Rinki’s Story

They say what one loves in childhood stays forever…well, nothing of that sort happened with us. We have known each other since our childhood. He has his set of memories which I don’t remember, like the pictures on the home page, our first movie, our family vacation trips, etc. Since I was the third girl in my family, His mom used to say that she would take me away to her house one day. Back then this was just for laughs.

I knew him just by his nickname ‘Wintoo’. I didn’t actually know his name. Years passed and memories faded, and for me only three people in their family existed - aunty, uncle and his sister Navisa di. I used to speak to aunty and uncle often. My mom used to tease me at times saying that I will definitely end up in Hyderabad one day and I asked her, “who stays in Hyderabad?”. I never got any response.

It was only when I started working after completing my undergraduate degree, one day when uncle came down to Chennai, I spoke to him for quite a long time, talked to him about my work experience and how I was planning to quit my job, and my plans for further studies. He then suggested me to consider TISS Hyderabad. I took that suggestion seriously and made a trip to Hyderabad.

My destiny took me there, you never know when life takes a sharp turn. So I happened to meet Wintoo and spoke to him after years for the first time on the 22nd of April. I especially remember, the whole family was on the dining table, on a Skype call with him and the camera was turned towards me. No matter who spoke to him, the camera was always nudged towards me. I found that really weird at that time, and talked about it to my mom. My mom knew what was going on so did dad. I was so confused. It was only after I spoke to him I realized that he had sent me a friend request back in December which I never accepted cause I never knew his name.

That’s when our journey started we started chatting on Facebook and it was quite a normal chat until my birthday, when Vritant asked me something that freaked me out..

Vritant: Hello, good morning and happy birthday once again . If it’s not entirely obvious by now, I’m crushing on you right now. Are you seeing someone else? Are you interested?

Rinki: Umm what was that

Vritant: Well?

Rinki: Heart attack early in the morning

Vritant: Best way to start the morning, no?

Rinki: Yeah right

Vritant: Think about it if you need to, lemme know

Rinki: Arey but explain me na at least

Vritant: Okay.. Sure, It’s a simple crush is all. I want to get to know you better..

…and that is how it all began

So after the whole conversation I spoke to my dad about it and got to know that this was something that started years ago… After this, there was a lot of commotion and questions…

When I spoke to him for the first time, I didn’t really know we would end up getting married.

I was quite impressed with his thoughts, his way of looking at life, practicality and genuineness. Eventually came the she said yes moment

After a long process of speaking to my parents and his parents, I met him in September for the first time, it was quite weird

We spoke about how and what we wanted, and his thoughts matched mine, some compromises, some agreements, some love and some fights took us where we are today.

Soon, I am going to get married to him and I would just like to thank God for mending my life in such a beautiful way, with loads of love taking our lives to the next phase.

…and they lived happily every after

Vritant’s Story

It all probably started many years ago when our fathers went to the same school in Varkana Rajasthan. They became close friends, and even debated against each other as seen in this yearbook picture of theirs from September 1974: PIC ( her dad is on the left and mine on the right ). As they grew up, our families became friends, and we even spent vacations together occasionally. Her two elder sisters were like friends to me, but I don’t recollect ever speaking to her.

Flash forward to the year 1998, I was ten and she was four. We were all in a parked car, and had just got out of a movie theatre after watching the movie Jeans . The ten year old me somehow convinced himself that my name was mentioned in a song in the movie, and to make it worse, The kid deemed it best to share that with everybody else in the car. I was certain the words “Wintoo ka raja, Wintoo ki rani” ( Vritant’s King, Vritant’s queen ) was a lyric in the movie. Between every one’s laughter, someone teased us by calling her the queen. Many years ago I looked up the song, turns out, it was this weird song ( link ). Nevertheless, it was the first time someone had teased me with her, probably even the first time someone teased me about any girl, and that made me furious. That was the moment I knew I hated this 4-year-old kid

Flash forward to the year 2007, July 1st. I was a skinny 19-year-old and my sister was getting married. Her oldest sister was with us during the ceremonies, and just as she was getting off the stage, she hinted strongly that all my roads lead to Chennai. I was kind of amused, probably even a little annoyed.

Flash forward to the year 2008. This time it was her sister’s wedding, and Dad and I were the guests. Dad was staying at their place, while I crashed at my cousin sister’s, who also lived in Chennai. Jijaji ( my brother in law ) took me out for breakfast to an idli place, and I swear I have never had better idlis in all my life, but I was so shy I could not get myself to ask for seconds. Later that day during the wedding ceremony, I was walking about the venue, when I saw her walking towards me, and for some reason, my heart skipped a beat. Back then she wore glasses. Our eyes met, and she stopped walking, and so did I. She turned around, and walked back the opposite way. And suddenly all the hatred was back. That was it. How dare she? Okay I get it, we are teased together, so naturally, any sane teenager would not want anything to do with me, but would it kill her to say hello?

I never met again, never looked her up, until the day I did, on Facebook. Needless to say, time had treated her well enough that my jaw dropped. My facebook friend was, however, ignored… …and the rage intensifies

A few months later, however, I got a text from dad that she was visiting back home in Hyderabad. All of a sudden my meetings were rescheduled and I thought it was a nice day to have a video chat with folks back home during lunch . This song played in my head while I chewed on strawberries and yoghurt for lunch.

That evening, Facebook notified my I had an accepted friend request, and I was giddy with happiness. On top of that, it was her birthday the next day. I knew she was way out of my league, and I had a very short time of interval in which she would remember me, so I had to do something quick. I turned all my charm buttons on and sent her the message on Facebook you see above in her story.

What followed was a few days where I was trying to, as cheesily as I could, trying to get her interested, while bombarding her with as many questions as I could, for hours together. Apparently. it worked cause she was still talking to me! Before she even agreed to give me her number, I knew she was the one for me. It took me two conversations to figure that out. So much so, that when she finally gave me her number, I saved it as Mrs. Vritant Jain. I didn’t tell her, but I knew.

A lot of days later, her parents had the conversation with her about me. It was a second-hand conversation for me, when she later told me her dad asked her about me, that he just wanted to know if I was a nice guy. He wanted to know if she liked me, and told her that she does not have to rush into any decision or feel pressured into anything. She was supposed to act coy, or at least shy, but before he could finish she blurted out, “No, he is a really nice guy, you should talk to him.”. Her parents laughed . When she later narrated the incident to me, To me it was as if she stood up for me, and before I realized what happened, I blurted out “I love you” for the first time to her .

I’ve fallen in love with her many times since. Every time she makes me smile when I’m down, every time she asks me to sing, and then actually likes it ( or so she says ), every time she stands up for herself, especially when it is in a disagreement with me. Every time she shows me how wiser she is than anyone of her age, certainly wiser than I was. Every time she smiles, but especially when she cries. Every time she volunteers for a cause ( me being the biggest one ), most of all, every time she makes face expressions like these (PIC) that would give any smiley a run for their money..

I am truly grateful that she is leaving her life as she knows it, to be a part of my life. She gives a meaning to my life, a purpose, and fills it with a joy I have never known to exist before.