Love story of a beautiful couple Priya & Hakim on the best dating site andwemet

22 years and counting…

How did you and your significant other meet?

I saw her for the first time on Monday, September 22nd 1997, it was around 8.14 am at Fort area in Bombay. We both were 22 years old and awaiting our results while pursuing our first part-time job. It was her first day while I was in my initial months at the workplace. She entered the institute, huffing and puffing and I was sitting waiting for the students of my corporate batch to arrive for their session.

I offered her the day’s newspaper (TOI) to read and my heart and rest as they say is history.

Following few months went in convincing her and six years into planning for family acceptance. It was an anti-climax wherein everyone agreed and we; she a typical Punjabi girl and I, a clichéd Bohra Muslim boy ended up with an arranged marriage.

How many years have you been together?

22 years of knowing each other and 16 years of what society calls a marriage. Today, we have known each other for more than half of our lifetime and we are still at preface of the book.

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

Talk, we talk. Sorry nothing fancy here. It is very simple and yet very difficult to do day in day out.

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

We fight. Yep, strange as it may sound. It’s been a roller coaster ride from idyllic romantic years to challenging ones and back to the romantic era. We are chalk and cheese as individuals but fiercely similar when it comes to our values, our faith in humanity as a religion, parenting etc.

With years and maturity on our side, we have successfully compromised and supported not only each other but each other’s aspirations, dreams and respective families.

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