You and I, plus 2 years of marriage!

Happy Birthday, my all-time Love!

I took a deep breath and stepped forward when my name was called out. A strange feeling of excitement overwhelmed me. It was one of the most important days of my life. I had earned my post-graduate degree and I was standing on the stage to receive my degree in front of Mr. Adi Godrej at the TERI SAS convocation ceremony. There were very few clean air days in Delhi and fortunately today was one of them. It had rained heavily the previous night and the air was clean enough to show the happiness on the faces of all the graduating students and their proud parents. My parents had flown in from Bengaluru in an early morning flight just to see their little daughter receive her M. Tech degree. It was my mother’s first flight journey and I knew how important this day was for my parents. They have been in the audience ever since I first climbed the stage in my school as a UKG student and they are here in Delhi today to watch the same daughter become a post-graduate. I smiled as I received my degree and spotted my parents clapping for me enthusiastically. Their love and encouragement never changed over the years because for them my small performance as a UKG kid was as important as my convocation ceremony.

When I saw my parents, there was one more person, that I wished should have been in the audience to see me graduate. My parents supported me through every step of my education and my decision to pursue post-graduation was because of him. After having completed my post-graduate diploma, I was content. Campus placement gave me a job and I felt that was enough. But a few months into the job, I realized that I wanted to go further. I was not sure if I could leave my parents and home to go for higher studies. When I told him about my thoughts, all he said was: ‘You should do it and I know that you can.’ After that, there was no looking back. I began preparing for my entrance exams every night after coming back from work. Even though I was really exhausted, I never gave up. And the sole reason was because he would call me every night from Jabalpur, to check if I was covering all the topics in Mathematics and Quantitative Analysis. Every time when I felt I could not do it anymore; he would never let me give up. He always has this crazy and insane belief in my ability to achieve success that always leaves me stunned.

It was a long evening and quite late by the time my parents dropped me to my office guest-house. They left soon after to rest in their hotel and we already had plans to roam Delhi and Agra over the next two days. I quickly called him and asked him for a video call. I was still dressed in the peacock blue saree that we both had bought from Chennai before I left that city a couple of weeks ago. The moment our call got connected, I was treated to his broad smile.

‘Hey, you look really beautiful in that saree,’  he gushed.

‘Thank you. I really wish you were here today,’ I said gazing into his eyes.

‘I watched you receive your degree.’

‘What?! Really?’ I asked with a broad smile.

‘Yeah. I decided to leave office early today to watch the convocation live on Facebook. But when I got out of the office building, it was raining very heavily. I waited but the rain did not cease even a little. Then I just took out my phone and began watching the ceremony in the parking lot. It took a long time for your turn to come but then it was certainly worth the wait.’

I was speechless. This man never ceases to amaze me. He stood under that narrow shelter in the parking lot with heavy rain for close to over an hour just to watch me get on the stage for less than a minute. I simply looked at him unable to say anything.

‘I could not have done this without you. Naveen, we both graduated today,’ I said swallowing hard.

‘I did not do anything; it was all your hard-work and dedication. This is your achievement Sahana,’ he said in a voice saturated with love and pride.

‘We did it, darling. This success is yours as much as it is mine,’ I said with tears welled up in my eyes.

We both looked at each other for a few moments in silence. The words were unspoken but our eyes had communicated more than what the words could do. For both of us, it was not an easy journey because we had spent months unable to meet and phone calls could never satiate out thirst for being in the presence of each other. There were days when one of us was going through a tough time, but the other one could only speak over the phone. Yet we both made sacrifices so that we could realize our dreams on the strength of love. We both have grown in our relationship and sometimes it is unbelievable that we have indeed come so far despite all the hardship.

Today is my man’s birthday. This year, I am so glad that I get to celebrate his birthday with him, as his wife. After marriage, we still share the same bond but the only difference is that we get to live under the same roof. The city is under lockdown, the world is in the middle of a pandemic; this was not how I had pictured the beginning of our new journey. Yet, the biggest strength to get us through these tough times, is love and hope. I get to spend every moment of my days with you and I simply could not have asked for more from life. For two lovers who have been in a long-distance relationship for years, this is indeed a huge privilege and I cherish every moment we share together. On this day, all I can say is this:

‘Travelling with you is a lovely adventure and I want to experience every moment of it. Wishing you loads of love, happiness and success on your birthday!’

Happy birthday Naveen, my all-time love!