As told by Murtaza
From a bus stop pickup in Mississauga to wedding shopping across India — this is how it happened, from my side of things.
Late 2023
Mom had invited her over for dinner. She’d just moved to Canada and was staying in North York — I was out in Mississauga. I picked her up from the bus stop, and what was supposed to be a simple evening turned into hours of talking. Mostly about food. At some point I told her I wanted to try chocolate biryani. She laughed. It became our thing.
October 2023
We met up again right before Halloween for some costume shopping. No real plan — just walked around Toronto, ended up in Kensington Market, tried on ridiculous outfits, and talked smack about how expensive all these "thrift" stores were. It was one of those perfect, effortless days where time just disappears.
New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s I asked her to be my girlfriend — a bit embarrassingly, if I’m honest. And then I immediately dropped her home and drove off to go watch fireworks. She still jokes about how I just left and went to enjoy myself. In my defense, the fireworks were really good.
2024
This was the year we really fell in love. We had some of those hard, honest conversations about life, but talking to her never felt difficult — and she’d say the same about me. We told our families around Eid in April. I even switched to an iPhone so we could FaceTime. Concerts, park dates, Winter Wonderland, arcades, and more food than I can remember.
2025
I moved to Toronto and suddenly we could see each other all the time. She helped me decorate my apartment. For a brief stretch I was cat-sitting a friend’s cat and she loved Libro more than she loved me — her words, not mine. We travelled to Montreal for our first festival together. She made me jump off a cliff into water. I was terrified. She was delighted.
Late 2025
She finished her studies, and we celebrated with the trip of a lifetime — a mini layover in Hong Kong, then on to India where I met her parents and her family. We did the classic 18-hour Indian train ride. We did so much wedding shopping that I now know more about women’s clothing and cut styles than any man probably should. It was chaotic, exhausting, and absolutely perfect.
2026
And now here we are. Two people who started with chocolate biryani jokes and thrift store arguments, building a life together. This isn’t the end of the story — it’s just where the best part starts.
From chocolate biryani to forever — we cannot wait to celebrate with you.
October 22, 2026