Anupriya tied her long hair back into a ponytail and sighed. It was a scorching Saturday in Mumbai. As 12th standard was coming to an end, she felt a mixture of relief and sadness. She was excited to move on to university but still felt like a girl inside. She had never been with a man. She knew her father wanted her to marry a "nice" Chitpavan Brahmin man like himself. Whenever she got a bad mark or created a mess, he threatened to marry her off to the Konkani boy across the street. "And whatever you do, don't hang around to one of those kallu tamil boys from school," he often warned. Anupriya hated how prejudiced he was, partly because she was enamored by her tall Tamil classmate Shiva.
With all this on her mind, Anupriya still had to prepare for her maths exam next week. Normally, she would call her Marathi friend Amith to help her out, but she grew tired of constantly rejecting his advances. The heat inside the flat was now intolerable. Anupriya left the building and took a walk. Walking down the main road to her school, she spotted a familiar sight. It was Shiva! Fate had brought them together, she thought to herself.
"What are you doing here?" Anupriya inquired.
"I could ask you the same," Shiva replied.
"TouchΓ©. Well nothing really, I'm just escaping the heat. I can't concentrate on maths right now."
"You should come over to my place. We have A/C and I'm about to head back and study myself."