Accepting every hurdle as a stepping stone, 32-year-old director (operations) Priyanka Joshi and 35-year-old business consultant Binu K Nair found a new of way of life that includes best of their north and south Indian heritage respectively.
Though falling in love was easier than getting married, their friendship solved even that problem like always.
Sharing their story, Priyanka said, “Love is something that we feel, not necessarily spoken in words and shown in gifts… at least that is how it is in our case.”
Met in accountancy coaching class, they soon discovered to be neighbours in 2005. “I was in second year of graduation and he was my senior,” Priyanka said. Coming from conservative families, they did not speak to each other directly.
“We would notice each other and gestures were enough to communicate,” Nair said. They stayed as acquaintances throughout graduation.
“Our story continued as I enrolled for master in business administration (MBA) in the same college as him,” Priyanka said. Both of them could sense another’s feelings, but never put it in words.
“After MBA, my father got transferred and we moved to Chandigarh, Punjab,” Priyanka said. She felt incomplete leaving without Nair.
“He had tears in his eyes, when I left and I did not want to leave either,” Priyanka said. Their relation took a new form as they wrote emails to each other.
“It was in 2008, when we had simple cell phones and had to go to cyber cafes for sending mails,” Nair said. Eventually, they got sms packs that allowed them to communicate through the night.
“We would chat on sms all night about every little thing in our lives,” Priyanka said. Knowing each other’s feelings, they proposed parents for marriage instead of each other in 2010.
“We knew it would be tough battle because our cultures were poles apart, rather everything was opposite in our families,” Nair said. While Priyanka’s mother worried about her daughter’s adjustment, Nair’s mother could not visualise Marwari daughter-in-law.
“My dad liked him and agreed to give us a year to convince everyone considering that I chose not to marry at all if not him,” Priyanka said.
Knowing that her mother-in-law does not prefer her, she started a conversation with birthday greeting. “I calling his mother and tried to please her in every way possible until she just gave in and agreed for the marriage and then convincing my mother was not a difficult job, she wanted me to be happy,” Priyanka said.
Patiently convincing Priyanka and getting support from his elder sister (Bindu), Nair ensured that love wins over cultural differences.