Jab We Met: 'I was on cloud nine'

We had invited you, our readers to share your love story this Valentine's Day.

First up, is the story of how Ravi Pratap Singh met his wife Nitu Singh:

I am Ravi Pratap Singh. I belong to Bihar but I am working in Bangalore.

My life partner's name is Nitu Singh. She belongs to Ahmedabad (Gujarat), but her eldest sister stays in Bangalore.

The story of how we met before marriage is very interesting.

One of my friends came to my room and told us that he'd got engaged. We were surprised and asked him how he'd found the girl.

He told us that he'd found his partner through a matrimonial site. He showed us the photograph of the girl and she looked beautiful.

After he left our room, I discussed this with my room partner.

I was sharing the room with three other friends. All of them were keen to find our partners and that's how we registered ourselves in the matrimonial site in September 2007.

After that we waited for responses. A few months later, I received an e-mail saying someone had viewed and liked my profile. I was asked to share my contact details.

A few days later, I received a call from a girl (Nitu). She asked me if I could provide her with a photograph of mine.  She shared her personal e-mail id and asked me to add her in her Gmail account. After exchanging our latest photographs, I received an email from her with a few comments. She wrote: "I liked your picture so did my parents and sister."

I replied "Thank you very much for the good comments. I also liked your picture, it's too sweet."

The next day she sent me a Gmail chat request, which I accepted and replied "Thanks for the chat invitation".

After two days, on November 15, 2007 she came online and we chatted for around 2 hours.

After few days we started talking over the phone, and also decided to meet face to face. But the big question for us was: where do we meet? I stayed in Bangalore and she was in Ahmedabad.

Since her elder sister was in Bangalore, I asked her to come over so that we could meet.

She told that she would ask her parents and inform me.

The next day she told me that her parents had allowed her to go to Bangalore, but she did not tell them that she was coming to meet me fearing they won't let her. She told them that she was going to visit her sister.

Her sister stayed at Electronic city, while I lived in Mathikere.

Since the distance between the two places was far, we decided that once she lands, we will decide about our meeting place. She came to Bangalore on February 25, 2008. Those days I was very happy. After reaching she called me to inform that she had reached Bangalore.

We agreed to meet on February 27, which was also my birthday. I was nervous, but I did not tell her it was my birthday.

She told me that she would come with her sister. We decided to meet at Forum Mall in Kormangala, Bangalore at McDonald food centre.

She came at 12:30pm. But I was waiting since 11:30 am and had bought her a bouquet of roses.

When she reached the mall, she called me. I told her I was waiting on the first floor and was wearing a black tshirt and blue jeans.

When she came inside with her sister, she said hello. She thanked me when I gave her the bouquet and we sat down to talk.

She was wearing jeans and top, and looked very beautiful.

After that she surprised me. She wished me happy birthday and presented me a gift – a pair of jeans and shirt.

I said "Thank you".

After eating our food, we left for our respective homes.

In the night she called me and said: "I liked you and you looked good, even my sister also told me that you are a good boy. I will talk to my parents."

I said OK, and replied: "You also look beautiful, I like you. I will also talk to my parents."

After few days our parents spoke to each other. My parents met her on April 9, 2008 and they also liked her.

We got engaged in May 2008 and married on July 9, 2008. Now I am very happy with my wife (Nitu) and we have a cute baby Anaisa.

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Dear readers, do you have an interesting love story that you want to share? Tell us where you first met your partner and how the two of you fell in love. Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Jab We Met'). You can also include a photograph of you and your partner and we'll publish the best entries right here on rediff.com 

We also heard from Ashutosh Roy who shared bitter sweet memories from his love story:

This is the story set in the late seventies. Venue: Gauhati University, Chemistry section. 

35 young boys and girls who were newly admitted to MSc, sat on one side while the seniors sat on another side.

The freshers were apprehensive and timid because although it was an "acquaintance" gathering, it was also a "ragging" ground.

Since I was the topper in the admission list, I thought that they will really make me a "bakra". However, the ragging was never as repressive I thought of.

When my turn arrived, after the usual acquaintance, the leader of the senior batch gave me a cake and told me that I could take one half of the cake and give the other half to a girl I liked.

I was always shy by nature and was perplexed as to what to do. I tried to tactfully escape the situation.

So, I gave the other half to one of the senior girls whom I knew. All the seniors objected and said it was "foul". The other half was only meant for a girl of my batch and then they gave me one more cake.

Now what to do? I turned to my batch mates, began to see all the faces- all were new to me.

I could not take the risk of embarrassing anybody, I was really bewildered. Suddenly, I thought of taking a risk. I turned to Shruti Sarkar with whom I had a brief talk earlier. She was beautiful and belonged to my linguistic group.

Were those the only reasons? Or Did I develop any weakness towards her in my first encounter? I was not sure but gave half of the cake to her.

Then came the real turn of events. The seniors clapped and insisted that she must stand up if she accepts and eat the cake or else, my turn will come again. She calmly stood up, declared that she had accepted and ate the piece of cake.

I could not understand whether she wanted to save me from the situation or it had been something else. But, a flash of happiness overwhelmed me.

Did she like me too? Sure she did.

I got the answer a few days later.

It was Sunday .We'd arranged a "Fresher's social". Everybody was enjoying their moment. I was sitting in a chair, talking with my male friends. I saw her in a distance, draped in fiery red sari.

She was looking gorgeous. There was an audio playing in the background -- "Hi, hi beautiful Sunday".

She saw me too. But lo! What was she doing! She came out of her friend's circle, joined us and asked me to give some space for her.

I got up and gave the chair but she told me to sit beside her. I did because I wanted to. My friends offered a meaningful smile to me because by this time they knew my weakness.

She might have noticed their smiles too but did not care and I was on cloud nine.

That day was different – it was awesome for me. I came back to my hostel and tried to sleep but I could not. Why had she come out of her circle? Why did she pick me to give her the chair? Why did she ask me to sit beside her?

An untold and unexpressed feeling was screaming inside my heart to come out. I was getting restless. I realised, I was crying to relieve me.

There is so much froth in love!

She was local, staying in Guwahati but did not go home that Sunday night and was staying with her friend in the girls' hostel.

I decided to meet her at the bus stop and share my feelings with her. When I saw her approaching the bus stop, I thanked god that she was alone.

I could hear my palpitation. Was she expecting me?

She smiled and asked me why I was standing there. I told her I wanted to speak something very special but was not in a hurry.

I asked her if she could come a bit early and meet me in the library the next day. She agreed. Another day and another sleepless night passed by.

The next day she came on time. Sunk in the mountains of shelves of books, I read out my heart to her- "It gives me pleasure when you talk to me, it gives me pleasure when you are around. When you asked me to sit beside, it was an in-explicable joy and when you are not with me in holidays, I feel a big vacuum and curse Sundays and holidays. I feel like crying in your absence. I do not know if this is "love", if yes, "I love you".

She was mesmerised. Were there tears in her eyes? Was there any inexpressible pain in her heart too?

She touched my hand softly and whispered something which I was ever eager to listen.

Then the days flew like seconds. Everything was beautiful. The world was within our fist.

But, shocks do come in life. The first year result was out. I slipped from first position to eighth and got a second class.

I had always been a rank holder at the University but this time, I had not managed to secure a rank or even a first class!

My well wishers advised me to concentrate on my academics. I could not accept that my love towards her was the reason for the deterioration in my results.

Her family also came to know about our relation.

Though there was nothing incompatible, they came in our way just because they did not believe in love marriage.

Then, one day I managed to drop in her father's chamber at the Railway Hospital and politely but firmly narrated our pure and serene relation.

He told me that there was no problem and he will consider giving a legitimate end to our relation provided we concentrated on our studies and did not meet and talk.

It was a scene straight out of Ek Duje Ke Liye.

Shruti and I earnestly followed the instructions of her father. We never met alone, never loitered beneath the Krishnachura tree of the campus. But we stared painfully at each other whenever we met in a group.

Then finally my masters degree results were out.

I had secured a first class first and received an academic gold medal. I was ecstatic and was preparing myself for a job so that I could meet her father and pray for her hand in marriage.

But to my utter dismay, I got the news that she was forcefully taken to Calcutta for her marriage.

Readers, this was not the age of mobile and Facebook. Things could have been sorted out then but I did not have any clue as to how I could find her.

All my happiness in securing the first class first and gold medal became meaningless to me. I cried to have lost a valuable person from my life.

I often thought what could be the reason her father resorted to this cruel act of separating two souls who believed his words.

May be, he was apprehensive because I had just passed out of my university, and wondered what job I would have got.

Today, when I earn about 40 lakhs per annum, I thought, whether her father, if he was alive now would have still been unhappy to give his daughter's hand to me!!

I often search for her in Facebook. But I lost her forever. An American friend of mine advised: "Do not try to bring forth the past, the result is often more painful".

But I still remember her and our platonic love and pray to God that she should remain ever happy in her own world though I still spend sleepless nights when I think of her. "Chokhe Ghum nei".

No sleep today also, when I write this at my near old age.

Unfortunately, I do not have any photo of ours. Perhaps, even if I had, I would not share it for the sake of her peace.

Illustration: Uttam Ghosh

Please click NEXT to continue reading...

Dear readers, do you have an interesting love story that you want to share? Tell us where you first met your partner and how the two of you fell in love. Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Jab We Met'). You can also include a photograph of you and your partner and we'll publish the best entries right here on rediff.com 

And last but not the least, Parag Jain tells us how he eventually fell in love with his best friend:

I left school after class 10 and met her after class 12 on New Year's eve, with bunch of other school friends.

And from that day onwards, we kept meeting regularly.  

We connected very well. I don't know why, may be because we had nothing in common. I was pursuing Biotech and she was doing Architecture.

We were always short of time when talking to each other. This continued for four years. And during these years we became good friends. We watched movies, roamed around with friends, discussed work, life, love etc.

Both of us always had a lot to share.

At times, even though we didn't meet for months together, we'd still be connected and know what was going on in each other's lives.

Everyone around us thought that we were in love, except us. May be because we were dating different people all together at that time and may be because of that we never expressed how special the other person was in our life. 

It was her birthday and I had gone to her college to greet her.

We cut the cake and sang birthday songs and then she hugged her BF. That was the time I felt bad, really bad.

I just didn't knew why was I feeling that way, but somehow I could not digest that she could love someone else. I didn't have the courage to say it to her as I was in a relationship.

But somehow, that day I realised how important she was in my life.

Things changed, months passed. We broke our respective relationships and moved on with our lives.

I bought my first car and invited all my school friends for a trip. A trip that I never thought would change my life all together. 

The next one month was spent planning. We arranged for everything -- the hotel bookings, itinerary, food, budget, games, clothes etc. It was fun discussing the whole affair everyday. And finally in May we set out for our trip.

We drove down straight to Lonavala to pick up a friend. The journey to Lonavala was scary as well as difficult for a first-time driver like me -- those steep curves and the ghats had me scared. But yes, I loved the experience.

Then we went to our first destination, Murud Janjira, about a 250 km drive from Mumbai.

We reached Murud in the evening and hunted the area for good hotels. We finally got a lovely cottage by the sea.

We changed all our plans and decided to stay at Murud for the next three days. Yes, all that planning that we did for a month went down the drain.

We went to the beach late evening, enjoyed playing some games and splashing water on each other. It was a lifetime experience, being with school friends on a trip on the Konkan beaches and falling in love during the same time.

One night, she and I went to the beach with a pair of pillows and slept on the wet mud, talking till 6 am.

It was a great experience once again, discussing life, work, love, passion etc. And yeah, we enjoyed guessing the shapes of clouds. I must say it was the best time I have ever spent with anyone in my life!

And now after spending almost 10 years, we finally knew that we were in love with each other and wanted to spend the rest of the life waking next to each other. But again we didn't have the courage to say so at the same time.

We were both afraid of rejection or risking our friendship for something that we were not sure of.

Somehow, the next day when she went back to her home town she took the initiative to propose and I was more than happy to take it forward from there. Since then it's been a roller coaster ride.

We have fought for every single reason which is not worth fighting -- whether it be my views on politics, development, capitalism or her views on sustainability, peace, environment.  

We love each other madly and want to be together forever. 

I believe there are two kinds of love stories: The first is love at first sight and you know that s/he is the one for you.

And then there is one where you are good friends and eventually fall in love after understanding, respecting each other and eventually falling in love after a lot of thought processes.

The latter one was our story, and I hope this turns into marriage sooner or later!

Dear readers, do you have an interesting love story that you want to share? Tell us where you first met your partner and how the two of you fell in love. Write in to us at getahead@rediff.co.in (subject line: 'Jab We Met'). You can also include a photograph of you and your partner and we'll publish the best entries right here on rediff.com