Valentine’s Day: Barodians share their interesting love stories

Vidya Desai shares her and Manan Desai’s love story

“We first met in 2007 when we were both recruited as RJs for Radio Mirchi. We were called for a 20-day induction in MICA Ahmedabad, and we instantly became very good friends.
I was recruited for Radio Mirchi Surat, he was recruited for Radio Mirchi Vadodara.
Manan was serious about me from the start. But I never thought of him other than being more than a friend. Since we lived in different cities, Manan would often turn up in Surat to surprise me every weekend. He had even come to my house to meet my parents. In my mind, I was doubtful if things would work out because I was a Tamilian and he was a Gujarati. There was a lot of breakups and patchups in our 4 years of relationship. But the best thing about our relationship was that Manan was consistent throughout. He used to write songs and poetry for me. He had told me I love you so many times but I had never told him that because those three little words were precious to me and the future was in question.
My parents knew about how Manan likes me. So when the time came to look for a boy for me, my father asked me why don’t I think about spending the rest of my life with Manan?
That is when I asked Manan to come to Surat and meet me at CCD (that was our regular spot). I got down on one knee and asked him to marry me. That was the first time I said I love you to him. That was in 2010 and we have been happily married since.”

Harsh Purohit shares his and Sangeeta’s love story

“We met 35 years ago at a friend’s party on Holi. I was a 15-year-old studying in Rosary, and she was 18 and a student in the Faculty of Fine Arts. My friend and her friend were going around and needed alibis, that saw us being thrown together pretty often for long periods with nothing to do. Over these meetings and long conversations we discovered we had loads in common. One thing led to another and our friendship blossomed into something more. Moral of the story – do good to people and the universe will do good to you.”

Suruchi and Manan Sehgal’s love story

I met Manan for the first time in Baroda in 2011 at a film screening event. We were introduced through a common friend and more movie plans and twitter meet-ups led to the exchange of numbers and there was no looking back.

We progressed from friendship to a relationship because Manan won me over with his relentless persistence and caring nature. But then Manan was going to study abroad in 2014. We didn’t know if our relationship would stand the test of different time zones and being away from each other. While Manan was struggling to thrive and make a living, my parents had already started asking me to see other marriage prospects.

My parents’ concern with Manan was that I was 3 years older than him, I was a Jain and he was Punjabi.  So even after Manan secured a job in a media company and came to ask for my hand, my parents refused. We didn’t want to elope because we firmly wanted our families acceptance and love when we were starting a new life together.
That’s when we decided to end the relationship. But Manan never gave up hope. Six months later, he flew down to India again just to convince my parents and tell them why we should be with each other. Our parents finally agreed after a lot of convincing and now we are happily married.