Us
In 2011, on a whim, Mahira went to a poetry reading series. John, who had just moved to New York, was also at the reading. He noticed her in the audience, went up to her after the show and flirtatiously said, "Excuse me, this is none of my business, but you're startlingly pretty."
Mahira replied, "Thank you; my partner thinks so too!"
Hearing this, John resigned himself to the flirtation ending there. However, they both kept going to the weekly reading and both realized they enjoyed each other’s poetry. While they never spent time together outside the venue, they liked seeing each other there, and John nursed a tiny crush on her.
Two years later, in 2013, John's stepmother, Brandy, and Mahira's father, Daleep, both passed away. When John heard Mahira's news, he offered his ear should she want to talk through her grief. Mahira's relationship with her partner had ended and one day, at a different poetry reading, John found himself commiserating with her and giving her dating advice. As the conversation deepened, both of them felt a growing chemistry. On impulse, Mahira asked John to come see the apartment she was subletting in the East Village— an old tenement with a clawfoot bathtub next to the stove and a tuberculosis window. Her exact words were "There's a bathtub in the kitchen! Do you wanna come see the bathtub in the kitchen?"
Mahira was due to leave for a 2-month trip to India two weeks later. So she and John spent every free moment of the next few weeks together, going to museums, poetry readings, reading literature out loud to each other and sharing their stories. They went to see a Magritte exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art, where they both talked passionately about art and creativity. Later that night, they declared their love for each other but were unsure how distance would affect them. The two weeks they’d spent together left a deep impression on both of them. John eventually wrote a poem about it.
While Mahira was in India, they talked every day via video chat and John Paul even recorded poems for her to listen to while she was there. When she returned, they spent the next year dating and getting to know each other. They kept having amazing conversations – about life, politics, spirituality and their creative endeavors. In John, Mahira found her biggest fan – he went to every play and reading of hers more than once, helped her prep for auditions, and went to see friends’ shows with her. In Mahira, John found his biggest fan – someone who loved his poetry and music but wasn’t afraid to give him constructive feedback. They were always in conversation about something – the TV show they were watching, the restaurant where they were eating, the sunset, the old buildings of New York, their own feelings, fears and dreams.
In 2015, Mahira, had a role that took her to Princeton, NJ, so John gave up his apartment in Brooklyn and moved in with her, telecommunting to his job in New York. They spent a magical spring amidst flowering cherry blossom and dogwood trees, the relationship flourishing as they spent more time together.
At the end of their stay in Princeton, John got down on one knee and proposed to Mahira with a beautiful, delicate ring in his hands. He'd made sure to pick out her favorite stones (turquoise—"no diamonds", she'd once said when talking about potential rings) and colors. Mahira's first reaction was "Are you sure? You're not joking?"
But John wasn't and Mahira said yes!
