Nandini and Collin met on a summery day in October 2010 at Caltech. Their first encounter was dark and messy. As an initiation event for their dorm, Page House, the sophomores (Collin) created a trashbag coated tunnel within the hallways of Page, and dumped every sticky, slimy, gross textured food they could obtain onto the floor and walls that the new freshmen (Nandini) had to go through repeatedly while more food was thrown at them. Nandini was the first victim of the year, and Collin lay in wait, armed with a ketchup-mustard-egg-syrup-crisco slurry. After 15 minutes of being the sole recipient of the sophomore’s food fighting wrath, Nandini grew fed up of crawling through the muck and being yelled at. She retaliated and tripped Collin into the slime. He claims that this feat was impossible and never happened. At the end of the day, Collin and Nandini found themselves in the backseat of the same car en route to Fuddruckers for a dorm dinner. They finally had the chance to introduce themselves, and their conversation was so thorough they didn’t need to reconvene for months afterwards. In actuality, Collin with his calm and cool attitude assuaged some of Nandini’s worries about life at Caltech, and Nandini endeared Collin with her friendliness and excitement - plus some facts about Denali from an earlier trip to Alaska. They were brought together again by the power of friendship. Two of Nandini’s friends were dating two of Collin’s friends, which inevitably meant Nandini and Collin were able to bond as fifth-wheels. Throughout undergrad they attended formals and parties together and would hang out on their own without the couples (who were now uncoupled). They were both realistic and hesitant to enter a relationship, since the future held many unknowns with life after graduation. But luck, fate, and just a little bit of liking each other kept them both in the LA area, and their relationship blossomed. The next few years - ok basically a decade - held lots of cooking competitions, travel, costumes, theme parties, football, Pokémon collecting, beer festivals, wine tasting, hikes, board games, and just generally intertwining of their lives. They eagerly introduced each other to their families (Collin is now the head chef for the Mukherjee Thanksgivings) and Nandini continues to be the biggest consumer of salmon dip during Murphy Christmases. Recently both their families spent the holidays together in Austin and it truly felt like one big family - and Collin and Nandini are ready to make it official!

Collin proposed towards the end of our Great Northern Plains roadtrip in August 2022. That roadtrip included Teddy Roosevelt, Glacier, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and eventually Zion National Parks. He’d selected a detour through Idaho for visiting Craters of the Moon National Monument, which was extra apt since Nandini works on lunar mining projects. He knelt down in Dewdrop Cave and presented Nandini with a ~500 carat green ring pop that Nandini, definitely shocked and surprised, slowly accepted and quickly consumed. They then explored some more caves, and drove to Salt Lake City where they celebrated with drinks - including one perfectly named “The Perfect Man…hattan.” Behind the scenes, Collin’s experience was quite the comedy of errors: 1. He thought ring pops were easily found in gas stations, but had a really tough time finding them across 10 states. When he finally found some, he bought extras in case they melted since it was an uncharacteristically hot summer. Also why a ring pop? Nandini wears and has ZERO jewelry. He wanted to keep the whole proposal a surprise, but also wanted to get a ring Nandini would actually like. Also he is a goofball. 2. He had planned on proposing at Glacier National Park, but it was crowded at the scenic points so decided against it. Turned out to be lucky, since they were staying in a hostel and their neighbor was sobbing loudly and having a full blown emotional breakdown. Not the best environment for being freshly engaged. 3. Next he was going to propose while camping in Yellowstone around sunset, but there was an enormous traffic jam just by the gate. It turned out to be from a massive herd of bison blocking the road. Due to impending rain and lightning as well as the delay, they couldn’t leave until it was dark and unsuitable for off-road camping. They did end up staying in a covered wagon that night though, which was cool! 4. At Craters of the Moon, which was basically the last stop, he wanted to propose at inferno cone, which is a cinder cone volcano and the highest point in the park. It was very hot and the black asphalt-like terrain made it feel even hotter so Nandini was getting a bit exhausted from the heat while walking around as Collin looked for a nice proposal spot. Collin finally found a secluded area and set up the camera sneakily to video mode, and out of nowhere a young kid came crashing through, tripped and started bawling because of his scraped knees. A young kid wailing unsurprisingly ruined the moment. 5. The next cave he wanted to propose at was called Beauty Cave… which turned out to be closed! There was no indication on the map, just a blocked trailhead. So his only two caves and opportunities left were Dewdrop and Indian Tunnel. He thought Indian Tunnel was too easy to tease since Nandini is Indian so Dewdrop it was! Turns out Dewdrop was a teeny cave especially in comparison to Indian Cave, which was large enough to have a trail going through it. It all culminates in a fun story with the happiest conclusion!