Free When Hari Met His Saali by Harsh Warrdhan

was sure Tia would ask her why she wanted it and Simi decided that instead of lying, she was going to just tell her the truth. This was her chance — although Simi was not vindictive — to make Tia
feel
for her.
    Early morning — Los Angeles
    Tia brought a pair of scissors and the newspaper onto her balcony and sat down. She took the coupons page of the newspaper and methodically cut out each one that was on her grocery list. She estimated that this was saving her two hundred dollars a month. Tia knew that almost everyone used coupons for their groceries, but she was slightly embarrassed about doing it herself. If she saw someone she knew in the checkout line, she would rather pay the full price. This was after holding up the queue for so long as a cashier scanned her thirty-odd coupons when there was a girl from her office in the line. She had not smiled back when Tia acknowledged her. Another time — when she had gone grocery shopping with Hari’s mother — she resisted the urge to use coupons; she didn’t want her soon-to-be mother-in-law to think less of her, as if she was a scrounger.
    Tia poured herself a cup of coffee from the cappuccino machine she had purchased last year. It was on sale. Tia had gradually done up her apartment to look and feel modern. It was her plan to live there after she got married and although she hadn’t shared this plan with Hari, somehow she knew she had to convince him that there was no way she was going to live with his parents. They need not; they were in America.
    Tia did not, by any stretch of the imagination, live like a scrounger. In fact, her weakness was shopping for clothes and shoes. She had racked up quite a bit of debt on her credit card. Her high balance in dues owed was one of the things she was afraid of sharing with Hari. She didn’t want him to think of her as either high-maintenance or a spendthrift. She did feel guilty about her debt. However, Tia had no idea that Hari was also reckless with his creditcard expenditure. For years, his father had been paying his bills. Hari had simply chosen not to feel guilty about it.
    But that morning Tia felt an almost superstitious need to feel gratitude, so she cut an inspiring gratitude chart out from the spiritual section of the newspaper:

    She saved it to stick in her journal. Of course she didn’t read it all there and then but scanned it onto her phone and set a reminder to look at it again later. She had a much more pressing matter to handle this morning.
    After an hour’s drive
    Tia reached the Malibu West Beach Club — her top choice for the engagement ceremony venue. As she parked her car, she noticed Hari dozing off in the passenger seat. She had, of course, dragged him along — it was vital that he was part of
her
decision-making and the venue was one of the most important choices after their outfits, the menu, the guest list and the …
    Oh God! How am I going to do all this on my own?
    She hit him lightly on his thigh. He woke up.
    ‘Have you been sleeping all this time, Hari?’
    ‘No, no! What’s up?’ Hari straightened himself up, wiping the saliva from his mouth.
    ‘You didn’t hear a single thing I said in the past hour, did you?’
    ‘No, no … I heard that you wanted a pink-themed … thematically pink …’ Hari searched for correct words.
    ‘That’s the first thing I said when you got into the car an hour ago. And the color is champagne pink.’ She helped Hari clean himself up, straightening his hair.
    When they entered the gorgeous beachfront venue Mr. Belvedere, the property manager greeted them. Tia started to enquire about her booking.
    ‘I am afraid you’ll have to speak to the event planner Minto…
    Hari suddenly laughed out loud.
    Both Tia and Mr. Belvedere — who looked as if his lifetime quota of smiles was running out — glared at Hari.
    ‘Minto? Sorry, is that his …?’
    ‘Yes, that’s his real name. And may I also inform you Sir — and Madam — that he is one of the