The moonlight bathed the world in silver, and the sea whispered softly beneath the night sky. Lanterns swayed gently along the aisle, and candles flickered like stars trying to understand human emotions.
The curtains rustled gently in the ocean breeze, it's sheer fabric dancing like a dream against the moonlit backdrop. behind it, the bride stood still.
Her fingers trembled slightly as she held the hem of her white dress. it wasn't just silk brushing against her skin. it was memories, doubts, hope.... like all of them are stitched into a single moment.
The bride whispered with a feeling of shy, "yeah... there were so many moments."
"Moments when I wanted to escape..."
"Moments when I just wanted to rest for forever..."
"And yes—there were days I regretted choosing him..."
"Not because I never met him,
but because it felt like… maybe we were never meant to be."
"Like, two different worlds... but, suddenly there is a hope like, even it felt like two different worlds, but those two different worlds are resting under the same sky."
"And yet, now I'm here."
"Standing at the edge of something I thought I could never reach..."
"Not because I fought hard to get it, but because I simply kept walking, even when I didn't know where I was going..."
her face turned pink. she continued, "this isn't a story about a grand love that began with fireworks."
"It's my journey towards him from a distant place."
"Before I met him,
I knew what it meant to long for someone far away,
there was just me, standing alone at the sea. With only the moon to hear me, and silence to hold me."
"but now... it's different."
"Now I'm here with him." she leaves quiet shy chuckle.
And then, the curtains were drawn open.
soft light spilled in, golden and warm. the sea shimmered in the distance, the arch ahead like a promise carved out of moonlight and dreams. every pair of eyes turned toward her.
The people around her blurred into stars and seafoam. all she saw was the man waiting for her under the arch. Just like in the dreams she once kept hidden.
and yet, this wasn't a dream anymore.
it was real...
Her white dress swayed with each step as she walked slowly, almost as if time itself was holding its breath.
Tears welled up in her eyes, not of sadness, but of something deeper like something that words never dared to touch. It wasn't just a wedding. It was a memory unfolding. A quiet story stitched together by their journey.
She walked closer to him, each step echoing a hundred untold stories. And yet, as she drew near, she knew it hadn't started here. Not on this beach. Not under these stars.
"This isn't where it began," she whispered, her voice is soft, nearly lost in the ocean's lull.
as she walking towards him, those memories have shown up..
some are happy...
some are sad...
some are jealousy...
some are broken...
some are hidden...
---
The scene began to fade. The sea dissolved into pavement, and the gentle breeze became the rustling of trees in a university campus.
She stood at the entrance of her college. it is an ordinary place, yet extraordinary in her memory. The sky above was pale, painted with the first blush of morning.
Back then, she was just a girl in a sweatshirt, clutching her bag close, walking across the corridor with her headphones on and her eyes fixed on the ground. She preferred silence, not because she didn't like people, but because she didn't know how to explain herself to them.
Autistic. Quiet. Not broken. Just tuned into a frequency the world rarely listened to.
She loved routine. She loved the library, where no one asked questions, and books whispered only when invited. Her world was small but safe. That was enough.
Until he showed up.
Not in person. Not in real life.
But in thumbnails...
Back then, she would've never believed she'd one day wear a white dress, waiting under the moon for someone to take her hand. But love had a strange way of blooming, in silence, in stillness, in stories we never thought what would be ours like.
[Hey, what are you all doing there? sitting alone at the sea. the bride is here, come and see..]
A girl walking in the corridors of the university. and whispered, " this is 2022. I'm Anaya. they say I was born too early. oh! its just that when I'm in my mother's womb and she is 7 months 10 days pregnant, and then I was born like a tiny, fragile thing. oh! it was like that day my mom is suffered with heavy pains and crawled at the front door. my grandpa is very terrified and admitted her in the hospital.
the doctor said to my grandparents, "its normal for these pains in pregnancy time. there is no need to worry about it you can take her after sometime." and suddenly a nurse hurried over and said "doctor she delivered." and the doctor is in shock and like "what? what did you say?"
the nurse answered and said showing to my grandparents, "doctor, their daughter has delivered the baby, come and see."
then, the doctor is like, "oh my god! really" and ran over to the ward.
then, the doctor is shouting like, "oh my god! the bed is stained with blood. move her to the surgery room." he is running after my mom and grabbed me. then cut that umbilical cord and placed me in a tray.
"oh god! when my grandma told me this, I was laughing like I'm going to die with laugh."
and this place is Hyderabad."
"this is where my university, university of hyd is. this is where I've spent countless hours walking through quiet corridors and watching sunsets from rooftop."
"Hyderabad, this is where freedom feels free... in little ways. maybe in every way."
"the hair here always carries the scent of old stories and street food like biryani, panipuri, chai, and here, dreams cooked over centuries. it's a city where the past and present live side by side, where minarets rise beside malls, and every corner tells you something if you just stand still long enough to listen."
she continued, "I'm not the kind of girl who draws attention. I don't speak much in crowds. I don't know how to strike conversations at parties or laugh easily with strangers. My world has always been a little quieter. A little slower. A little different."
"Some people said I was shy. Some said I was strange. Some said nothing at all. and maybe that hurt the most."
"But I wasn't broken. Just… trying to understand how to exist in a world that moved too fast and spoke too loudly."
"I liked old buildings. Gentle rains. The feeling of being alone. I like university corridors when they were empty like now, and the library when no one else was there. I liked sitting by the window and watching the world from a safe distance."
"now, I was in my second year of university. The campus was always alive, chatter spilling out of classrooms, laughter rising from the canteen, footsteps thudding on stairs that never stayed still. But I lived in the hush between those sounds. The in-between moments. That was where I felt safe."
'I didn't have many friends, and I didn't try to make any.
It wasn't because I didn't want them.
It was because I didn't know how to hold a conversation without fumbling over the silence."
"but, I exist in a friend group. a space where they think that I'm one of them. total 7 members, 3 boys and 4 girls."
"they laugh, share secrets, talk about their relationships. and I smile, nod, even laugh at the right moments. but inside, it feels like I'm watching from behind a glass wall. and smiled at their things, what they done or what they talk."
"sometimes, I wonder if they notice me or not."
she continued, "well for now put aside them. I'll tell you about my daily routine. I wake up at 5 from the soft rustle of my bedsheets. Sit up before anyone else. Wrap my shawl around my shoulders even if it wasn't cold—because warmth, to me, was a kind of armor. I brushed my teeth while watching the trees sway outside the hostel window. The leaves looked like they were dancing just for me. oh! forgot to tell you, I'm a nature lover."
"At breakfast, I sat at the corner table. Always. The one near the wall with the cracked paint shaped like a crooked heart. I liked that heart. I don't know why."
"I carried a notebook with me everywhere. Not for class, but for thoughts. Half-written sentences, unfinished questions, dreams that melted like snow when I tried to write them down. other thing, I like to be a writer."
"but somehow, ended up taking a science course. In India, the children mainly bow to their parents decision. Yeah, the society had changed. but in some households, like mine." she whispered with a sad face.
she continued, "but my book, no one read those pages. because, no one dare to touch my things without my permission."
"Some days, I stayed late in the library just to avoid walking back with the others. I'd pretend to read, even when my eyes blurred. I liked the smell of old books. They reminded me of my study room back home, the one no one entered anymore."
"I wasn't sad.
At least, not always."
"I found joy in small things,"
"A hot cup of tea warming my hands after class..."
"The way sunlight filtered through the hostel curtains..."
"The soft rustle of a pigeon's wings outside my window..." "Full moon that appears one time a month..."
"That was my life."
"Simple. Predictable. Quiet."
"And for a long time, I believed that was enough."
she continued, "as for my family, you will know when you meet them."
"oh! I'm here. it's time for my class. yesterday, we just finished our 3rd semester. but, don't know why my lecturer sent us the message to come over to the college today. then, I'm here. I'll meet you other time."