Prologue – Just Another Day
The late afternoon sun draped the school playground in a golden haze. A cricket ball rolled across the dusty ground as a group of boys collapsed under the shade of a neem tree, breathless after their game. Their laughter echoed between the classrooms, the kind of carefree sound that only belonged to children at the end of a long day.
“Hey, look there,” one boy whispered, elbowing his friend. All heads turned. At the far end of the ground, the Physical Education teacher—whom everyone called PET sir—was standing with the English madam. They weren’t scolding anyone or checking homework. Instead, they were laughing softly, lost in their own world of conversation.
That was all it took.
“Oooooh, PET sir and English madam!” another boy sang, and the group exploded in giggles.
“They’re in love!” someone shouted.
“Shut up,” another corrected, trying to sound wiser. “Teachers don’t fall in love. They already have families.”
The teasing picked up pace, fueled by the boundless energy of young imagination. Soon, the gossip drifted from teachers to something far closer to their lives—parents.
“My dad didn’t even see my mom before marriage,” one girl announced proudly. “It was all arranged. My grandparents decided everything.”
“That’s nothing,” another added quickly. “My parents met just one week before their wedding!”
The group roared. But then, quietly, one boy muttered, “Well… our parents had a love marriage.”
The laughter died.
All eyes turned to him and his younger sister sitting cross-legged beside him.
“Love marriage?” one of their friends repeated, as if the words themselves were a forbidden spell. “You mean… like in movies?”
The siblings exchanged an uneasy glance. The younger sister nodded shyly. “Yes. At least… that’s what they told us.”
The silence broke into a wave of questions.
“How did it happen?” “Did your grandparents agree?” “Who proposed first?”
The siblings shook their heads, laughing nervously. “We don’t know the whole story…”
Then the boy’s eyes lit up with a mischievous spark. “But maybe Dad will tell us tonight.”
The group leaned closer, whispering in excitement as if they had just uncovered a great secret.
The bell rang, breaking the spell. Books were gathered, bags swung over shoulders, and the children ran out of the playground, but the question lingered in the air like an unsolved riddle.
And so it began—not with a proposal, not with flowers, not even with love at first sight. But with two children curious enough to ask:
“Dad… how did you and Mom fall in love?”
