Once Upon a University Campus

Engagement

Annika could not eat much that evening. The two families that were to fuse into one in the near future, had finished a noisy dinner consisting of sarson ka saag and rotis. One bit of the saag and Annika had lost interest in the meal. Shivaay who was sitting at the other end had knowingly smiled at her disappointment, after all he knew she loved the saag he made for her and today he had been too busy to cook. But what he did not know was that Annika's heart was so full of happiness that it left no space for food in her stomach. Pinky had insisted that Annika eat something and warned her from plunging into crash diets like many brides did.

"But I know Aneeka, you are an educated girl, you know better than crash dieting." Pinky had course corrected herself."But do eat desi ghee. It will make your skin glow. Not even gold facial can replicate the healthy glow ghee gives you." Pinky gave Annika an unsolicited advice and poured a tablespoon of ghee on her roti.

"Sure Mama" Annika had smiled.

Rudy sat next to Sumo monitoring the food on her plate. He had loaded her plate initially with a generous helping of salad. But Sumo as well as Saahil did not miss any opportunity to do justice to good food.

The party had broken up. Shivaay had offered to drop his soon to be family back to their respective destinations. Om had to head back to campus since he had to attend his classes early in the morning. Saahil had to be dropped back too. Shivaay decided to drop Om and Sumo first then Saahil followed by Annika.

At the hostel gate Om and Sumo wished Shivaay and headed into their respective wings. Saahil went in to collect his belongings but was taking longer than expected.

"Shivaay, let me go and check on Saahil. His bags were all packed and ready. I don't know what is taking him this long. Besides, I will change into my regular clothes. Enough of playing a south Indian." Annika felt the umpteen pins in her hair and tried to remove then as she tried to get off the car. Shivaay stopped her.

"I want my south Indian girl back.. Check on Saahil, take as long as you wish but don't change your outfit yet. My eyes have not had its fill yet." Shivaay whispered.

Annika had smiled at him, knowing she could never say no him ever again.

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Saahil had slept by the time they reached his school. The warden had been waiting for him and was glad to see him back so that he could go back to his quarters and sleep. He had wearily looked at Annika and Shivaay and grinned exposing his tobacco stained teeth.

"Congratulations" He had wished them slightly unsure of whether they were married already or was it just an engagement ceremony they were coming back from. "Does Saahil need vacation for the wedding?" He hesitantly continued.

"Most likely not, because we plan to have the wedding during summer break" Shivaay had spoken before Annika could.

"Oh yes, you South Indians get married during summers, we north Indians prefer winter wedding, though nothing wrong with summer wedding" the warden commented politely as he got off his desk, turned off the light on his desk and got ready to leave. "So many differences between South and North but still many things are common. " He continued his monolog even as his generous pot belly appeared more so as he lumbered out of his cabin and locked the door. "Common, like surnames. I did not know the South Indians too had surnames like Trivedi. I had only known South Indian with surnames like Pillay, Iyer, Swamy. But it is always good to know different people" He went on.

Neither Annika, nor Shivaay had the patience to correct him and just played along. A sleepy Saahil had only enough energy to hug his sister and walked away back to his dorm.