‘Are you breaking up with me, Sanju? Do you know we are now married and you can’t just break up and walk away? Like you did seven years ago? Why is there no middle ground with you then or now?’

‘I broke up and walked away? Life is always about you, isn’t it, Anu?’ Sanju stormed out of the house. Anu heard him start the car.

She sat feeling nothing for a long time. Her mind had gone blank. She didn’t want to think about the present. So she thought about what Sanju had just implied—that he was not the one who had walked away before.

They had been dating for three years. Anu had somehow made up her mind that she wanted to be married at twenty-five. But her family never thought what she said had to be taken seriously. They kept bringing the so-called alliances and Anu kept turning everyone down.

‘Sanju, not to brag or anything but you got a catch in me, man.’ Anu would laugh showing him the pictures of eligible grooms and their parents asking her parents for her hand.

‘Really?’ Sanju was always a good sport. He would laugh. ‘I will build a temple for you like they have done for Khushboo and worship you for bestowing yourself on me.’

But at one point, Anu started to get tired of battling her parents. Her I-wont-marry-till-twenty-five was not getting any attention.

‘Anu, we must tell the parents. So that they stop looking for grooms for you!’ Sanju had convinced her when his mother had begun to suggest prospective grooms for Anu.

When they told the respective parents, there was nothing filmy about their reactions. Anu’s parents were disappointed that she had found someone herself. But other than that there was no objection. Except, big trouble came in the most unexpected form.

‘If you both are keen on each other, you must marry immediately.’ Anu’s father was firm. ‘We can’t have you see each other out of wedlock.’

‘Daddy! Please don’t use cringe-worthy phrases like “out of wedlock”.’ Anu had scrunched her face. ‘We have been seeing each other for three years. Just because you know about it now, you can’t force me to marry immediately.’

But her father, usually a very forgetful man, hadn’t forgotten his stance on the matter even after weeks. For heaven’s sake, he forbade her from meeting Sanju! Well, that was a bit filmy and unnecessary because she was working by then and was meeting Sanju after work. He had finished his M.Tech from IIT Chennai and was working for an IT company in Bangalore. He had turned down offers to go abroad because Anu was averse to the very idea.

Sanju had convinced her father that he was applying for Ph.D in the US and getting married too quickly would hamper his plans. He had asked for a year more to settle down.