes after takeoff, the aircraft suffered a catastrophic failure and went down near Meghaninagar, claiming the lives of over 200 passengers. Among them was Rupani.
The date—12/06—the same number he had carried like a quiet beacon through decades of public service and personal memory, became the final punctuation mark on his life’s journey.
What was once a symbol of serendipity now echoes with tragic irony. The number that had shadowed his every ascent had, in the end, marked his fall.
Life rarely offers such poetic symmetry. But when it does, it leaves us wondering—not about luck, but about the strange ways destiny writes its final lines.
