Waking up at 5 in the morning, Sidra hurried to the bathroom to take a shower. When she was done, she wore a dark blue coloured kurti matching it with a white coloured patyala salwar and drying her hairs she tied them in a ponytail as she headed to the bathroom to make her wudu.

She offered her fajr salah and then headed to the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone. As much as she enjoyed cooking, but she never was a morning person so her mother usually made breakfast but it was one of those days where felt like doing it herself. Getting the breakfast ready and placing the dishes on the dining table she headed to her parents room to call her mother who was busy in reciting Quran. She thought it best to not disturb her and silently retrieved her steps and headed back to the kitchen.

Her mother entered a few moments later and Sidra gave her a smile.

"Assalamualaikum Ammi." Sidra greeted.

"Walaikum Assalam beta." Her mother greeted back, taking a seat to her left.

"Where is Abbu?" Sidra asked.

"He is in the study working on a presentation." Her mother answered as she took another bite of her food.

"Ok ammi I'm done with my breakfast I'll get going or else I'll get late for lecture. Say my salam to abbu. Allah hafiz." She spoke and quickly giving her mother a kiss, hurried out tying her niqab on her way out.

On reaching college, she found her friend Ishrat waiting for her in the foyer, her eyes narrowed at Sidra for being late. She apologised a several times before they both headed to their classes.

Sidra felt she would die of boredom and the lecturer wasn't making it any helpful. She wanted to close her eyes and take a nap but seated on the second bench, she couldn't do so. She finally took in a deep breath of relief when finally all the leactures were over as Ishrat gave her a ride back home and she couldn't be more thankful for having her as a friend. She left out an exhausted sigh when she reached home, nearly in evening.

"Assalamualaikum ammi. I'm home." She greeted aloud, as she entered.

"Walaikum Assalam Sidra. Go get freshen up I'll bring your snacks." Her mother spoke coming out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on the apron.

"Not feeling hungry ammi. I'll just get freshen up then I'll help you with the preparations for tonight." She spoke as she made a face and started taking steps to her room when her mother's voice stopped her.

"How many times to tell you Sidra not to neglect yourself. You have to eat something or else I won't allow you to help me with anything."

"Ok ammi fine. I'll eat. Happy?" She held her hands up in surrender.

"Very much."

Heading to her room, she changed into some casual clothes before she offered her Asr salah and took the Quran to recite. As she finished her recitation, she made her way to the kitchen to have her evening snacks together with her mother, spending some time with her where she was sharing her childhood stories of her and Rukaiyya's friendship.

After they had offered their Maghrib salah, they began with the preparation for the dinner, as her mother made her cook Chicken Biryani while she made Mutton Korma and salad. Once she was done, she made her way to her room to freshen up. She was almost done when she heard the doorbell ring as she quickly headed downstairs where her mother's friend Rukaiyya was sitting chatting with her mother and beside her sat her daughter Aaniya.

She greeted them to make her presence known and they both greeted back as she headed to take a seat beside her mother on the couch, seating opposite to the lady.

"Sidra this is for you." The lady handed her a gjft wrapped box and she opened it to find a beautiful necklace. She was awestruck at the beautiful design of it but she couldn't find it in herself to accept such an expensive gift from someone she had just met.

"It's beautiful aunty. Thank you so much but I'm sorry I can't take it." She spoke trying to deny it politely, handing it back to the lady.

"Aah! Please dear don't deny it. Please take it." The lady spoke placing it back in her hand and sidra couldn't deny her a second time so she accepted it giving her a polite smile.

"Sidra you had already met Aaniya right? She has recently joined V. G. College." The lady spoke.

"Really? I study in the same college." Sidra spoke, a bit surprised and excited to make a new friend.

She was getting bored sitting with the elders as felt like going back to her room but she didn't wanted to seem rude so she silently kept seated. A few moments later, her mother asked her to take the girl and show her around as Sidra took that as an apportunity to escape and took the girl along with her to show her around.

***

"So how is it going Rukaiyya?" Sidra's mother Shaheen questioned her friend.

"Coming back to Mumbai after nearly 10 years is not at all easy. The cleaning of the house is taking pretty much time. Setting the house and furniture all over again is very much time consuming. Few more days will go for the house to get properly set." Rukaiyya replied letting out a sigh.

"Your old house will need a lot of setting and cleaning. If you want any help then please do let me know." Shaheen suggested serving her beverages.

"Shaheen I wanted to talk to you about something important. Actually I was dying to talk to you about this." Rukaiyya spoke, getting all enthusiastic making her all curious and tense.

"Tell me fast. You are making me tense."

"I want to ask Sidra's hand in marriage with Nabil." She spoke with a smile.

"It's a very good proposal Rukaiyya. I'll be very happy to get my daughter married in your family. I'll talk about this with Rashid. I'm sure he will also be really very happy." Shaheen beamed.

"But what about Sidra? Will she recognise him?" Ruqaiyya's face depicted concern and worry. For a moment, Shaheen's smile fell as she pondered on what Ruqaiyya spoke.

"To be true Ruqaiyya, I almost panicked when I saw you both together yesterday. I dreaded her memory to haunt her but Allah is great. Alhamdulillah she didn't recognise you." She spoke honestly.

"When I saw her, I suddenly got so excited but when I looked at her, she gave me a confused look. Believe me I thanked Allah a million times that moment."

"It's better if she doesn't remember anything. Let's not think about it. Just pray to Allah that He makes everything fine." Shaheen spoke, giving her an assuring smile.

"Ameen."

***

Sidra was seated in her room, panic gripping her whole being. She was getting worried as the minute passed, thinking about what she had just heard from her mother.

'Oh my Allah ji! What? Like seriously? One meeting with me and she just asked my hand in marriage with her son, whom I don't even know?!' She thought to herself, biting her nails in worry.

'Our first meeting was a bit strange. The way she was looking at me with a slight worry in her eyes was a bit weird. And more weird was, Ammi too looked the same like her.' She wondered as she recalled the meeting with her at the mall.

When the lady had left, Sidra's mother had informed her about the proposal and Sidra had felt her mother's hesitation as she spoke, as if she was trying to hide something. Sidra shook her head to clear all the unnecessary thoughts as she recalled her mother's beaming face as she told about the proposal, making Sidra smile and want to give the thought of marriage a try.

She was standing at a corner as her mother told her father about the proposal and Sidra saw the look of worry in his eyes before he composed himself and gave his consent.

'Why am I feeling that they all know something that I don't?' Sidra wondered as she looked at her parents through narrowed eyes but she had quickly shook away the thought and quickly walked back to her room.

Everything was happening all so quickly that left sidra wondering. After her father had given his consent to the martiage, the elders came to a decision to do the wedding within a month time. Sidra who was in her room was getting panicked while her parents were busy discussing about the details of the wedding. She wondered what was the hurry not like she wanted to deny anything but she was just scared with the fact that she haven't even known the guy, she was getting married to.

She was wondering if she could continue with her studies but her mother assured her that she couldso that after her wedding. The thought of getting married was making her go all nervous and worried thinking if she could handle all her responsibilities well but she knew her Rabb will make everything easy for her.

'Nabil.' The name rolled off her lips as she found herself blushing.

'His name sounds so familiar yet so strange.' Sidra felt.

~~~~~~~~

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