An Untold Story of a Journey that Completes Silver Jubilee!

Time flew so quickly over us, that we couldn't even realize that we have completed 25 years of our journey together.

I was 18 (year 1990), when I first met Anindita. Very quickly she became my closest friend, with whom I could establish a "heart to heart" connection and felt comfortable in sharing my thoughts.

I will never forget her first question which she asked me on our first day of dating. She wanted to know "what I would become in life?".

Believe me, I did not have the answer that day, neither I was prepared to handle such a situation, but however managed myself by responding with a rosy reply.

While I was returning back home, I realized that I should take my life seriously and start setting up goals, without which no road can take me to my desired destination (be it education, job or relationship). Today, when I look back I feel so glad that she asked me that 'one question', which changed everything for me. Ever since then my chase to become the "best version of myself" began :).

In 1998 our parents decided to tie both of us into a beautiful relationship called 'marriage'. Today it might sound funny, but I admit that on this day 25 years back, I felt the pressure realizing the fact that I was entering into the most critical phase of my life, completely unaware of the destiny.

At that young age, I was matured enough to understand that this engagement is not just limited to owning responsibility or remaining committed to each other, but it was something beyond. I paused for a while to ask myself the following three questions:

We had no idea about our destiny, but one thing was common in us i.e., 'our self belief in making things happen'

a/ will I be able to fill up her life with all the happiness?

b/ will I be able to give her all the necessary comforts of life? &

c/ will I be able to play the role of a capable son/son-in-law for my parents?

In no time my mind and heart synchronously responded with a 'big yes', probably they might have looked through Anindita's eyes and found the answers. Anindita was calm, composed and was clear on her thoughts about our onward and upward journey. Her presence next to me gave me all the strength to reboot my confidence and enjoy the big moment.

Very soon, she became one of my greatest motivators, who always pushed me to walk the extra mile so that my/our dreams can be fulfilled for a 'better tomorrow'. She was always there to support and make me believe in my inner potential whenever I was under any kind of self doubt. Her unconditional backing eventually was the game changer.

Funny things always kept us bonded!

Our bonding kept growing with each passing day, which actually helped us in covering such a distance immaculately. Our expectation from each other was always unique. We rarely measured things according to their materialistic value or brand, rather got attracted towards the simplicity of things.

We always ensured that we have time for each other, complimented each other for any achievement irrespective of its size or magnitude. We always worked hard to make ourselves valuable while managing our respective roles. Till this day, nothing has changed for us, except our hair which has turned grey and our biological age that has happily grown :).

While I write this note, a very popular short story ("The Gift of Magi"), is continuously getting played in the background of my memory. This one story, left a deep impression in my brain since an early age. I learnt that "love" is a set of emotions and behaviours characterized by intimacy, passion and commitment, such as: selflessness, care, sacrifice, respect, protectiveness, closeness, affection, trust and so on.

I still remember having this book in our English syllabus during my school days, and am sure many belonging to my generation must have read this lovely story of love and selflessness.

I will always be grateful to "O Henry" for teaching me such a valuable and unforgettable lifetime lesson through this book.

"In life, it's not where you go, it's who you travel with"

We have lived each moment of our lives with high spirits, supporting each other with whatever were there within our control (some like: adjustments, keeping ego aside to say 'sorry', hearing out before forming any opinion, trusting, respecting, never prolonged any arguments till the next day, standing strong for each other).

Never did we know about all the beautiful 'gifts of god' that were already planned for us in our journey. We went on receiving one after the other while we kept walking together.

The road till now was never been smooth throughout, there were several bends in our journey, some of them were easy to handle but some were really tough, where our characters/personalities got tested. We stood strong for each other in every such situations.

Every bend in the road has taught us some lesson or the other, but the most important lesson learnt, was - "bend is not the end of the road, unless you refuse to take the turn". We may have paused for a little while, regrouped but never refused to take the turns!!!

With time and maturity we quickly realized the truth of life, that there is no one in this world who is perfect. Moreover, there is nothing called a 'perfect life', or a 'perfect relationship' or a 'perfect marriage' or a 'perfect job career', or a 'perfect house'. Hence, we never aimed to stress ourselves in achieving those, rather directed all our efforts to be 'perfect in the imperfection' (i.e., finding beauty and joy in imperfection). It did work for us!!!

Friends for life!

As we all know that nothing can stand for too long without a strong foundation. Our foundation was supported by few of our real good friends, our parents, few of our cousins and my sibling.

I consciously decided not to mention their names here, as all of them holds a very special place in my heart. However, I have framed few of them together for you to see :).

"Keep following your dreams, my girl!"

Magic moment: The most precious and beautiful 'gift from god' came to us in 2001, when our magical girl "Anuksha" was born. Her arrival into our world completely swapped everything. We literally started witnessing our upward movement since then. We strongly believe, that her coming to our lives brought in all the magic for us. Today she is a grown up, financially independent lady with dreams in her eyes to which we are so proud of. Our responsibility towards her as parents will never end, but will keep changing with times!

Standing today we can humbly say that, we both have played our role with great maturity and to the best of our abilities, hence 'no regrates' what so ever.

We have reached a stage where discipline towards health, spirituality exploration, travelling and living life for a greater purpose are our priorities now :).

I sincerely thank all of you for being there with us to make our entire journey so exciting, meaningful & fulfilling :). Keep blessing us!!!

I surrender to 'God' for giving me more than what I probably have dreamt of!!!

Love you all ❤🙏.

#Gratitude #Truelyblessed #LoveLife #Peace #Joy

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely based on my personal experiences and perceptions. I do not intend to cause any offense or hurt anyone's feelings. Readers are encouraged to interpret the content in their own context and discretion.