Ever since I can remember, I have known Saakshi. In some way or the other she has helped me get through the thick and thin of life. And so this, my first ever blog was only truly reserved for her. Saakshi is the kind of girl who would trust anyone blindly and whom anyone could trust blindly. She is the over-optimistic, hopeless romantic and ever innocent school-girl gal that one would want to protect from the big-bad world. Everyone who knows her, also knew that she was one princess and with whom life could never be mean. What we all only had in our minds, seemed to come true when she started going out with Vikram.

Vikram and Saakshi had met at a restaurant much like in a bollywood movie. Vikram was eating alone at a table and Saakshi was waiting for her roommate to join her for dinner. Thanks to Bangalore work culture, and the overcrowded eating joints, their love story found a way of unfolding. While Vikram waited for the waiter to come n take his order, Saakshi waited n waited n waited for her roomie to show up. Saakshi's phone rings and she answers it in a shrill voice "Priya, How long are you going to take ? I'm at the restaurant since half an hour, half dead, thirsty and about to pass out coz of waiting. I can't even sit at a table coz there isn't one empty!!" Priya was running late as she was still at work due to some last minute emergency and would take atleast 15 mins to leave office and about an hour's commute to the restaurant. Saakshi was almost in tears and mumbled something into the phone. Vikram meanwhile, had got drawn to eavesdropping on this one sided conversation and was truly intrigued. He leapt at the first chance he got and went upto Saakshi who was waiting only a few steps away from his table. He tells Saakshi that he had heard her conversation and would be happy if she would like to join him for dinner, He already had a table and was eating alone. Saakshi, was taken aback by the forthright invitation from a total stranger to eat with him but she gave in to hunger pangs(we gals do it more often than not), the long wait and her numb legs and decided to just eat dinner and "get the hell out of here". The rest is like any other movie where 2 strangers discover each others strengths and weaknesses and hopelessly fall in love with it all.

A year later, Vikram and Saakshi were the talk on the social scene. No two people could have suited each other so perfectly. It was the ideal pair. Saakshi, sweet, caring and innocent- the girl that any guy would like to show mom, and Vikram, the smart, handsome and madly-in-love-with-his-girl guy. I remember it was during their engagement when Saakshi and I met after almost 2 years. She had gone away to Bangalore for work where she had met Vikram and I was still in Bombay deciding what to do with my life. Saakshi's younger brother- Siddharth was back in Bombay for Saakshi's engagement after an onsite assignment in US.

Siddharth was a few months elder to me. We'd been enemies while we were kids, always fighting for Saakshi. Our fights were more unpredictable than the BSE Sensex. Gradually they stopped as each of us got engrossed in our studies. Life took us to different corners of Bombay - Him for his work and me, for my Post Grad. Siddharth was now back and I was only too excited to meet him. He had changed into a s*** Swan from an ugly duckling and I couldn't help being too aware of him around me during Saakshi's engagement. We had a fun time cracking jokes, playing pranks and shopping for Saakshi's engagement ring to Siddharth's suit and shoes. Life couldn't have been better then. I started feeling more and more drawn to Siddharth and felt him opening up to me too. We would talk late into the nights discussing anything and everything from the National Geographic Channel to Indian Government to Cricket and even Stripclubs in US. We used to flirt when no-one was around and he seemed genuinely inclined towards me.

Soon, we started shopping for Saakshi & Vikram's wedding. I looked forward to going shopping with Saakshi as it would give me a chance to spend some time with Siddharth. The four of us usually hang out together. Sometimes, Vikram & Siddharth would drop us off to a mall or parlour while they went about finishing the crappy jobs that guys do- the staying arrangements for the guests, caterers so on and so forth. Many a times they would return to pick us up, much later than decided, tired with the long tiring drives in cluttered Bombay markets. Saakshi and I only wanted to give a hug to our guys who looked so haggard, it seemed as though they had returned from branding cattle. We could only be thankful to them for taking so much time out for making all the arrangements and not bothering Saakshi and her parents. All Saakshi and I did was spend hours in shopping and at the beauty parlour pampering ourselves. The day was nearing and finally the celebrations started. On Saakshi's Mehndi & Sangeet evening, while 2 gals were happily making Mehndi designs on Saakshi's hands, and all the aunts and female cousins sat blaring out bollywood songs, I realized that I hadn't seen my mom in the crowd yet. Worried that she would have forgotten about Saakshi's Sangeet, I got up to call mom. I went into Saakshi's room to use the phone in there as the hall was a Sooraj Barjatya musical by then. As I picked up the phone, I recognized Siddharth's unmistakable voice on one end.

I contemplated making some smart joke and scaring him but what I heard after that scared the **** out of me. Siddharth was saying "I don't know how we got into this...may be we had too much to drink at your engagement party." and then a familiar male voice on the other side said "That was a mistake but what about the last few months when we could have been in complete control of our desires? Just make sure that Saakshi never finds out about the two of us varna main dhobi ka kutta reh jaunga- na ghar ka na ghat ka.". Just then, one of Saakshi's cousin comes to where I'm standing numb and shouts, "Mansi di, aap phone le ke yahan khadi hain, everyone is looking for you in the hall." I silently put the phone down and dragged myself out of Saakshi's room and into the hall where she looked so happy and radiant like never before and never after.