From the perspective of Gauri, we learn about the love story between Gauri and Udayan. Udayan is a friend of her older brother, Manash, and he comes over to their house often to discuss politics. When Udayan arrives one day to find only Gauri home, they talk about politics and Gauri’s childhood, about growing up in the city away from her parents, and about her love for philosophy and independence. After her father viewed a hate crime, he moved the whole family to the countryside. Gauri and Manash came back to live with their grandparents after their mother became too ill to take care of them. Her parents being killed in a car accident during her adolescence only added to her independence. Gauri and Udayan talk on the balcony, which “had always been her place” (54).

Gauri and Udayan are mutually attracted to each other’s personalities and start to see each other frequently on campus. They discuss books that he gifts to her and become serious when he invites her to the cinema: “She was afraid to go, afraid not to go” (60).