We met at a banquet at the University of Texas at Austin before the summer of 2011. We were randomly assigned to the same table for dinner and ended up spending the entire evening laughing and talking before making our way to 6th St. separately with our own friends. We ended up running into each other again and by the end of the night, I was hoping Saral would ask for my number (he spent the better part of the evening trying to think of his best line). Before we went our separate ways, Saral told me to text him the next time I went out and casually started walking away. Confused, I quickly stopped him and reminded him that I didn't have his number! Saral, playing it aloof, apologized, and instead, asked me for my number and said goodnight. At that moment, I realized just how smoothly he played that situation. We have been talking almost every day since!

Planning the proposal was one of the most fun and stressful experiences of my life and I couldn’t wait to make the experience as special and memorable as possible. I wanted to find an intimate setting that both had special meaning to us and was easy for our friends to travel to so that we could all celebrate together afterwards. The hardest part was keeping it all secret! With the help of our friends, I planned a trip to San Diego to celebrate a few of our friend’s 30th birthdays and New Years Eve. We all had a blast celebrating birthdays on the 28th and 29th! Bijal had no idea that the entire time everyone was helping me behind the scenes to execute the proposal! On the 30th, the “group plan” was for everyone to get dressed in their fanciest outfits for an evening of drinks and dinner in downtown. The guys managed to get out of the house a little earlier to grab a drink together and afterwards I headed over the Cuvier Park, a beautiful cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean in La Jolla. During that time, the girls told Bijal that they wanted to take pictures by the water before meeting us. When Bijal arrived to Cuvier Park, she saw me waiting on the cliffs and the tears of joy started almost instantly! I showed her a scrapbook that I made that also included a letter that I read to her that encapsulated everything I wanted to say in that moment. From there, I got down on one knee and she said yes!