Journey of Amrita and DadWhoGoesUpsideDowns online dating to life partners

18 years and counting…

How did you both meet?

We met virtually, got introduced in a ‘Rediff chat’ room. Amrita was in Delhi and I (dadWhoGoesUpsideDown) was in Pune. We started speaking over long distance calls. During Diwali of 1999, I decided to travel with a local friend to Delhi and north of India for a 10 day long vacation. The friend who had planned to accompany me had to cancel the trip last minute due to unavoidable circumstances. In the absence of my friend, I checked with Amrita if she would be keen to join me. She agreed immediately, I arrived in Delhi as planned. I would like to share here that neither of us knew what to expect, or what we looked like as we till then had not exchanged any photographs — so, in a sense, this was the very first time saw each other and when we did, we felt a connect. We ended up traveling together where we added destinations on the go with no prior planning and were in Amritsar — where, in one of the wee hour visit to the Golden Temple, we both felt we could extend the relationship into a meaningful one and since then there has been no looking back.

How many years have you been together?

We have been married for 18 years.

What is your relationship formula, what keeps you both going?

Trust, transparency, acceptance, pride in other’s achievements and ‘Go with the flow’ attitude.

There are bound to be challenges in a relationship. How do you overcome them?

Every challenge or phase of life has a surprise positive element to offer or be discovered. Looking back occasionally on the times spent together helps strengthen the sense of achievement and fulfillment. Also realizing that the purpose of being together over the years has transformed from just ‘being together’ to ‘building years of fulfilling shared life experiences and memories for a 6 year old growing daughter, two Labradors, friends, family members and helps who work with us’ makes one value other’s perspective, visualize a larger picture and move on with momentary challenges.

Amrita & Dadwhogoesupsidedown was originally published in andwemet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.