Shiny & Varun
Sometimes life takes many twists and turns before reaching its right destination. Varun and Shiny know this all too well. After a lifelong commitment went wrong and right when all hopes are fading, finding that perfect person is like being handed the moon.
It was Varun’s last day of a month long trip to India. He rather unwittingly opened the Aisle app and saw a profile that struck him as ‘the one’. After being on the application for little less than three years and trying to put his life back to the right course, Varun was about to give up. His visit to India from the US, was actually with the plans of talking it out with his family and probably look at a few prospects for marriage. However, due to the ill health of his father, the month was mostly spent in ensuring his father’s comfort and recovery. It was time for Varun to head back when he saw Shiny on Aisle. Without wasting any time he sent her an invitation and promptly received a reply.
Shiny was still new on Aisle. It had only been three or four weeks that she had registered on the application. She was preparing for a normal day at work when she got a notification on Aisle. Little did she know, that notification tone on an otherwise usual day of March was about to change her whole life. It’s said ‘once bitten twice shy’. Shiny had etched out a clear picture of the kind of person she wanted to marry this time. Varun was a near perfect match for her as he too was looking for a partner after a broken marriage.
“I wanted someone I could live my life with, whom I choose. That’s when I got on Aisle. I was almost in a state of desperation but I knew I couldn’t compromise on a few things, which I had understood out of my previous marriage.”, says Shiny.
Varun on the other hand says, “It doesn’t really matter to me what culture or religion she belongs to. It is just a happy coincidence that both of us are Malayalees. It definitely made it easier for me to explain my feelings about certain things and I guess that helped both of us. What mattered to me was that I choose my life partner because I had already gone through a traditional arranged marriage and it did not work for me.”
Varun was scheduled to fly out of Bangalore (where Shiny lived and worked) back to the US on the day Shiny and he connected. After a few prompt exchanges on Aisle, they bartered numbers swiftly. Varun had explained, quite desperately to Shiny that though he realised it’s too soon to ask for personal coordinates, he had very little time (not even a day!) left in India.
In today’s day and age, where everybody is giving up on the idea of long distance relationships, these two, boldly decided over a call to take a stand and give it a shot without even meeting each other in person. “There was an instant connection, I must say. The conversation went on smoothly from the word go, there was no strange awkwardness”, explains Varun. That one call on that March morning lasted for hours, intermittently stopping during Shiny’s work and continuing till Varun boarded the flight.
For the next three months, things moved smoothly and swiftly in Varun and Shiny’s lives. They kept meeting each other over video calls and their respective families were informed of their association. A few of Varun’s cousins and his twin brother went to meet Shiny. “They were really friendly and nice. Not even for a second did I feel uncomfortable meeting Varun’s brother”, Shiny says gladly. Varun being far away in a different continent, only met her family over video calls, “All the technology around also helped our relationship. We had a lot of screen time with each other and the more time we spent with each other the more we realised that our feelings are growing mutually.”, says Varun.
Pictures can say a thousand words and both their happiness is quite evident. But imagine the excitement and anticipation of meeting the person whom you are going to marry in 24 hours, for the first time, after sharing life stories for three months! It seems nerve wracking but they did it with so much poise “Varun and I both are very calm and composed people. We don’t really express our feelings in front of others but we were really excited to finally see each other in flesh”, Shiny says with glee. Their big day was 17th May, 2018. Shiny and Varun met each other in person for the first time on the 16th of May. Neither Varun nor Shiny wanted to let go of the opportunity to start spending the rest of their lives together. Since Shiny was born in April the next closest auspicious date was 17th of May and they grabbed it with both hands.
It might puzzle many, how two strangers could take such a firm and quick decision of a lifetime?
“It’s her maturity and resilient nature that I like the most. It is very encouraging when you know that your partner has the will to make things work no matter how big the crisis. That is what makes a marriage or a relationship work.”, explains Varun.
He continues by saying, “Our previous marriages taught us a lot and I saw in her someone who has the dedication to make it last a lifetime.” Shiny accepts that there will be adjustments to be made but proving Varun right she marvels “I am really lucky to have found him and I am ready to make those adjustments. He is a very pragmatic person, which is what I like about him the most. He is calm and composed and very precise in what he says and those were exactly the qualities I was looking for”.
When you know exactly what you are looking for, it’s not rocket science — that’s what Varun and Shiny’s love tells us. It might not have gone the right way at first, but Varun did not loose hope and found his soul mate in Shiny, “I wanted her to fly back with me but she wanted to stay back and get to know my family before she joins me in the US and I gladly agreed.”
Aisle congratulates Shiny and Varun and wishes that their dreams come true!
