Sadhna Completes My Love Story

The story of my love life starts with Sadhna. Circa 2005. Kirti Nagar, Delhi.

An Eternal Lover

I was on a short, one-month trip to meet my folks in India. 

The unassuming moi didn't realize that mom had something up her sleeve. She'd floated a matrimonial ad for me in The Times of India, which read something like a tweet: "Need a suitable match for an NRI, 26, Male, Hindu, working for Samsung Korea." You know, the usual crap!

The ad was an instant hit, which wasn't a surprise knowing how obsessed our junta seems to be with NRIs. She received over 1000+ responses, and poor dad had to filter all the Janam Kundlis and photographs of prospective brides, along with other trivial details about their personal lives. 

Ouch! That must've hurt!

"The setting was simply perfect," mom recalls. An NRI beta on vacation, a beautiful Hindu girl ready to get hitched, and a blissful arranged marriage setup between two middle-class families. Right? 

Wrong!

She started discussing marriage with me from Day 1 of my vacation. Apparently she'd also visited her would-be bahu's home (now my sasural) a few times. Initially I didn't fuss too much about it, knowing how overly concerned she tends to be. 

My theatrical, desi mom, even provided finer details about each girl. The photos came in handy, or so she must've thought.

For me, it wasn't a big deal going and meeting a girl in front of her parents and rishtedaars. 

"What's the worst that could happen?" I thought. The whole arrangement could turn out to be a damp squib. 

I'd clearly communicated to mom that the decision to marry the girl of her choice would be entirely mine, not hers. And she'd nodded in agreement.  

So there I was, at Sadhna's home, in front of her family members. It almost felt like a courtroom trial. Questions being thrown from all corners of the room.

"What are your hobbies beta?", "What do you like to eat?", and the best of the lot "What type of soul mate are you searching?" 

Was I hearing right? A custom-made soul mate just for Rahul. 

Fabulous!

Those discerning eyes of family members totally left me numb. I chose not to speak much.

But somewhere deep within my heart, I heard a voice scream out, "She's the one ... don't let go!"

I asked mom afterward if she'd arrange a date for me and Sadhna. Just the both of us this time. Alone and away from the all the noise and hungama. The way I want it. The way I like.

Mom's plan was working. They know best, don't they?

She took up the phone, called my would-be mother-in-law, and requested her to allow Sadhna to meet me alone.

Lovebirds

For our first date, we met at Planet M, South Extension. Why Planet M you might ask? Because I wanted to surprise Sadhna by gifting her a Shaan album (a little birdie told me that Shaan was her favorite playback singer.) She truly appreciated my attention to details and asked me with a childlike innocence what the evening had in store for us.

Now & Forever in Love

We walked hand-in-hand for about a kilometer and a half, before landing up at Barista, the coffee shop. It was during this time that I'd popped the question, the most impromptu act of my life, about whether she'd be willing to spend the rest of her life with me. For Sadhna, it was certainly a big, life-changing decision she was ever going to take. To leave everything behind and relocate to South Korea, a land so unknown, where everything was unique from language to food.

And guess what, she replied in the affirmative. 

We've been happily married for nine years now and have two wonderful children called Rishab (6 years) and Saanvi (2 years). 

Us

My love for her has only increased tenfold in these years. Life couldn't have been more meaningful had Sadhna not been a part of it.