It all started in Toledo, Ohio when Sudipa and Gage were both enrolled in a Master's Program prior to beginning medical school. Gage had just moved from Youngstown after John Carroll and Sudipa was working as an emergency medicine scribe after Penn. They had some friends in common during the first couple of months but never really hung out together beyond group gatherings and Master's Program events. They did have one close mutual friend, Cyrus, with whom they were very close. Gage decided to have some friends over before the UTCOM Halloween party and Cyrus invites Sudipa, who shows up dressed as a penguin. Gage, the leprechaun, had just happened to stop at the liquor store and purchased a bottle of Bombay Sapphire (Sudipa's favorite gin at the time). That night they hung out pretty much the entire night. From that point on they began to build a friendship. Their friendship continued to build over the next several weeks until Veteran's Day weekend. They were sitting in Biostats class on a Friday afternoon when Cyrus and Sudipa started talking about going to Chicago for the weekend. Sudipa turned to Gage and decided to invite him to come along. They left for Chicago the next morning. Within minutes of the drive, Cyrus was asleep in the backseat leaving Sudipa and Gage on their own. This could have led to an extremely awkward and long 4-hour drive as they still did not know each other very well, but instead they hit it off. As the drive progressed, they bonded as if they had known each other for years. Sudipa impressed by Gage's rap knowledge and Gage in awe of how comfortable he felt around her already. The weekend was a great success. The three of them hung out and enjoyed Chicago with Sudipa's family. From that weekend on, Sudipa and Gage slowly began to build a friendship which eventually became a relationship, an engagement, and now the beginning of the rest of their lives together.

Gage and Sudipa had just completed 4 years of medical school and made their way to Pittsburgh, PA to start residency at AGH and UPMC, respectively. Over the winter, they had visited a couple of jewelry stores to scope out Sudipa's taste in ring style. In early February, Gage secretly made his way to Youngstown to pick out an engagement ring and he hid it in the apartment for over a month. Then a lucky coincidence ensued when two of their wedding party members, Zach and Ariel, just so happened to be coming to Pittsburgh for Ariel's bridal shower (which Sudipa was invited to). A plan sprung into action. With Zach and Ariel's help, Gage set up a scheme for them to create a fake plan of meeting on Mt. Washington after the shower for more "engagement pictures" overlooking downtown Pittsburgh. Ariel called Sudipa the night before the shower to see if she would be willing to photograph the two of them and of course Sudipa agreed, DSLR in hand the next day. Gage informed everyone that he was unable to make it to Mt. Washington because he had to complete a presentation at the hospital. However, once Sudipa left for the shower, he instead got everything prepared to find the perfect spot. That afternoon, Gage waited for them to arrive after leaving the bridal shower. Sudipa, completely unaware of the situation, was trying hard to get perfect shots of Zach and Ariel with Pittsburgh in the background. Zach suggested they walk a little farther down the path and that is when they saw Gage. At that point, she still did not realize what was happening, thinking he was solely there to help with pictures and that he had just gotten off of work early. This changed however when he told her that they would need to get some pictures of their own as well. He dropped to his knee and the rest is history! They had a lovely dinner with friends in central station and were surprised by an island themed engagement party thrown by her co-residents.