US — Volume I

Room I · 10 — 17 April 2025

The First Week

One ordinary introduction. Then the conversation kept finding reasons to continue.

№ 01 Acc. 10.04.2025

Day one — she texts first

They had already met that morning. The archive only holds the bookends of the day.

Afroz · 10.04.2025

It was nice meeting you

Aadil · 10.04.2025

kaafi long time baad mai kisi sai india mai itna acche sai connect hua hu except my friend circle!

A plate of red chicken curry on a rose-patterned plate — Plate I · 11.04.2025 · Day two “Aadil the chef ki paish cush” “I appreciate clicking the picture before eating because mere se to photo tak nahi khichi jaati”

№ 02 Acc. 17.04.2025

Day seven — the question

Asked in person, deferred in text. Then, unprompted, she left the door open.

Aadil · 17.04.2025

Accha listen.. about the question that I asked you.. ‘do you wanna date me’ wala.. i am not asking you to answer me abhi k abhi, I know it’s an important matter to think about.. so take your time.. 2 din - 4 din - hafta… (but muzhe time frame bata dena ki I will answer you itne din mai ‘bilkul clearly’) so that we both know where we are standing..

Afroz · 17.04.2025

We will talk in person about this thing Also I think Its not something that we should discuss over text

Afroz · later that night

Don’t think too much. Just want to say that things are going well, and I truly hope they continue this way. I’m really having a good time with you.

Seven days after they met.

Room II · April — May 2025

The Vitrine of
Small Things

Not milestones. A price, a mango, a lighter — details with no reason to survive, except that someone kept them.

№ 03 Acc. 13.04.2025

The ₹720 lip balm he refused to buy

Aadil

Ooy aalsi insan.. send me the lip balm ki link 🤨

Aadil, upon seeing the link

Bhaii sahbb.. ye ittu si cream 720 ki hai! Let go. Mai koi dusra alternative dhund lunga because muzhe pata hai mai use 20% krunga iska and fir galti sai kho dunga kahi 🥹🤷😂😂

Afroz, entire solution

Vaseline Lelo fir

№ 04 Acc. 20.04.2025

Sick Aadil turns formal. She notices instantly.

Aadil, ill, dosed on medicine

thanks for checking. Still not feeling the best, but resting a bit. Hope your day’s not too crazy since it’s Sunday..

Afroz, entire reply

FYI You’re not writing mail

Aadil

🥹

Cross-reference: Room IV, № 09 — she was not done with this.

№ 05 Acc. 25.04.2025

Mangoes, cut into pieces — and who cuts them

Aadil

Mango hai naaaa???😐🤤

Afroz

Same Especially aise pieces karke khana Bohot pasand hai muje

Afroz

Muje kaafi baar khud hi cut karne padte hai🥲

Aadil

Noppeee muzhe kabhi cut nhi krni padti😎😛😜

Afroz, verdict

Privileged log

№ 06 Acc. 29.04.2025

The chocolate she ordered and did not eat

Afroz

Yaar bohot weird cheez hai ye meri k mera mann hai maine order kar liya ab mein nahi khaungi to bhi chalega Bas muje pata hona chahiye k hai mere paas ye cheez Do you understand this? Like does it happen with you? Or is it just me?

His answer was a drone he had bought on sale, for no reason. The chocolate went to her mama.

№ 07 Acc. 24.05.2025

A lighter, its exact location remembered

Aadil, after leaving her flat

Achha, wo tumhari side waali drawer k right side pr lighter ghira hua tha, hataa Dena yaad saii

Afroz

Haan utha liya tha

That is the whole exhibit.

Room III · a working dictionary

A Language of Two

Words that mean nothing to anyone else. All entries remain in circulation.

Zorfa

proper noun, erroneous · coined in the first hour, 10.04.2025

First said

Aadil, first message ever

Heyy Zorfa! Cool!!

Four days later, shameless

Aadil · 14.04.2025

Pata nhi kisi nai to bola tha muzhe abhi ye call pr yaad nhi aa raha kon tha zorfa something… 🤔🤔😶‍🌫️😂🤣😂

Recurs 11 times across six months. Both of them use it. It never fully died.

Makhan 🧈

noun → verb · coined by her, 12.04.2025 · adopted by him within six days

First said

Afroz · 12.04.2025

Soo much Makhan bhyii☺️

Compressed

Afroz · 13.04.2025

🧈 but thanks

Adopted, conjugated

Aadil · 16.04.2025

🧈ing because aap ho hi itni pyaari🥱😜😉😂🤣😂

This museum’s gold is butter-coloured. Now you know why.

Mount and dew

verb, invented · to improvise; to make something out of nothing

Coined

Aadil · 17.04.2025

Mount and dew krna sikho zindagi mai😂

Adopted, her own spelling

Afroz · 22.04.2025

Apne aap hi ho jaata hai mount n dew

Four days later he was using it about himself: “aaj to mount and dew kr raha hu.”

Heera & Johari

paired nouns · from a proverb she quoted, 29.05.2025

The proverb

Afroz

Har cheez batayi nahi jaati Heere ki pehchan sachche Johari ko hi hoti hai

The application

Aadil

Lemme be the Johari then so that I can examine you very very closely 😜😌😂🤣

He warned her the Kohinoor was once stolen from India. She countered that Hrithik Roshan stole it back.

Room IV · the remembering, proven

Cross-References

Said once. Returned later. The elapsed time is printed on each thread.

№ 08Filed 23 — 27.04.2025

The book she remembered

23.04.2025

Aadil

A new read starting from today!!!! 😍 Parag Parikh.. India ka sabsey bada Mutual Funds wala bndaa! He is a man build himself from scratch! So, learning from him now through his book..

4 days later

27.04.2025 · end of a sleepy goodnight

Afroz, out of nowhere

Are you still reading that book?

The book Timeless by Parag Parikh, resting on a lap — Plate II · 23.04.2025The book in question. Chapter one skipped — “boring lag raha tha.”

№ 09Filed 20.04 — 17.05.2025

The mail joke reverses

20.04.2025

Afroz

FYI You’re not writing mail

27 days later

17.05.2025

Afroz

Looking forward

Aadil, returning it exactly

Mail hi likh do na ek kaam kro🤨😜

Aadil

Ji isse bhi zyada kuch aur formal likh saktey ho?

№ 10Filed 24.04 — 14.05.2025

The earbud, lost again

24.04.2025

Afroz

I have used, broken or lost 4-5 pair of these earbuds in 3 years Vahi same le lungi

20 days later

14.05.2025 · since 8 pm

Afroz

Par mera Ek lauta air pod nahi mil raha Vo bhi gum ho gaya Mere se 😭😭😭

Aadil, condolences, in song

Bhulaa denaa usse.. hai alvida usse.. tuzhe jina heyy.. uske binaa😭

Next morning: “Yaar ear bud dhundhte dhundhte mein thak k so gayi thi🥲”

№ 11Filed 13.04 — 10.05.2025

The pani puri story becomes a weapon

13.04.2025

Aadil, victorious

Ek aur baat! Tum bach gaye! 😶‍🌫️🤨😂 no symptoms of food poisoning at all!! Paani puri safal hui meri! 😂😂

Afroz · 15.04.2025

I don’t think I will be able to trust your recommendation in pani puri

27 days later

10.05.2025 · ending a health argument

Afroz

Especially you should not say this!! Vo bhi usko jise tumhari pani puri ki story pata ho

She also took her whole family to the same Iscon spot. So the recommendation held.

Bowling scoreboard: Afroz 53, Aadil 85 — Plate III · 29.04.2025 · Filed under: saboot Afroz 53 — Aadil 85. Sent by Afroz herself, caption hers: “Lo saboot bhi rakhlo” · “Once a winner always a winner”

Room V · 27 May 2025

Billu

Weeks of hesitation became one safe-arrival message and two photographs.

Afroz, morning

Aadil I am going to get a cat today

Aadil leaning over the open carrier, reaching in to Billu — Plate IV

Aadil smiling down at Billu inside the carrier — Plate V

Afroz, evening

Billu n me reached home safely

Room VI · undated · acquired in person

Off the Record

The archive only keeps what was typed. None of this was.

№ 12Acc. — · one evening, in order

Where he proposed

Deck 9

The name is in the archive from the first week — logged in a list of Surat plans, as just another place. It did not stay one.

but

The food, the place and the people did their best to ruin what came next. They paid and left, mostly unfed.

so — the walk

K’s

Dinner, properly this time. The food she recommended.

the aftermath

The hichki

Constant, after that food. The strangest souvenir of the whole proposal.

№ 13Acc. — · in person

The book she made him

Everything, inside.

The first museum of us was hers.

№ 14Acc. — · the garden

The garden goodbye

He went out to get the charger. She was waiting in the garden — with letters.

To be opened
when he needed them

Room VII · August 2025 — March 2026

The Distance

Mumbai → Boston, 21 August 2025. The small things kept arriving anyway.

№ 15 Acc. 17.08.2025

Flight itinerary: Mumbai to Boston, 21 August 2025 — Document I · Mumbai → Boston · one seat

The plan stops being hypothetical

Aadil

Flight booked🥹

Afroz

Chalo good alhamdulillah

№ 16 Acc. 16.03.2026

A name, spelled while waiting

Ten thousand kilometres away and getting no reply, she built his name one letter per message.

HellloooAAAaAaAAAAaADIIIIIL

Aadil, finally

Aa gayaaa

№ 17 Acc. 29.03.2026

Her first Levi’s, and the guilt that followed

Afroz

Bhyi this is my first Levi’s ki denim Always wanted But never bought because I thought too expensive

Afroz, circling back

I feel guilty Bhyi itna extra kharcha karne k liye Idk why

Aadil

Don’t be guilty, as long as it’s ‘sometimes’ you are good. Make things counted.

№ 18 · first Eid apart · 20.03.2026

“…take a moment and see that you’re living one of your answered prayers and all this effort will be worth it one day✨💌 And I also miss you and We’ll celebrate together soon inshaallah♥️”

— Afroz

Aadil

You are the one and the only person who felt and understood me and my feelings even without me expressing it or making it come on my face🥺🥺❤️ thank you love❤️🥺 and inshallah soon, we will.

Room VIII · November 2025

In Her Words

№ 19 · 14.11.2025 · unprompted

“We all are messy in our own ways… I want to know your mess and similarly I want you to be with me in my mess as well… let’s try to be part of each other’s mess if we really want to actually be somewhere.”

— Afroz

He agreed on the spot. The collection’s only jointly-signed acquisition.

Intermission · the collection, counted

The Census

An honest inventory. Dates and totals only — nothing invented, nothing guessed.

0messages

0days, and counting

0photographs

0videos

0voice notes

0calls that connected

Roughly 157 messages a day, every day, for sixteen months. Nobody was pretending to be busy.

One line, all of it

Star Chart

Filled points we typed. Hollow ones happened in person, so the archive never saw them. The line runs from your first like to your birthday.

● we typed it○ it happened in person✦ 26 August

The last room · still acquiring

The Last Label

Some plans already became memories — an F1 race, 3:30 at our spot. The rest are still ahead.

Afroz · 17.08.2025

Do you want to watch F1?

Aadil

Hhhhheeeellll yyyyeeeeaaahhhh😍

26 August · for Afroz

Yaar, tumhe pata bhi nahi hai ki tum mere liye kitni important ho 🥹❤️

The way you’ve carried me till this day is immaculate. It feels like I have that lovey-dovey, unintentional pyaar karne wala insaan in my life 💌

Main bhale hi tum par kai dafa chid kar kuch bhi bol deta hoon, but you always choose to talk it out rather than making it worse, and I really appreciate that 🫶🏻

All those concerned messages, “pahonch ke message karna,” and all of that mean so much to me 🤍 Aur tum believe nahi karogi, but agar main “Just ghar aaya” nahi bhejta, toh mujhe lagta hai jaise kuch missing hai 🏠✨ Ab tum samjho how important it is for me to keep you well informed — ya phir shayad main tumhari aadat sa ho gaya hoon 🫠❤️

All those sweet kalesh we do, aur mera tumhe absolute level tak ragebait karna 😭😂 — I love every version of you ❤️

Mujhe maa ka pyaar nahi mila hai, aur tum jis tarah se woh kami poori karti ho, woh meri zindagi ki sabse closest and warmest feeling hai 🫂🤍 That means more to me than I can ever properly explain.

I really love you, and I’m hoping to see you and whisper all of this in your ear, InshaAllah, very soon 🥺❤️

Allah Hafiz. ❤️

End of Volume I

We’re already in the next one.