Our story

We met on Hinge. Our first date was coffee, then a Central Park walk, on a mid-November afternoon in New York City. Nikhil felt this was the wrong weather for the iced latte Manu ordered, and said so, roughly one minute after meeting her.

We both lied a little that afternoon. Nikhil said he was a reader and offered The Tennis Partner as evidence. We still own that book. The bookmark has not moved from page 226 since that day. Manu laid out her half-marathon training schedule in great detail, not knowing Nikhil had already run several, and he decided she sounded far too excited about it to interrupt. (No, she did not ever run that half.)

Walking back to her apartment, he gave her a hug and said something. He maintains it was “I had a great time, I’d love to see you again.” She maintains it was “You’re the funniest person I’ve ever met.” The record is unclear.

Sometimes fate does intervene. Manu was meant to fly to India that evening, and Nikhil would leave on a four-week trip the day she returned. A visa problem meant she never boarded her flight. Instead, we saw each other six times over the next two weeks, and we’ve been inseparable since.

On our second date, Nikhil shared that he was putting together a match list and all his options were out west. He asked, a little nervously, whether she was still in. Manu didn’t hesitate. He matched that spring, and she followed him to California in December, after losing one too many online games of Catan to him. We settled into life together: enjoying sunsets on the coast, sampling every fruit at the farmers market on Sundays, too much late-night ramen, and an ongoing argument about Nikhil’s caffeine intake.

In March 2026, while visiting Manu’s sister and her family in New York City, Nikhil suggested an afternoon walk in Central Park. He steered us toward our favorite spot on the lake and asked, “Can you believe this is where it all started?” Manu’s jaw dropped, and she accidentally almost flung her purse in the lake. He got on a knee.