Our Story - A timeline of how we met, fell in love and became a Blob

This has definitely been the most requested post on this website ever since we launched a year ago and I have been putting it off forever. I always thought that there wasn't much to tell anyway but then I thought that the last day of The Blirthday week would be the perfect opportunity to share it...together. So like most of the posts that we updated this week, this post is also a joint effort where we sat down and decided to tell our story in the form of a timeline. We hope you enjoy it :)

So we were born in....nah, that's a bit much. Fast forward to age 10.

The beginning

Ankita joins the same school that Shane has been going to since he was 5. They're silly kids who have no idea of the other's existence.

May 2001

Almost separated

After the 10th grade, Ankita contemplates on switching schools because she doesn't want to study science anymore. Their school offered only two options - Biology or Computer Science, neither of which she had any interest in. But she decides to stay because she couldn't be bothered to make new friends in a new environment at the age of 15. #wise

May 2007

Almost separated again

After the 10th grade, Shane's parents suggest that he switch schools because...he can't remember why. But he decides against it as the new school was an hour long car ride away whereas the current school was just 20 minutes walking distance from his home. He always had his priorities straight - Why travel an extra hour every day to bunk the same classes in another school? #wiseasfuck

May 2007

Brought closer

Ankita and Shane are put in the same class in the 11th grade. Shane chose Computer Science (obviously) and so did Ankita because it was the lesser of the two evils. #howtomakelifechoices

June 2007

Careful what you (accidentally) wish for

At a school assembly honouring the geeks of the school, among others, Shane gets awarded some crap for scoring a 100 in Math or Computer Science or both for his 10th grade board exams. Neither of us remember what he got the award for but Ankita clearly remembers what she thought to herself - "Ugggh geeks! Would be fun dating one of them - NOT". #karmabitch

July 2007

Could've, Should've

Ankita accompanies a batchmate to the computer lab looking for "that boy Shane" who's always bunking classes and hanging out in there doing God knows what. "He does computer stuff though, so we need to find him to get the songs mixed for our dance next week", she was told. They found him sleeping in the lab and the batchmate explained the song situation while Shane stared into the computer screen and Ankita looked around the room for anything even remotely more interesting than the conversation she could otherwise be a part of. #losers

February 2008

First ever conversation

Ankita finds herself trapped in the computer lab between a row of studious girls discussing Java programming to her left and "that boy Shane" to her right. Shane himself got trapped between Ankita and a stone cold brick wall because he was already at the lab when the girls walked in and he'd been occupying the section of the lab that was "the girls section" or some BULLSHIT like that - Ankita still loses it when she thinks about all the "girls" and "boys" sections in that place so let's not go into too many details here. At that point, a bored Ankita could either join the studious girls and their little study group or she could strike up a conversation with that computer geek who she thought might choke on his own saliva if she spoke to him. She chose the latter because she didn't want to kill herself. "So, Shane! That's a very rare name for where we come from. Do you know what it means?", she asked him. He looked straight at her like she was just another computer screen that had posed a mildly annoying problem to him and said, "Shane means John. John means saviour." and went straight back to staring at his original computer screen. "Well, at least he didn't choke on his own saliva and die. Geek!", she thought to herself. #loserdom

August 2008

First time meeting the in-laws

Shane builds a software (for crying out loud!) which he manages to sell to some guy in Dubai (because why not?) and travels to Dubai for a while. The school grants him leave (for NOTHING!) and all the local newspapers pick it up. Ankita gets back from school one day to hear her mother go on and on and on about "that boy who studies with you in your class! See it says here in the paper. Look. Look. His photo. Look. This is him right?". Ankita's mother meets her future son-in-law for the first time through the local newspaper. Also, while Shane got free attendance from school to travel to Dubai to sell his software, Ankita fell seriously ill and had to take 3 days off. On the fourth day, when her mother called the class teacher to inform her that she wouldn't be able to make it *again*, she was told, "She can't afford to miss classes like this in the 12th grade". Of course. #lifeisunfair

September/October 2008

Separated

They both pass out of school (finally!) and don't even say goodbye before parting ways because neither of them even remotely existed in the other's radar. Shane joins university in Southampton and Ankita joins a college in Cochin. #areyouboredyet

March 2009

Thin links

Ankita sends Shane a message on Facebook enquiring about a Post Graduate programme at his university. She'd read about a specific department that she was interested in and wanted to know if he knew anyone doing that very course. He didn't. #maybenow?

Early 2010

Mis-step

An absent-minded Shane asks an easily irritable Ankita whether she was planning to join Southampton...for the third time. "I already told you a couple of times that I have two more years till I finish my current course and will apply (if I'm still interested) only in 2012", she replied. "Oh, you did? Huh. I forgot. I have a really bad memory. Sorry.", he said like it was a pre-canned response. And she immediately put him on her Facebook list of "Annoying people" ("Chori" for all Malayalis out there) so that he'd never see her online again. She also created a very specific list of people who could see her online every time she logged in. It was done very meticulously. #introvertalert

Mid 2010

Fates intervene

Ankita goes through a rough patch. Then she goes through an even rougher patch and feels like shit. She feels lonely and craves a conversation with *any* normal person. So she disables all lists on social media and waits for someone to talk to her because Her Highness was too good to go talk to someone herself. Shane, who was organising a school reunion at the time, sees her online and thinks, "Wait, she hasn't responded to the RSVP yet so maybe I should ask her if she's coming". He asks, she says no, he asks why, she thinks he's mocking her (didn't he KNOW that she wasn't very social and never attended reunions because she's the fucking Queen of England?), she asks him if he was being silly, he responds that he honestly had no clue as he was never in class, and then, a conversation takes place. They chat on Facebook till way past midnight. She lists all the reasons why she wouldn't attend the reunion and takes note of how he's a sympathetic yet objective listener. He takes note of how fearless she is in stating her likes and dislikes and admires her for being pretty straight forward. Friendship came easily to them. Then somewhere between 2011 and 2015, they fell in love. But neither of them can remember who asked whom out. Chances are, neither of them did. They just knew. #complicatedorwhat

Mid 2011

A wedding takes place

A wedding takes place to annoy some and appease many. A wedding takes place so now they could finally start a life together which can pretty much be summed up in two words - giggles and poop. #complicatednomore

9 May 2015

The end beginning. #cheesybollywoodcrap