When Sarah Serene Ravada, 30, got married to her college sweetheart Joshua and moved to Mumbai in 2018, they shifted in with two of their friends from Coimbatore. In a city where the couple had no other connections, their college friend Matthew and his cousin Ronald, became their chosen family. 

“Joshua and I set clear boundaries before our wedding. It was important to both of us to give each other the space to maintain those bonds outside the marriage,” says the digital marketing freelancer from Goregaon East.

So she had a rude shock last year, when Ronald shared he was getting engaged and then ghosted them. “A month later, he got married and there was still no response. We asked Matthew what was wrong, and he said Ronald’s wife may have forbidden him from keeping contact with us.”