A fter studying medicine in New Delhi, Varad, who grew up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, knew he wanted to make a difference in the world. In 2021, he travelled to the remote forest reserve of Gadchiroli to work for a local NGO while he submitted applications for the next steps of his education. “I was doing community Covid management, supporting the vaccination programme,” he says.
A month after arriving he met Rasika, a physiotherapist from Nagpur, Maharashtra, who’d also come to work for the NGO. “I had been studying in Mumbai but wanted to better understand rehabilitation in rural areas of India,” she says. “While I was being shown around, we went to see the badminton court – which was some mud ground with a net – and that’s where I saw Varad for the first time.
” He ran over to introduce himself. “I was excited that some women had come to watch us play,” he laughs. Straight away he noticed that Rasika seemed caring and was “absolutely gorgeous”.
“She had short hair because she’d just donated her hair to a cancer charity. She was also into sports and anime, which really attracted me.” Rasika liked the fact he introduced himself and found him “outgoing”.
“I really enjoyed spending time with him from the very first day, and I was constantly waiting for him to approach me,” she says. As they got to know each other, it soon became clear there was something more than friendship between them. “I was not patient enough to go with the flow, .