Sonali & Dhiman

“I am a die hard believer in true love and I am glad that it has come true”, says Sonali with excitement in her voice that is so obvious. True love, however, did not come easily in her life. Not only did she have to win over her situation in a previous relationship but she had to fight it out within herself to accept what she needed rather than what she thought she wanted.

It had almost been three years since Sonali had returned from Mumbai to her parent’s place in Ahmedabad with her three-month old daughter, when Sonali’s friend Indu told her about Aisle. She wasn’t really thinking of getting into a serious relationship so soon after her divorce but she wanted to test the waters. She didn’t want anyone pitying her thinking that she was looking for a father for her child but the healing process had completed and it was time for her to start dating again.

“I had no idea about dating apps. I met my ex-husband the old style — we knew each other since childhood and lived in the same building. So this concept of going through profiles and choosing people from an app was totally new to me but it was fun too”, chuckles Sonali.

“I was tremendously surprised that despite me being divorced with a kid, the moment I got on Aisle, I started receiving a lot of requests”, she continues.

But her experience on Aisle also revealed something to Sonali, “I started believing in my instincts again. A few lines into the conversation with certain people on Aisle, I would understand whether I am interested in them or not.”

Sonali’s past experience has built a good understanding of how she wants to be treated by her partner and that she will never let herself or her daughter come close to any sort of abuse.

Out of the few men that she was in conversation with, she filtered out Dhiman not just because he was in Ahmedabad, “I had a small baby to take care of and Dhiman somehow totally got it. There was never any pressure from his side for prompt replies and he respected my situation. He would message and patiently wait for my replies” says Sonali. However, Dhiman’s experience was more romantic,

“I had been on Aisle for almost 8 months. Her profile, both her photograph and her write-up, was the first one that literally leapt out of the page for me. Her face was luminous and beyond beautiful, her hair framing her face like the rays of a sun. Her words were simple, direct and highlighted an intelligent, empathetic and honest person.”

A few weeks into September 2017 and meeting each other on Aisle, Dhiman asked Sonali, “Look you could shoot the idea down if you want, but how about we grab a cup of coffee?” and she was delighted that he asked. However, there was small hitch.

As per Sonali, Dhiman wasn’t her ‘type’ or so she thought, “Not to boast or anything but because of the way I look, I have always thought that I needed to be with those typical alpha-male sort of men who are tall, handsome and charming.”

Sonali thought Dhiman was sweet looking but it was a lot of unlearning for her in terms what kind of a guy she wanted to be with. It was a process of letting go of check boxes that she thought is required in a man.

“You don’t really get the whole picture from these online profiles and sometimes you could get quite far from reality. The first time I spoke to Dhiman, was when I realised that I might have misjudged him. I thought he sounded really sexy with his deep voice”, says Sonali with a laughter to cover up her shyness.

That was on the day they were supposed to meet. Sonali, who wasn’t very familiar with places in Ahmedabad had called Dhiman to check on the location, however, Dhiman didn’t pick up her call. While she was still trying to figure out how to reach the venue, she received a call from Dhiman who explained that he was riding and had to stop and call her back.

“On hindsight, first him calling me back immediately and second his sense of responsibility to not use the phone while riding, these small things — I call them the lighting of lamps that led me back home”, puts Sonali in a poetic way, who was a English literature professor in Delhi University, how her initial feelings were.

“We connected on several grounds, especially poetry, books, films and old Hindi film songs. I remember, a particular verse from a song from the movie Umrao Jan that she described, simply overwhelmed me in its clarity and understanding of love and the power of self-belief”, says Dhiman. He is a teacher like Sonali but instead of words his expertise is in art. But what Dhiman did next, swept Sonali off her feet.

They had ordered their respective dishes and turned out Sonali’s wasn’t as good as she expected. Sonali didn’t want the food to go waste and was trying to finish it while hiding her disappointment. Dhiman figured it out and with a swift move took her plate to his side and offered her what he was having. “Not even my mother has done this for me. I was so shocked and amazed at his ease of making it look like, it was nothing. He just won my heart there and then”, says Sonali with obvious admiration in her voice.

Sonali was pursuing her Ph.D when she met Dhiman and she had just started writing her thesis. “He understood that because I was busy writing my thesis I can’t step out of the house too much. So instead he used to come over. He helped me with my thesis at every step of the way. I couldn’t have done it without his help. He was the wind beneath my wings”, says Sonali and quite correctly dedicated her thesis to Dhiman and her daughter.

It’s been 10 months that they met on Aisle and Sonali’s true love found her but they needed someone else’s blessings for this relationship to reach it’s destination. “My daughter is my entire life and so it was absolutely imperative for her to like Dhiman and I had clearly told him that. Surprisingly, he took it really well”, says Sonali.

Like mother like daughter, Sonali’s daughter Aranya too, fell in love with Dhiman’s voice, “She wasn’t well when Dhiman spoke to her for the first time. She was literally crying when Dhiman called to check on her and to my astonishment she stopped crying and was actually talking.”

“Meeting Aranya for the first time, seeing them interact together was like a lesson in kindness, equality and fun. Being with Sonali and Aranya is the most joyous and fulfilling experience in my entire life”, says Dhiman.

Dhiman, according to Sonali, is an amazing singer and on his first meeting with Aranya he sang to her, “My daughter is very musical and Dhiman too. I got to know about his musical side later but I was blown away when he sent me a recording of a song that he had sung for me plus he plays multiple instruments.”

After Sonali realised that Aranya and Dhiman have so naturally bonded with each other, she didn’t want to wait, “I had already broken so many social stereotypes that I thought to myself, why not this one. So I wrote a poem, which was my proposal and I was so happy that he accepted.”

Sonali and Dhiman got engaged on the 11th August and Sonali had already explained it to her daughter that Dhiman is now her daddy. For 3-year-old Aranya he is Dhiyan and she is the only one who can call him by that name, “She told me that I know he is my daddy but Dhiyan told me I can call him anything I want.”

Dhiman’s life now is wrapped around that little girl, “For the longest time, I had wanted an equal relationship and to be a parent, and here’s the Universe providing me with that perfect opportunity.”

“He kept on jotting down whatever Aranya said and he always wanted to do a comic strip, Aranya just became his muse”, says a mother and a lover marvelling over two of her worlds coming together to take a new shape in front of her eyes.

Aisle congratulates Sonali and Dhiman and wishes that their dreams come true!