Chapter 2:

Less than two weeks later, Navin, Tanisha and Raj were on a bus heading to Nainital. Raj was sitting in the seat in front of the one that Navin and Tanisha shared, listening to music with his headphones on a reading a sports magazine. Navin and Tanisha decided that it was the perfect opportunity for them to do some last minute planning.

"So you remember how you're supposed to introduce them, right?" Tanu asked him, and Navin rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, because I'm likely to forget after we've practiced it fifty times."

"Don't get too overconfident, Navin. One wrong move and our whole plan could be ruined!" Cautiously she glanced at the seat in front of them, but Raj was humming along to the music and flipping the pages of his magazine.

"I can't believe that you're not more nervous for yourself," Navin remarked, "After all, it's the first time you're meeting my family."

Tanu suddenly turned pale, "I've been so busy thinking about the plan that I'd completely forgotten about that." She told him, "I hope that they like me."

"Don't worry Tanu, they'll love you." Navin reassured her, "They've been wanting to meet you for ages. I just hope that they love Raj just as much."

Looking at his friend sitting in front of him, Navin began to feel slightly guilty, was it right for him to interfere in Raj's life this way? Well the answer was of course no, but Navin decided that no matter how bad it was in the short term, Raj would thank him in the long term. After all, why wouldn't Raj be happy to be married to his sister?

Two hours later the bus arrived in Nainital and while Navin and Tanu were getting more and more nervous, Raj was perfectly happy and relaxed.

"Yaar, why do you look so happy?" Navin asked him, slightly suspicious that Raj must have figured out what they were planning.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Raj asked him in reply, "I get to spend Diwali with two of my best friends away from my parents snooty parties, and I can't wait to meet your family either!"

Navin decided that this was a good sign, after all, Naina was also a part of his family.

They took a taxi to his house since Navin had told his family that there was no need to pick them up.

Knocking on the door, Navin waited nervously. For a moment he forgot about 'Operation Marriage' as he instead thought about how his family would act when they first met Tanu and whether they would like her or not.

The door was flung open by a young woman who had clearly been waiting for them for a long time.

"You're finally here!" She said joyfully, and before Navin could start his long practiced introduction, she started speaking again. "Bhaiya it's so good to see you!" Naina told him, hugging him warmly. "And you must be Tanu, I've been wanting to meet you for the longest time and I'm so happy you came home with Navin for Diwalia!" And she hugged Tanu too, who was too surprised by Naina's welcome to know what to say but hugged her back happily. Finally Naina turned to Raj and Navin waited holding his breath "And you must be Raj! I've heard a lot about you from Navin before now so it's good to finally meet you!" And she held out her hand to Raj who shook it warmly, seemingly amused by Naina's enthusiasm.

"It's good to meet you too, Navin is always talking about you at the academy, and I've heard about you from Alekh too."

"How is Alekh Bhaiya?" Naina asked, not realising how funny Raj would find it for their tapori friend to be referred to as 'Alekh Bhaiya', when most people would probably rather refer to him as 'Alekh Bhai'.

"He's fine," Raj replied, "He's going home with our friend Yudi for Diwali this time. He said to say hello to you when I arrived."

Navin had been watching this and was happy that they seemed to be getting on so well from the very beginning.

"Naina, are you going to invite us inside or are we going to stand on the doorstep for the rest of our Diwali holiday?" he asked her.

"Oh, right, sorry about that!" she replied, and then called out "Ma, they're here!" and still didn't step aside from the doorstep.

"Naina, are you going to…"

"No bhaiya, orders are orders!" Naina told him with a mock strict look, "As a soldier you should know that. And I'm under strict orders from Ma that you should enter the house properly."

Navin peered inside to see his mother hurrying forward with a pooja thali in her hands and sighed, he should've guessed this would happen. His mother beamed happily at Tanu and then completed all the rituals to greet them as Raj hung back slightly to one side. When it was over both Navin and Tanu touched his mother's feet at the same time, followed by Raj.

"Ma, this is Tanu, and this is my friend Raj." Navin introduced them properly.

"What a beautiful girl you've chosen, Navin. I couldn't approve more!" His mother gushed, and Navin sighed in relief.

"Naina, why don't you show Tanu to the guest room?" Mrs Ahluwalia suggested.

"Uh, no Ma, I'll show Tanu to the guest room myself." Navin said quickly, "Naina, why don't you show Raj where my room is?"

This served a double purpose. Firstly he would get to discuss the progress of their plan with Tanisha in private and secondly, Raj and Naina would spend some more time together.

As soon as they'd reached the guest room he shut the door, and turned to Tanisha.

"I think that went really well!" he told her happily.

"Well your mother and Naina both seem to like me which is a relief," she replied, "I hope your dad likes me too when he arrives home tonight."

"Don't worry, he'll love you just as much as they did." Navin hugged Tanu with one arm, overjoyed that so far his family seemed very impressed by her.

"Hmmm, but what about Raj and Naina."

"That went well too."

"It could have been better."

"How?" Navin asked, confused, "What were you expecting, Tanisha?"

"Well perhaps something like this…" she responded, and launched into a description of the scene…

**

Naina would've opened the door and looked at them all happily while Navin made the introductions. Quietly and shyly she would have greeted Tanisha with a hug, as all the while Raj gazed at her, amazed and awestruck by her beauty… Finally when Navin introduced the two of them, they would've stared into each other's eyes, having fallen instantly in love and forgetting to let go of each others' hands…

**

Navin stared at Tanisha when she had finished narrating the scene, with a look that clearly said he thought she was crazy.

"Tanu, you watch too many hindi films." He told her.

Tanu shrugged, admitting that what she had hoped had been a little unrealistic.

"Still, it would've been nice if it had happened that way." She replied, "It would've made our work a lot easier."

"If I know both my sister and my best friend well then neither of them is the type to fall in love at first sight," Navin replied, "Unfortunately they're both far too sensible for that. So we'll just have to keep creating situations that will make them fall in love."

"Which means that they need lots of time together."

"Exactly, so let's delay coming out of the room and let them think we're romancing in here."

"Navin! Right now your mother has a good opinion of me, do you want that to change?"

"Relax, Ma is in the kitchen… you know we don't just have to pretend to be romancing…"

Phase two of their plan was going well, Naina had liked both Tanisha and Raj. Now the next hurdle was getting Naina and Raj to come closer to each other…

Navin just wish he knew what was going on right now as Naina showed Raj to his room…