I too had a love story, says Ravinder Singh. Well, it's almost been a month since I got married to this amazing girl, and now I've finally got a breather to sit back and reflect on the last 11 months which exactly on this day 11 months back, changed my life forever.
Chapter I — Where It All Began
It all started on 13th April, 2025. Unlike others in our community the bride and the bride's family visit the groom's family to talk about a potential alliance. On that day, we had just discharged my Ajju from hospital as he wasn't well. We preponed the dischargement because the bride's family had planned to come and visit, and see me 😆.
I had just started to think of marriage as a concept, and not even close to saying that I was ready to get married. While my appa had already decided to get me married in a hurry. Me and Amma were in no hurry as we were too busy in taking care of Ajju along with her work and my career.
In a matrimonial site my father had got a lead of this girl who was working in IISc post her masters and he had casually asked whether that would be ok for me? I wasn't even thinking of any girl, but was still figuring out if I was even capable enough to get married. Was still contemplating the concept of marriage. On that day when they came to visit us at our home, my mind was completely busy with the wellbeing of Ajju, while I had no idea what I'm going to talk about with the girl. At start when they came, they introduced themselves and my father introduced our family. More often there was awkward silence rather than a free flowing conversation. All of a sudden my chikkamma asked their surname and got to know, she was surprised that the bride's father was her husband's roommate and bride's father's brother was his classmate. Then the conversation between the 2 families took a complete turn into a tangent. I was genuinely surprised that my father did not speak of me at all, while even her father did not speak much about her too. The room had both of us as potential life-partners, and it was surprising that no one did not give any heed to talk about us. 😂
Thanks to my Atte who asked whether we want to speak to each other alone! I mean what's the point if the 2 families talk about everything except the one that they were acually meeting for. No blames, this usually happens as it's an awkward situation, since both families are not familiar to each other, so you can always expect hesitation. Then I lead the bride (now my wife 😂) to my working room. I sat on a hightened chair while she sat on a normal one. We started speaking. I actually was in overdrive mode and spoke about all the things I do apart from work, which is a LOT! Didn't give her much of a chance to speak at all, about which to this day she complains about 😂. She spoke very little when compared to me, but I sensed that she is equal or even better than me, intellectually, on the first day. Since, I've always recieved one feedback from many people that it's hard to approach me. So we spoke and they left for the day.
Chapter II — Saying YES
After a couple of days my chikkappa who happened to be close to Shreya's (the bride) father called me asking what was my opinion, whether to go ahead or not. Again I wasn't much clear, while my father was particularly impressed with her and insisted that I say 'YES', and ofcourse my Amma too chimed in. So I said 'YES' since I didn't have clarity at that time. Thank God Shreya asked for another meeting outside, since the 2 hours we spoke was not enough at all.😂 We laugh about it today, since we spoke for 2 hours continuous on our first meeting. We again met on April 19th outside spoke for around 5 hours straight, while it was averwhelming for her (which I got to know later), we genuinely hit it off, and I was really interested about this girl, who did not pursue typical corporate job and went with the even more nobel and hard career path which is research, about which even to this day I'm genuinely proud of her. Since this was an arranged setup it took us really really long to get close to each other. One thing I was pretty adamant about from the start was amongst us I did not want to be the senior to her and ask her to address me with respect and insisted to be equal partners.
Chapter III — The Engagement
Then post this we got our engagement fixed at the end of June. Both of our parents pushed for an earlier engagement, but as I had some critical work, it could not get into fruition. Before 28th June (day of our engagement) we both had met for a mere 5-6 times. We both were strangers. But one thing was sure, from our first meeting outside of our places, I knew that this girl whom I'm getting engaged to is a proper Authentic Genuine person. Have seen a lot of failed marriages due to many reasons, so that fear was going to be there. But this girl, was a genuine person 100%, which is why I did not have seciond thought about her.
On the day of our engagement, I expected it to be a small gathering of maybe 100 odd people and but MAN I WAS SO SO WRONG..! We both were starngers, absolute strangers! Being a single child I always take a ling time to get close to someone, expecting me to get close to someone in a month is impossible. So I expeceted maybe a 100 people MAX to be present on that say, but reality was sooo different. A total of 300+ people had attended on our engagement, it seemed as if it was marriage, given the sheer number of people. Lot of people even told it out loud saying that getting married was only thing that was missing on that day😂. I was in for a proper surprise on that day. Since I was super into AI, i legit did a POC and gave an AI trained poster of both of us😂. She didn't expect me to propose to her in front of all 300 of those people, but lo and behold I did 🤟.
Chapter IV — Across the Seas
The next couple of months we discussed among each other that let's give it time and time test our relationship. We gave 8 long months to get to know each other before taking the big step to become Mr and Mrs. Dixit. While this was happening she got a fantastic opportunity (first among many) to travel to Netherlands representing India on a global level in her field of work. I was secretly the proudest boyfriend (fiance) which I still am as a husband! 🥰
Next came the hard part. It was her first international trip/Europe trip (first in the family to travel to Europe). Although it was just for a week, that is when I really felt how hard life was without her by my side. She too had similar emotion (turns out even harder than me, since she was traveling too). When she came back is when I confessed. It took me 4 odd months to get close to my wife 😂.
Chapter V — Through the Storm
Well when I was about to be really happy, disaster struck, my best friend, my Ajju decided to leave us, he was the prime reason why I had said YES to marriage, since he was manifesting from a LONG Time. Reality is I'm just grateful that he atleast see and speak to my life partner, while he couldn't watch here in person my marriage, I'm 100% sure he had blessed us from Heaven with my Ajji. The next month was hard, really hard as there was hole, a vacuum in my heart. I was the closest person to my Ajju, and all of a sudden he's not with us. It's life, we can't crib about things that are not in our control. Shreya helped me a LOT at this tough time, she gave all the moral support needed to get through this really painful situation. It's easy to be there for a person in good times, but the genuine ones will be there no matter what kind of time it is. From then, I got confidence that through thick or thin, she will always be there with me, and I have nothing but gratitude to what she has done until now. (This cold-hearted alpha male as I proclaim is actually crying when I'm writing this).
Chapter VI — Our Little Love Story
Post October until January 20th there was no looking back, worked day and night to bring the best day of our lives to fruition. We had manifested many things to be done as a bucketlist before tying the knot. I'm glad our teamwork really clicked and all of them came into fruition. We had discussed that we will host a Wedding Website (Please visit https://sughoshkishreya.space ), have a photo shoot with Krish (our car), Pluto (all new Google Pixel) because all our photos must be of the best quality.
Amongst all these we had one amazing Love Story too. We keep discussing amongst ourselves that our story will make decent movie. At the start we used to meet about twice a week. Slowly the frequency increased to thrice a week, to finally meeting every alternate days. I used to hustle a lot, to meet her, but I got a lot of feedback from a lot of people who went through this phase saying - this phase of your life is never coming back. So I wanted to leave no stone unturned. Sometimes the excuses I used to make to meet her were utter insane. Total nibba-nibbi stuff. We used to laugh about it.
For instance, although we were engaged, whatever we were doing was already "Society Approved" but we still had that hinderance and that hesitation about what people might think. I used to say that it might get late to return office, while I secretly used to go and meet her at her workplace. In fact during the last 8 months the only reason I used to take the car and go to office was solely to meet her. In this front I'm just thankful that I bought the car at the RIGHT TIME. 🥰
Like Baadshah says in his song Jugnu:
Zindagi main aayi jabse vibe hi badal gayi Ghumta tha main aawara, life si sambhal gayi Duniya meri dark si mein light si ek jal gayi, yeaah, aye, ayy, yeah
Teri baaton main dil kho sa gaya Meri raaton main din ho sa gaya Pyaar kehete jisko finally wo ho sa gaya Finally, finally, finally
Chapter VII — The Countdown
Lo and behold the finally the day came when were going to tie the knot. It still feels just like a dream. 9 months went by just like 🫸this.
Who knew a person like me would get girlfriend, whom I would later call my fiance and then my wife, my better half and my partner for life. (Currently she's sleeping absolutely snoring so loudly! 😂).
She left for her hometown to prep for our big day on Jan 20, 2026. I had been whining to not be able to see her for a massive 17 days, after meeting her and being on her side for almost everyday in December and January. It was tough. Our love was time-tested. We both could proudly say that although we had an arranged engagement, our marriage was a Love Marriage.
And finally after hustling too much to invite almost 400 odd people to our big day, it was finally the day. The day had finally had come where we had been hustling and prepping for it for almost 3-4 months, all for one day's celebrations. Just imagine!
Chapter VIII — Mr & Mrs Dixit
7th Feb Morning is when we went to her hometown, and YES this time I knew how many people/well-wishers would turn up. The sheer number of people coming over there is unimaginable for Bengaluru boy, since over here my engagement's number of people would have been considered a proper marriage function. More than emotion on 7th and 8th it was me in Auto-Pilot mode. Saying yes to everything and doing what has been said to be done. I couldn't see much of her on 7th, since we had to be separate, since technically we were still not officially together. 7th evening I was made to sit on a white horse for Baaraat, and I can't forget that day and moment. Starting I felt, did I really deserve this? This much amount of respect, hype, after all I'm just common human being. I have to be thankful of all the arrangements that had been made, and as Shreya says it's our parent's wishes and who are we to stop them to feel happy of our alliance?
8th morning it was all marriage rituals, and it was after 8th morning when we were "Officially allowed" to be together. After that all the rituals that followed were pretty much related to "US" as a couple.
We took a lot a lot of photos and it was time for the reception in her hometown in the afternoon on 8th Feb. The sheer amount of people who attended our wedding was enormous. I should say it was not easy to smile to all of them and thank them for their well wishes. But I had my previously girlfriend and newly my wife beside me, so I had no fear. Even in the wedding website - I have added that truly, she is "Her partner's backbone by ideology".
Forever and Always
All in all, it's been an unbelievable 7-8 months. I still can't believe I already have a wife. I never imagined that I of all people will have a "wife in my life". Thank you for everything Shreya. I would like to be thankful to her family who have arranged an amazing wedding, which I couldn't have asked for more, in fact it was infinitely better than what I had expected it to be, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. We're now Life Partners, but our love story, I shall cherish forever. No matter where life takes us, I promise to hold your hand, cherish your heart, and love you unconditionally. You are my greatest happiness, my best friend, and my forever love. Again with you, every day is a 'Kuch Bhiiiiiiiii'.
