We first met in high school — two nerdy teenagers navigating IIT prep, friendships, and teenage chaos. Apart from a shared love for Chemistry, we couldn’t have been more different: Ameet spent his breaks on the football field, while Briti was always singing or dancing at school events. Back then, we were just friendly acquaintances, orbiting the same world but never quite overlapping. A couple of years later, fate had other plans, when thirteen of us from that same school landed at IIT Madras. Between late-night chai and paneer rolls, campus fests, games of mafia, inter-hostel competitions, and endless laughter and chaos, we went from classmates to friends, best friends, and eventually, partners. After graduating, life took us in different directions — Briti into the corporate world and Ameet into academia to begin his Ph.D. What followed were four years of long-distance love between the US and India, filled with time-zone juggling, video calls, and precious reunions once or twice a year. When Briti moved to the US for her MBA, we finally found ourselves on the same continent again — and it felt like coming home. A few months after being reunited, while Briti was on a trip to Colombia with her friends, Ameet pulled off the ultimate surprise — a beachside, Bollywood-style proposal, complete with a dance performance. She said yes (of course!), and now we’re counting down to becoming each other’s forever this February — surrounded by all the people who’ve been part of our story along the way.