Jab we met: 'There was a spark at first sight'

As part of our Valentine's Day celebrations, we invited readers to write in telling us all about their love stories. Here, we publish more responses. First up we have Dubai-based Sheetal Bhardwaj's experience:

My story is about my husband Sahdev and his best gift to me, my baby Aahana. Here's how we met.

It was the year 1999 and I was in the second year of my college. We had no common friends, relatives nor were we in the same college or neighbours. All I'll say is it was destiny that we had to meet.

Just like all undergraduates, I was also doing additional computer diploma from NIIT Lajpat Nagar, Delhi, to enhance my career prospects. One day after my class I was going back home and was crossing the road when I saw him for the first time. He was on his bike and waiting for the signal to go green. There was a spark that clicked at that moment -- we still remember that special first sight of each other. We didn't know each other, neither were we sure of whether we were going see each other ever again or not.

The next day I fought with a friend and as a result, changed my batch. I was surprise to see the same guy in my new batch and maybe it was for the best that my computer was not working. The faculty asked me to sit next to him. My excitement level was at its peak, as if I had found something which was long lost. But I was shy to initiate. Then suddenly, I saw a hand extended and he said, "Hi, I am Sahdev. And you are?"

From then on it was history; we exchanged phone numbers and started dating each other. After my graduation I went to Lucknow to do my MBA and Sahdev got transferred to Karnal, Haryana.. It is true that it's very difficult to maintain a long distance relationship, that too at the age I was at. Maybe Sahdev's love and commitment was so true that he held me back from falling at the wrong places.

I became an MBA in 2002 and came back to Delhi with a job in hand. Sahdev also got transferred back to Delhi in the same year and we again started meeting on a regular basis. Though we never formally discussed what we wanted from each other -- one does not require words to express feelings -- if someone who means the world to you and doesn't express how much you mean to him, life seems meaningless. I had loved Sahdev ever since I understood the meaning of love. Apart from my parents, if anyone has ever loved me selflessly, I would say that it's my husband. People may say love is only a feeling which does not need definition and a name, but I wanted to name this relationship of faith and understanding.

Finally the big day came on December 5, 2004 and I became Mrs Sahdev Bhardwaj. I always knew that I want to grow old with Sahdev and I am fortunate that my love story got a name -- I am blissfully married to the person I am in love with. Now we have someone very special with us, our baby, whom we have named Aahana. This Valentine's Day is most special for us, as this one is our first with her.

I hope all the readers of rediff keep loving -- love is very beautiful.

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Here is Sushant K Rawal's story of how he met his wife Rutu:

I had decided to settle down by getting married and so started my journey of searching for my life partner. I had seen nine girls, but thinks were not .

During these 18 months, on the 18th of every month I used to give her a card with a poem written by me, a rasaam I still follow on Valentine's, engagement and marriage anniversaries. During these 18 months, to meet frequently she lied many times to her parents as they were a little protective -- this we are confessing for the first time. My mom gave us full support, and our love, understanding and affection for each other grew stronger with time. During this period we went for long drives on numerous occasions to Ahmedabad and one such memorable trip was to Nal Sarovar during which we travelled 352 kms on the bike on a single day.

We got married on November 25, 2007 -- one month short of18 months as decided earlier -- and since then she has become an integral part of my life and family. Rutu has been my lady luck charm in the true sense, as after she came into my life, I got the wheel of fortune totally turned on my side. I got promoted in my job twice within 5 months and could attain prosperity, wealth, peace and above all our own home in a short span of one and a half years, that I had never dreamed will be possible so quick. At present I am pursuing my Ph.D at IIT, which I think is also feasible due to my charismatic, charming wife Rutu.

My journey of these four years with Rutu is filled with magical, miracle and memorable moments that turned my destiny and made my life full of luck and love. I have written this to express my gratitude to Bhabhi, jisne banadi jodi hamari and to express my unconditional, everlasting love for my beloved better half RUTU.

Ending this with the poem written by me when we met for the first time, especially for a very, very special person in my life MY WIFE RUTU:

Jivan ni che yatra aa suhani,
Maale che tak anek loko ne malvani,
Che triv jankhana koina pragadh prem ma padvani,
Che icha jeni jode saptrangi sapnao sakar karvani,
Akhare prabhu e kari krupa, Intezari nau anth lavvani,
Thayo aagman tamaru jane koi rangeeli RUTU ni maherbaani,
Anubhavyo ke tamara vina hati a zindagi na koi kamni,
Hriday kera mandir ma che murat tamari,
Ne jappu chu mala tamara j namni,
Fakt sangath joie tamaro hardum baki nathi jankhana kasani,
Karan tara vina nathi icha ek ghadi pan jivvani,
Karu chu prabhu ne prathna har janam ma tanej pamvani,
Aa che mari tamari prit ni prembhari kahani!

Dil se...wishing my sweetheart RUTU, A HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY and I am roaring to say that I'm over the moon to have gotten her as my soulmate.

Rumit Dave from Ahmedabad decided to keep it short and sweet. Here is his quick take:

I met my wife Rupal through a matrimonial advertisement in the newspaper. During the first meeting itself, we felt that we were on the same track. To add to the thrill of the story, she was working with an organisation where I was supposed to make regular official visits. After we met, she used get a daily fax of poems written by me -- in those days e-mails and the Internet were not much in use.Today we feel like we are the example of an ideal couple, as we have very good God-gifted understanding.

This is how Mohit Garodia met his wife:

We met during our MBA at the Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, in July 2003. I always felt a strange connection with Shreya and I guess she felt the same too. We used to have long and interesting chats whenever we talked during the 2 year course, but they were few and far between.

After completing our degree, we almost lost touch with each other for around 6 months while trying to find a firm foothold in the corporate world. One day, out of the blue, I received a mail from her asking for my contact number, which I promptly sent. Instantly, she called me back and that set the ball rolling for constant telephonic conversations in the immediate future. The frequency of the telephone calls used to be once every fortnight, as for some reason or the other both of us tried to be casual and held back from showing our feelings for each other. Nevertheless, we used to eagerly wait for each other's call and would chat for hours without an iota of boredom or running out of topics.

This made me slowly realise that this relationship was for keeps and it was something really, really special. Finally after 6 more months (one year after completing our MBA), on one of my drunken escapades, I gathered all my courage and proposed to her over the phone. There was complete silence from the other end and then I was told to wait for another day to hear her reply. The next day was spent in complete anxiousness, imagining if she would ever call and whether in my quest for a life partner, I had lost a friend too. Luckily, she did call that evening and replied in the affirmative.

We decided to meet up in Pune, a neutral location, the very next day as she was working in Mumbai and I was in Bangalore. As there were no flight tickets available, I took an arduous bus journey of close to 18 hours but it was all worth the effort. In a couple of days, we decided to get married. We felt we were living a dream, but convincing my family was quite a task -- I belonged to a conservative Marwari family and she was a Rajput from Uttar Pradesh. It took me around three months coercing my family and finally they relented and we got married in February 2007.

We will be celebrating three years of togetherness this February with our bundle of joy, Tvisha, our little angel who was born in October 2009. Shreya has brought a great amount of calmness and stability to my life and I can't thank her enough for that.

Every day is a new experience for me as we grow old together.

This is Mumbai reader Kajal Renin Wilben's account:

It was the first day of my new job as entertainment reporter at a media house in Santacruz. Before my boss, Mr. Aakar Patel, introduced me to all the employees, I was sitting beside a shabby looking boy on a sofa, who I knew was looking at me with thirchi nazar. My instant reaction was 'Kaun hain yeh chirkut?' Ten minutes later, I got to know that his name was Renin, and that he was also joining on the same day as our senior sub-editor.

It was almost two-and-a-half months before we had a proper conversation. Renin was out on leave for his sister's marriage and my best friend (Pradnya) called him to ask when he will be back. Out of the blue, she suddenly thrust the phone to me and I had no idea what to talk about. I was not the reticent type, more of a 'bhai' type in fact, but for the few moments that we exchanged his and hellos, I was shivering. It was only later in life I realised the meaning of those few fumbling seconds.

Pradnya left the job soon and our office too shifted to a new place in Bandra. And this is where our romance bloomed. Our boss unknowingly played a big hand in our union. He used to often tell me to sit with Renin and get my stuff edited since my English was poor, being from a Gujarati background. He also encouraged us, saying, "You guys do a good job together."

At the start, our conversations revolved only around work, but gradually, we began discussing our personal life and problems, and both of us realised that the other was lonely. And before we knew it, we became the the best of friends. I used to bring along lunch for him as he never carried a dabba and we bonded further over Maggi in the evening. We used to come to the office together and leave together as well. Call it destiny or whatever, but we were the last to finish with our work. Slowly, rumours began flying in the office regarding our affair. However, like many others, we were happy to maintain the 'just friends' status.

One fine day, I got an offer from a bigger company and decided to take the jump. However, during my last few days at work, I realised how much I was going to miss Renin. I knew that being an introvert, he would never express his feelings towards me, and so I decided to make the move forward. I proposed to him at Mount Mary Church and, in his inimitable casual style he said, "Okay." That's him, short and sweet.

We got married in court in April last year and later in the church in December. Looking forward to a joyful journey ahead with my Mr Write!

And finally, this Mahek Khan's 'Jab we met' experience:

According to me, there is someone special made for everyone, and you get to meet that person at the right time in your life. I never even imagined that I would meet the man of my life through the Internet. Yes, quite surprising!

As my parents were searching for a proposal for me, just clicking 'yes' to a proposal of interest online changed my life.

We saw each other by cam, got engaged on 07/07/07 and after 10 months of distance (as I was in the UAE and he in India) we finally got married on 10/05/08.

We were in touch by all means of communication (telephone, voice chat, plain chat, SMS and even hand-written letters) and believe me, that feeling which I got at the age of 25 was like a 16-year-old girl falling in love for the first time.

We love each other deeply and till date we make it a point that we chat from our respective offices, and we meet in the day for lunch outside. We know that at the end of the day we will meet at home, but the feeling of being together, which makes us inseparable, is something which is unexplained.

My life had never been so overwhelming and blissful until the day my husband came into my life. He is my Valentine for life and our love will increase year after year with a new rejuvenated feeling.

All the people out there, I wish you all the best in searching for the LOVE OF YOUR LIFE!