This refusal led me to believe he was selfish and self absorbed with no attitude of helping out.

So initially we had kept our distance and interacted as colleagues.

After 3-4 months we had been tasked to go get supplies from the market by our seniors for an examination. This was the first instance where we had interacted for more than minutes.

Well I guess we can say that was the changing point in our story.

After that incident, we became friends who talked and used to have meals together whenever time permitted.

I was also impressed by his taste in music. We happened to love the same songs, listened to a few rare gems not many would have heard and did that while working at our ward tables day and night. We started helping out with each other’s emergency days.

Unknowingly, cannot even pinpoint when and where did I start to have these feelings for the half sleepy, hazelnut eyed, roaming in the same clothes for 7 days guy.

So when I mustered the courage to tell him about my feelings, also in the doctor’s room in the hospital he took his sweet time before saying yes that he did reciprocate the feelings.

After this started our extremely difficult journey of keeping it from the n number of medical colleagues seniors and staff in the hospital.

Despite knowing that we hailed from difficult backgrounds and with wide apart personalities and having  gone through a bunch of ups and downs together I finally asked him for marriage in March of 2023.

Eventually in the month of October Karan’s father made an impromptu trip to India and provided us with an opportunity to get the story forward.

In India, the families must like each other and agree to the union because it isn’t just about the two people in love; it’s about the coming together of 2 families.

All our apprehensions and fear were put to rest when both the families happily agreed to blessing us. And that is all we had ever wanted.