For the first few hours, everything still felt… royal.
The plane hummed softly, trays clinked with polished cutlery, and the sky outside stretched endlessly, a deep blue. Isabella and Estella sat side by side, glancing occasionally at Aaron and Ishaan across the aisle — the boys half-asleep, necks tilted awkwardly, looking far too peaceful for people flying halfway across the world.
"This isn't so bad," Estella murmured, swirling the orange juice in her glass.
"I suppose not," Isebella said, with the faintest smile. "Maybe India isn't as overwhelming as Father made it sound."
But that thought didn't last long.
The connecting flight from Dubai changed everything.
Gone was the quiet hum of order — this plane was alive. Families squeezed into rows, toddlers crying in stereo, someone arguing in three different languages near the overhead bins. The air smelled faintly of samosas and impatience.
Aaron shot them an amused look over the seat. "Welcome to the real flight."
Estella blinked as a man tried to stuff an entire pressure cooker into the cabin bin. "Are… are we still allowed to fly?"
"Technically," Ishaan said, grinning. "On good days."
When they finally landed, Delhi was still half-asleep — but even at dawn, the airport was a storm of motion.
Announcements echoed, trolleys clattered, a thousand conversations folded over one another in layers of sound.
Isebella's eyes widened as a crowd poured out of arrivals like a tide. "This… this many people? At six in the morning?"
Aaron laughed. "This is quiet by Delhi standards."
"Quiet?" Estella echoed, clutching her coat tighter as a family of five tried to squeeze past them, all speaking at once.
By the time they reached the exit, the royal calm they carried had completely disintegrated.
Outside, the air was thick — warm, alive, buzzing. Taxi drivers surrounded them in a blur of calls and waving hands.
"Madam, taxi! Best rate!"
"Sir, AC car! Sir, good hotel, cheap price!"
A man with a neon vest was shouting something about prepaid counters; another was trying to help with their luggage — or maybe just take it.
Estella froze, her mouth slightly open. "Are… are they fighting?"
"No," Ishaan said, holding back a laugh. "They're negotiating."
Aaron grabbed a cart, weaving through the crowd like a pro. "Welcome to India, princesses," he said with a mock bow. "Land of honking, heart, and holy cows."
And as if on cue, a cow ambled lazily across the road beyond the barricade.
Isebella just stared. "This… is where you live?"
"Technically," Ishaan said, stepping into the sunlight. "On good days."
The girls thought that that was all there was, but to their shock and surprise, they had not even started seeing even 10% of Delhi.
As they got an Uber(it is an app we use in India to call for cabs) and were on their way to their residence, which was near the outskirts of Delhi, they were already in for it as they had stumbled into the office rush hours.
"What is this traffic? Is there some event going on ahead?" Isebella asked as she was getting a bit anxious.
"Is there some sort of festival or something? We have been stuck here for about 15 - 20 minutes." Estella is becoming impatient by the minute.
Aaron and Ishaan, who were on their phones scrolling, laughed under their breath as they were having a blast with the girls' reactions.
"Dear, there is no festival. This traffic is basically all the working-class people moving out to go to their jobs this early. We call it rush hour as everybody rushes to their office," Mrs Banerjee, getting up from seeing her phone.
"Man, it just reminds me how different and slow Alzaras was, really, kind of missed this", Mr Banerjee said with a tint of sarcasm and relief.
"How long before we reach your place?" Isebella asked Aaron.
"2 hours at best can be more" Aaron is not looking up from his screen as he is busy texting his friends about his return.
"2 HOURS!!!!!, WHERE DO YOU LIVE ON MARS!?!" Estella shrieked, listening to Aaron's reply.
"Stop, Stop, you are going to kill me with those reactions, oh man, it was so worth it to bring you guys here", Ishaan holding his stomach as if it would burst from laughter.
"We dont live that far without traffic, it takes us only 45 minutes to reach our house from the airport", Aaron said, trying to control his own laugh.
It took them 2.5 hours to actually leave Delhi and start moving towards the outskirts of Delhi.
As the car took various turns through narrow lanes, one-way lanes, street markets and many other places, the girls were more confused yet excited, for them it was all so new that it actually showed all over them.
"Holy crap! Like, is this really just a state or city? It is like a complete kingdom on its own, like open markets, such thin alleys, and how the hell did we get away by going the wrong way on a one-way line???" Estella now held her head as if so much info was overloading her internal circuits.
"I guess we did underestimate India. This is madness. How do you guys live here?" Isebella asked curiously while trying to process all of this.
"Well, you'll get used to it, and once you do, you will truly realise how paradise and serene Alzaras was", Aaron claimed.
As they crossed a thick forest that was actually a wildlife sanctuary, they saw a building, and for once, it again felt a little peaceful, from all that chaos in Delhi to a comparatively calm environment.
As the Uber finally crawled past the last stretch of traffic and merged onto a broader highway, the noise of the city began to thin out. The honking grew distant, replaced by the rhythmic thrum of the engine and the low hum of the air conditioner struggling against the Delhi heat.
Outside the window, the scenery started to shift — the endless rows of concrete gave way to trees, patches of green, and the occasional roadside dhaba with tin roofs and steaming kettles of chai. The air, though still warm, felt lighter somehow.
Estella pressed her face to the window, eyes wide. "Wait, is that… a forest? In the middle of the city?"
"Technically on the edge," Ishaan said, tapping the glass. "That's the Asola Wildlife Sanctuary. Peacocks, nilgai, sometimes even jackals — all just chilling there while people honk around them."
Isebella turned to look, her earlier fatigue giving way to quiet awe. Sunlight filtered through the trees, turning the dust into gold. For the first time since they'd landed, she smiled — a small, genuine smile that Aaron caught in the reflection of the window.
"Not what you expected, huh?" he said softly.
"Not at all," she replied. "It's… loud and alive and completely unpredictable. And somehow, beautiful."
Mr Banerjee chuckled from the front seat. "That's India for you — chaos with a soul."
As the car turned off the main road, the lanes grew narrower, winding through clusters of low-rise apartments and tiny shops packed shoulder to shoulder. Scooters darted between cars, children playing outside in the sunshine, climbing trees, and somewhere in the distance, a pressure cooker whistled like a morning alarm.
Mrs Banerjee leaned back and smiled at the girls' wide-eyed expressions "Welcome to our neighbourhood. Don't worry, it looks wild, but everyone here knows everyone else. You'll get used to the noise before the week's over."
The car slowed as they approached a gated colony. Bougainvillaea spilt over the walls, and the faint sound of someone practising tabla drifted from a nearby balcony. The air smelled faintly of frying parathas and incense.
Aaron glanced out the window and grinned. "Home sweet home."
Isebella and Estella exchanged a look — part disbelief, part curiosity, part anticipation. Whatever they had imagined India to be, this was not it.
But as the car rolled to a stop before a modest apartment building bathed in morning sunlight, something in both of them shifted — a quiet thrill, a sense that this was the start of something they'd never forget.
As the family stepped out and Aaron and Ishaan stretched and took a deep breath.
"Oh!! Man feels so good, missed this pollution and dust-filled air," Ishaan Exclaimed.
While the boys were trying to help their parents get the luggage, the girls, on the other hand, had a bit of time before they got acclimatised to this air.
" agh… agh… agh.., how are you agh… guys feeling so energetic, it's so dusty and the air feels so agh… I dont even know what" Isebella coughing.
"Agh.. agh.. Seriously, it feels like a sandstorm and pollution had a baby, agh.. Agh.." Estella is trying her best.
"Well, this is what it is, and this is Delhi on a best day, as the day progresses, it will get worse", Ishaan said while pulling and carrying his and Estella's luggage as she was too caught up coughing.
Before they could enter the building, suddenly two strangers came rushing, and one of them gave a bear hug to Ishaan and the other just greeted Aaron with a quick, decisive hand clasp and a shoulder bump.
"Good, you are back,brotha, so how was it ?" asked the stranger
"Oh!! Man, I missed your sarcastic British accent, bro, but it's good to see you, Ansh, bro," Aaron said to him with a smile.
"YOOOOO!!! Bhavesh, bro, you want to make me fall or what, huh? First day after the trip, and you're planning to send me to the OCD?" Ishaan is screaming as he tries to balance himself.
"What? Dont tell you have gotten weak ?" Bhavesh is messing with Ishaan's hair.
As the boys were laughing, 4 more people emerged, parents of the two Ansh and Bahvesh.
"Ohh, well, it seems you are back, so how was the trip, Mrs Banerjee?" Bahvesh's mother asked
"Oh, it was full of surprises, you see," Mrs Banerjee said while looking at the girls.
"Oh my my, who might these beautiful girls be ?" Ansh's mother asked, pointing towards the girls.
As Mr and Mrs Banerjee were trying to come up with an excuse to not stir trouble, Ishaan came forward and declared with full force.
"They are our fiancé, " declared Ishaan, pointing at Aaron, who had grabbed his head.
For a moment, everyone froze.
Bhavesh's grin disappeared, Ansh blinked like he hadn't heard it right, and both mothers looked like they'd just witnessed a plot twist in a soap opera.
"You're what?" Bhavesh's mother finally managed, her voice going up half a pitch.
"Our fiancées," Ishaan repeated proudly, unaware of the verbal grenade he'd just tossed into the middle of the group.
Aaron slapped his forehead. "Oh my god, Ishaan…" he muttered under his breath.
Ansh's mom turned sharply toward Mrs Banerjee. "You didn't tell us! Since when are these two engaged?"
"Oh—it's not what it sounds like," Mrs Banerjee said quickly, laughing nervously.
"It's… um… sort of a long story."
"Oh, we love long stories," Bhavesh's mother said, her eyebrows rising like radar antennas.
Bhavesh was now shaking Ishaan's shoulder. "Bro! Abroad for a few months and you come back engaged?! What did you even do there — attend college or a reality show?"
Ansh smirked at Aaron. "And you too? Didn't even send us a text? Traitor."
Aaron groaned. "Can someone revoke his speaking privileges, please?"
Estella blinked, completely thrown off. "Wait—did he just… what did he just call us?"
Isebella's jaw dropped. "Fiancées. He called us fiancées. Oh, Ishaan…"
Before things could spiral further, Mrs Banerjee quickly intervened.
"Alright, everyone, let's continue this inside, shall we? It's been a long flight. The kids are tired."
"Oh, of course," Ansh's mom said, though her grin clearly said I'm going to text everyone in five minutes.
As soon as the lift doors closed, Aaron turned to Ishaan, glaring.
"Fiancées? Seriously?"
"What?!" Ishaan protested. "They were asking questions! I panicked!"
"Bro, there's panicking, and then there's detonating a gossip bomb."
Estella crossed her arms. "I see the gossip network here is fast?"
Aaron sighed. "Fast? It's faster than light."
Right on cue, both their phones buzzed simultaneously.
Aaron glanced at his screen, then groaned. "Yup. The colony WhatsApp group already knows."
He showed them the screen:
'Breaking: Banerjee boys return from abroad with foreign fiancées! Details soon 👀💍'
Estella blinked. "How? We were literally downstairs thirty seconds ago!"
Ishaan shrugged. "Welcome to India. Where news travels before you do."
Isebella added sarcastically, "It seems our country's intelligence agency must take some notes from you guys"
The lift doors opened with a soft ding. They stepped out into a warm, sunlit corridor lined with potted plants and faint echoes of morning prayers drifting from somewhere below.
The boys led them to a wooden door with a brass nameplate reading "The Banerjees."
When the door opened, the girls stopped, momentarily silent.
The apartment was small but full of life — colourful cushions, family photos crowding the walls, trophies from school competitions, and the faint, comforting scent of sandalwood and filter coffee. A small temple stood by the entrance, its lamp flickering softly.
"This…" Isabella began softly, "This is your home?"
Aaron smiled, setting the luggage down. "Yeah. It's not a palace, but it's ours."
"It feels warm," Estella said quietly, her eyes scanning the room. "Lived in."
Ishaan grinned, slipping off his shoes. "You'll get used to it. It's loud, nosy, unpredictable — but it grows on you."
Estella smiled faintly. "Just like you."
"Exactly."