Anjali Aditya Mehta stood at the window of her bedroom thinking about her life in the past eight months in the Mehta House.

Her whole life has been one disappointment after another, never more than the past eight months. Soon it will all be over, her marriage to Aditya, her life in Mehta House, love of her mother like Mother-in-law, Ramila Mehta, who chose Anjali for her beloved son. She will have to end all relations with them.

When she married into Mehta family, for the first time she had felt loved unconditionally, not by her husband, never, but by his family.

She looked at her beloved lord Krishna's idol on her dresser and went over to him and asked "Where did I go wrong in my prayers to you? I only asked one thing from you my whole life, just to be loved by at least one person on this earth. You granted me my wish of a family that loved me, but just once I wanted to be first in someone's life, someone who only cared for me, whose life would be incomplete without me."

She put the idol back on the dresser and went back to the window thinking about the day she met Aditya for the first time almost six years ago. It was the first day of college for Anjali, she had never been too far from home, and she had been sheltered all her life.

She knew her aunt had been up to something as soon as she talked to Anjali's father about sending her away to college. She had wondered why her aunt wanted her out of the house now, but before she always stopped her from going anywhere.

She had begged her brother to talk to their father to not let her go to college away from home, but no one had listened to her.

Her father wouldn't have listened anyway, because he couldn't stand the site of Anjali, he hated her for being born and taking his beloved wife away from him. She was shocked and hurt that even her brother would turn his back on her by saying she should go away to college and experience the world outside of her home.

She couldn't make him understand that the real world scared her, in the end she couldn't persuade him and gave up trying to make anyone understand and went away to college. Few days before college was to start, her brother drove her to her hostel to get to know her roommate and to acquaint herself to college life.

She made her first friend, a girl named Shruti, who was also her roommate. She was really nice, she showed Anjali around the campus and helped her make friends with the other girls in the hostel.

Before leaving Anjali's brother, Raj, pulled her a side and said "I know you are upset with me for not taking your side, but I think you need to be away from the house for a while and learn new things, make new friends, its better this way, I can't see dad scolding you for every little thing anymore, please understand I am doing this for your own good, and forgive me."

Anjali sighed and hugged her brother who hugged her back and said "I will miss you bhai, and I will give college a try for you, but promise me one thing," She moved back slightly, "If I ask you to come and get me anytime, you will come without asking any questions." She looked at him with pleading eyes.

Raj loved his sister, she was the last reminder of their mother, whom he missed so much. His mother died when he was ten, giving birth to Anjali, and their lives were forever changed on that fateful day. He will never understand why his father blamed sister for his mom's death.

He looked down at her pleading eyes and took a deep breath and said "Okay, I promise I will come and get you, but I know once you start classes and make new friends you won't want to come back." He teased her little and said, "Who knows you might even find someone special and you will forget all about me."

Anjali flushed and pushed away from him, "You should leave before I change my mind and go back with you," She said this with tears in her eyes.

Raj hugged her one last time, got in the car and drove away. She watched till his car was out of sight and took a deep breath and turned towards the hostel, and thought that her last link to home gone.

First day of college, Anjali was extremely nervous, she had heard some of the girls talk the night before about first day of college, how some of the senior student liked to play jokes on the freshmen students, how they made people do things to embarrass them.

She knew she was going to stand out like a sore thumb in her traditional clothes. She had put on her best salwar suit in green with maroon trim. She tied her hair back in a ponytail, with minimum makeup, just powder, eye liner to enhance her best futures, her eyes, and a maroon bindi on her forehead.

Shruti had offered to take her shopping for some western wear, but Anjali had refused stating she would not be comfortable in western wear and would stick to her traditional Indian wear, no amount to argument on Shruti's part would change Anjali's mind.

*~-*-~*

On the first day of college, Shruti and Anjali walked on campus trying to avoid getting caught by one of the groups that were ragging on the junior students, just as they rounded the corner they ran into a group waiting to tease someone, but before they could turn and go the other way they were surrounded by the few guys and couple of girls and they started picking on Anjali and her clothes.

Anjali froze to the spot, she had been afraid of something like this happening and her worst nightmare was coming true, she couldn't talk, she could feel cold sweat running down her back, she knew if she tried to say something she would start stammering and end up crying, she could already feel her lips trembling, she looked around for help but couldn't spot anyone, the group had separated her from Shruti.

Aditya Mehta watched his friends rag on new students and shook his head at their antics, he hated when they did that, but he never tried to stop them, he didn't care one way or another, he was only there to study and nothing else, but today something caught his attention.

He watched as his friends were picking on someone in a green dress, which had caught his attention at first, he stared at the petite, dark headed girl and thought who let this innocent loose on her own, they are going to eat her alive. He could see she was trying to look for her friend, her whole body was trembling in fear, he decided to intervene for the first time, he didn't know what made him do it, but he didn't want his friends to make her cry and laugh at her expense.

He went to his friends and said, "Enough guys, let her be," The group instantly stopped because no one wanted to make Aditya Mehta mad, his anger was legendary. They genuinely liked him and feared his temper, no one wanted to get on his bad side, and so the group instantly stopped teasing the girl and moved away from her.

He turned toward the girl and held out his hand and said "Hi, I am Aditya Mehta," Watching her to see what she would do, he didn't know why but he instantly liked the girl, she was refreshing site from all the other girls on the campus.

Anjali watched him nervously, loosened her grip on her books, but instead of shaking his hand, she folded her hands in front of her and said, "Jai Shri Krishna," surprising Aditya, who dropped his hand and smiled. He continued to look at her and said, "Are you ok? Don't worry my friends are harmless, they won't bother you again."

Just then Shruti came back, she looked at Aditya and said "Anjali, are you ok? Come on lets go to class."

Anjali turned towards Aditya one last time, gave him a faint smile, "Thank you for your help." turned back and left with Shruti. Aditya watched her for few seconds then turned toward his friends again.