I’m thrilled to share that my long-awaited novel has finally emerged from the shadows of my laptop, where it patiently awaited its moment. Life’s responsibilities had kept it tucked away, almost forgotten, but today marks a turning point as I present it to you for your reading pleasure. This day holds even more significance, as it’s my husband’s birthday – what better gift than a self-penned novel to celebrate him?

Happy Birthday, dearest husband! May this day be a reflection of the joy you bring into my life, multiplied tenfold. 😘 Here’s to more love, laughter, and inspiration for my future tales. 😄

Now, dear readers, allow me to introduce you to the world of my creation: a rib-tickling romantic comedy that promises to keep you delightfully engaged until the very last page. Join Rajib and Saachi in a whirlwind of hilarious mishaps as they navigate a maze of secrets and parental expectations while venturing into the perplexing realm of real love amidst a sea of fabrications. But wait, the stage is set for a comedic collision as the magnetic Raina strides onto the scene, capturing both Rajib and Saachi in her charismatic aura. The question that hangs in the air like confetti: Who will win Raina’s affection in this uproarious love triangle?

For a taste of the literary feast, the first chapter is served hot and fresh on my blog. Dive right in, and don’t forget to share your thoughts in the comments.

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Chapter 1 – Rajib and Saachi

“Why can’t you just tell them the truth?” Rajib shrugged.

For the last two hours, Saachi had been requesting and begging and pleading with Rajib to help her, but in Rajib’s opinion, it was just an insane idea. Rajib could not believe what Saachi was asking for.

“Please, Rajib, let’s get married this Sunday.” Saachi’s face glowed under the dim fairy lights. The restaurant owner seemed to have invested so much in the Diwali décor that he didn’t want to take it off until Christmas.

But Rajib’s face was dull and grey like his dark grey sweatshirt with the bold printed words ‘University of Toronto’, which he had teamed with black trousers. “Saachi, I thought we were meeting to have dinner because you wanted me to try this, your new favourite restaurant. And Sunday? It’s the day of our common birthday party, like the old days. Our families will be there, and maybe some relatives too,” Rajib thought for a moment, “and our parents will repeat the same old story of how we were born on the same day. Argh!” He made a bored face.  

Every year, Ruchita and Sujata would take this opportunity to describe the wonderful day of Rajib and Saachi’s birth. The two babies had looked like angels wrapped in cream-coloured swaddle cloths; their cradles adjusted next to each other. Twenty-nine years ago, on the morning of October 26, Rajib was fetched out of Ruchita, and Saachi decided to pop out on the same evening. She couldn’t stay in anymore; after all, her bosom buddy was already out, breathing fresh air. Now howzzat for a coincidence!

“That’s the best part of getting married this Sunday. They will have something new to discuss on our next birthday – how we got married on the same day.” Saachi winked.

“I don’t get it. I seriously don’t get it. Where did this marriage thing come from between us?”

“I love you, Rajib, I always did. And you love me, too.”

“We are best friends.” Rajib clarified.

“Yes. We are, and that is the base of our strong relationship.” Saachi held her palms together like a big knot and grinned. Stupefied with the proposal that Saachi had just thrown at his face, Rajib frowned. His vision blurred for a minute. In fact, for a few seconds, he couldn’t see Saachi. He could feel the steam rising in front of his eyes, his ears felt the heat, his nose stung, and he coughed slightly. Was the haze in his mind manifesting itself as smoke?

“Here are your chicken sizzlers,” chimed the waiter.

Rajib took off his spectacles and wiped them with the table napkin lying next to his tall glass of Long Island Ice Tea. He adjusted them on his nose, getting a clear look at Saachi. Saachi gave the waiter a wide smile. “Thank you, just in time.”

“And just as you like it.” The waiter smiled back. “Enjoy your meal,” he said and moved back towards the kitchen.

Rajib waved in front of his face to clear the remaining steam from the sizzlers. Saachi adjusted the table napkin on her lap, adding another layer to her ruffled blue midi-skirt. She looked smart yet casual in her formal white shirt. She had kept Rajib waiting in the restaurant for thirty minutes because of an annoying client’s last-minute unscheduled meeting at her office. This client wanted her bedroom walls repainted because the colour she’d last approved did not look the same as she had imagined. It did not leave Saachi any buffer time to go home to change and freshen up, or rather, doll up for the big proposal to her best friend. Not that she cared! Rajib had seen Saachi in far worse avatars, the worst being her mud-covered one when she had tried to jump over a muddy pothole to save her shoes but had missed royally. She’d looked like a grumpy hippo struggling to escape a muddy lake. That’s what Rajib would often call her, though, at the moment, he looked much of a grumpy hippo himself.

“I don’t believe it. You rang me up to say you needed to discuss something urgent. Is this your urgent?” Rajib poked a fork in the chicken. “The nerve of you!” He stuffed his mouth with the chicken and put the fork down forcefully.

“Rajib, you are my best friend. We’ve been together for close to three decades now. Who else could I turn to for help?”

Yup! Born on the same day, studied in the same school and graduated from the same high school, though with different specializations – they were indeed best friends. Saachi continued coaxing. “We have shared everything from our tiffin boxes at school to subject notes during graduation. Don’t forget I also lent you that baggy jacket of mine, which you haven’t returned yet.” Rajib stopped chewing for a second, and before he could say anything, Saachi started again. “That’s okay! That’s completely fine.” Rajib rolled his eyes as Saachi continued, “You can keep it, and I will keep those sunglasses of yours.”

Rajib nodded once. “And…”

“And the sneakers.”

“And…”

“Yeah. Fine. I have your iPod, too. But that’s not the point.”

“Exactly, Saachi. That’s not the point. Getting married is not the solution to your problem. In fact, it is not even a problem. It is your life, and you have the right to choose how you wish to spend it. Your parents have supported you throughout, from letting you choose the curtains of your room to your career. Unlike my parents.” Rajib folded his arms in front of his chest and exhaled sharply. “Anyway, I’d still suggest talking to Kaka-Kaki. If you want, I can come and give moral support. Or help you explain. Sujata Kaki will definitely understand. You are her daughter, her only child, and she will not throw you out.”

Rajib had a point. He adored Saachi’s parents, who had raised her with much regards for her free will. She had been free to choose her career, to the extent that her parents were okay with her taking up a job in an interior designing company while thinking all the time that she was an Architect. 

“No, she might not throw me out, but she might just kill me,” Saachi said and looked the other way.

“How do you know? Have you told her about your situation?” Rajib eyed her.

“No, not yet, but I thought I should prep her for the big reveal. So, I decided to show my parents a movie focussed on this topic.” Saachi closed her eyes and paused for a few seconds. Rajib looked at her expectantly.

“Well, Ma just went berserk. She said, ‘Tch Tch Tch. These movies have ruined the lives of young girls.’” Rajib burst out laughing. He laughed so hard that he had tears in his eyes. He even earned a few turned heads towards their table. “Yes, I had to tell her I was twenty-eight, not a young, naïve girl, dammit! In fact, no, correction. On Sunday, I turn twenty-nine. But dude, listen, this is not funny. My parents will never accept that their daughter is a lesbian.” Saachi cupped her chin with her right palm.

Saachi had a point. Her parents supported her super hectic job because they were happy to have their only child staying close to them. So close that Sujata and Arun had set a ‘stay-in-Kolkata’ condition for potential grooms. In fact, it’d be even better if he agreed to reverse conventions and come and live with Saachi. But Saachi despised the whole idea, wanting instead to get out of these boundaries and go far, far away. And for her, Rajib was the only hook that could pull her out – like a frog from its well.

“It’s not so simple for them to take in, but that’s not how you tell them. You need to sit and talk.”

Saachi pursed her lips and let out a big sigh. “You think I didn’t?”

“You did?” Rajib raised his eyebrows in anticipation.

“Not exactly, but I told them about an imaginary friend, Aarya. I told them that she is gay and how her parents supported her.”

“And?”

“And my Ma asked me to stay away from her. Because that imaginary Aarya might hit on me and ask me to get married to her.” Rajib again burst into laughter, and this time he had the whole restaurant looking at them. Saachi threw her napkin at Rajib.

“I told you it’s not funny.”

“I am sorry,” Rajib said, controlling his laughter.

“As a last resort, I requested my company to transfer me to their Mumbai office, and they readily agreed, but you don’t know my Ma. She said, ‘No, No, No, the only way you can step out of Kolkata is if you get married to someone outside Kolkata.’” She mimicked the voice of Sujata squeakily and then slapped her forehead. “Ma is going nuts about getting me married.  Every time I reject one of her prospects, she’ll say, ‘A girl should get married and bear children before she crosses the mark of thirty. She also says my biological clock is ticking, and I’ll have issues in the future. How do I explain to her that the biology she believes in is not the biology I am looking forward to as my future?” She raised her hands in the air and exclaimed angrily. “I can’t do it! I can’t marry any random man in Kolkata and be….” Saachi paused and looked up. “I want to go out of here, free of restrictions, no stupid alliances, and no more meeting inane boys.”

“Despite all that,” Rajib moved his hands in circles. “Our marriage is not the solution to this problem.”

“Why not? It’s a good plan. We don’t have to really get married – we just act like we are married. Then we can move to Mumbai.” Saachi was full of energy as she blabbered her plan.

Rajib cleared his throat. “Ahem, Saachi. I live in Toronto, not Mumbai.”

“Oh! Shut up,” Saachi shrieked. “I know your company has fired you, and I also know that you have found a job in Mumbai.”

“How did you know that?” Rajib shrieked even louder than Saachi.

“Taani told me.” Saachi took a sip from her tall glass of Coconut Mojito, sliding back in her seat. “And I also know about your breakup with her.” She gently bent forward again and tapped on Rajib’s left hand.

“Oh, she could not keep it to herself, right? Why did she have to call you? And what did she say? Why did she break up? Was it because I had sucked the life out of her like a vampire?” Rajib pierced his fork into a tiny shred of chicken multiple times, but the stubborn piece refused to get stuck to the tines. Irritated, he tossed the fork on the plate, picked up the chicken with his fingers, and chewed on it as if trying to push all his anger onto the innocent morsel. “Saachi, I was fired. I was depressed. How can she call and rant out to you?”

Saachi sat straight again and cleared her throat. “Taani did not call me. I called her. I needed information about the process of moving to Canada. That is when she told me about everything.”

Rajib swallowed, trying not to choke at the same time. “I gave my heart and soul to the company, and they fired me. And you know how my parents are. Being in Canada was one of Baba’s deepest desires, which he fulfilled through me. I feel I am crushing his dreams under my incapability.” His face dropped. “And Taani, I loved her so much, but she broke up with me. She felt I was just a miserable loser who couldn’t stand up to his parents. But the truth was she was unhappy that I wanted to move to Mumbai. She was afraid I wouldn’t be able to deal with a long-distance relationship.”

Saachi nodded her head, caressing Rajib’s hand. “So, when do you plan to break this news to Ruchita Kaki and Arun Kaka?”

“No, I won’t tell them. I will quietly fly to Mumbai and pretend I am in Toronto.” Rajib folded his arms tightly against his chest. “Baba will never be happy about me moving to Mumbai, for he wanted me to be that one in the family who was a Canadian from Kolkata. Now I don’t know. He is going to be so furious. And Ma, remember when I was leaving for Toronto for my masters, how she had called everyone in the family to see me off at the airport. Oh, it was like a mini procession. I was so nervous, what with the whole pressure of moving to a new country, living with new people. Everyone here had huge expectations of me to complete my studies, get a job and never return, except for vacations. Not a single person was upset that I was leaving, not even Ma. In fact, she declared at the airport that she would get the best daughter-in-law for her NRI son. What NRI? What is this fascination with settling outside India? I don’t understand.” Rajib rubbed his face with his palms. His father had always aspired to settle in Canada like his elder brother but couldn’t ever make it. He later opted to live his dreams through his son. So here was Rajib, forcing himself to live his father’s dream life.

Saachi snapped her fingers in front of Rajib’s face and pulled him back to the present. “Hello! Can you hear me? Hello!”

 Rajib rubbed his forehead. “Oh, God! Ma and Baba are never going to accept this.”

“Idea!” Saachi smiled, and her hands moved dramatically. “Marry me.”

“Again? Saachi, I won’t.” Rajib pulled a face.

“No! No! I mean, we can act that we are married.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Look, your parents would not be happy about you going to Mumbai instead of Toronto. They will be heartbroken, of course. Their dream of having an NRI son would break into a million pieces. Moreover, they’ll be shocked to know you no longer have a job in Canada. To save you from all this drama, why don’t we tell them that you want to marry me, which is why you are returning to India? My Ma, in turn, will help convince your Ma now because I will be married to you, and she does not want her daughter to go far away from her. You know your Ma has a very special place in her heart for my Ma.”

“Impossible. Sujata Kaki can never manage that.” Rajib scoffed.

“Of course, she can! My Ma and Ruchita Kaki are staunch friends.” Saachi started counting pointers on her fingers. “They have grown up together. Lived in the same neighbourhood. They are close companions, so close that they had everything in their lives done in sync. They went to the same school, graduated from the same high school with the same specializations, are now working as teachers in the very same school, and got married in the same year to men who bear the same name, Arun Pal. And they even got buns in their ovens around the same time. Do you need more reasons?” Saachi stopped talking in anticipation of a response from Rajib. She moved her eyebrows up and down rapidly.

Rajib looked at her with suspicion-filled, narrow eyes and moved his head. “Nah! I don’t think this will work. And that buns-in-the-ovens comment was cringe.”

“Oh, come on! It is far easier to act married than to act like a Toronto citizen while in Mumbai.”

“Yeah, that’s true, the time zone difference.” Rajib sighed.

“Exactly, think about this. You have to go to Mumbai. You got no choice. I want to go to Mumbai – it is my choice. If we separately go and tell our parents the real reason why we want to go to Mumbai, it might break their hearts. Trust me, it’ll be much easier to convince them to accept our marriage than to open up to them about our reality.” Saachi air-quoted the word marriage and again took a sip of her Coconut Mojito. She looked into Rajib’s eyes. “Once in Mumbai, no one would know, and no one needs to know. We can be on our own. Do whatever we want, and you don’t need to worry. I will find accommodation for myself and move out. I won’t burden you.”

“You can never be a burden for me. We can stay together.”

“Perfect.” Saachi clapped, and Rajib raised an eyebrow. “I mean until we find someone for you.” She winked.

“Saachi, this fake marriage and living together all sounds fine and exciting. But what will happen when we really find someone? We aren’t going to stop going out and meeting new people. How will we manage that? We have to tell them the truth one day.”

“One problem at a time, Rajib. We will see to it when that day comes. We’ll figure out a plan. But for now, are you with me?”

Rajib looked at Saachi for a few minutes. “I don’t know. But getting a flat in Mumbai will be easier if I am with a wife.” He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, contemplating the situation for a few seconds. Then he shook his head in agreement. “But, remember, I am doing this only for you.” He shook a finger at Saachi.

“Oh, I’ll never forget it.” Saachi got up from her seat and stood in front of him. “So, Rajib Pal, do we hug and call this a deal?”

“We do, Saachi Pal.” Rajib stood up and hugged her tightly, filled with exhilaration and nervousness at the same time.

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For those who prefer the digital realm, my book awaits you on Amazon Kindle, ready to spark joy and laughter. Kindle Unlimited subscribers, your passport to mirthful escapades has just been stamped – the book is yours to enjoy at no extra cost. Download your copy of Love, Lies and Best Friend Ties! now. Click here. Happy Reading!!!