Apr 22, 20232 min read

33 years and happily ever after

“We're all a little weird. And life is a little weird. And when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness — and call it love — true love.”

— Robert Fulghum in True Love

It was thirty-three years ago today, April 22, that we got married in a charming little place surrounded by trees and gardens and family and friends. It was the culmination of a three-year courtship that started in a newspaper office where we worked as junior reporters, our first job, and fell in love. It wasn’t exactly a fairytale wedding, but it’s been a fairytale marriage ever since.

We were young, no more than twenty-three at the time, but neither that nor our fledgling careers stopped us from tying the knot so early and stepping out into the world hand in hand. We didn’t feel we were rushing into marriage for we were merely expressing the unspoken and doing what we’d always set our minds to do. In fact, it seems like only yesterday that we were returning home by cab from a date one evening when we decided to marry – and just like that. Sometimes those are the best choices we make in life and we’re happier for it.

Although we came from different backgrounds, our parents and siblings were very supportive and backed us all the way to the wedding venue at Five Gardens, a large green belt in central Bombay (now Mumbai). Their blessings were never in doubt. The only thing our parents asked us – separately, of course – was if we were really serious about marrying and spending the rest of our lives together, and we’d no hesitation in saying yes.

The wonder years slowly rolled by. Family took precedence. Our children were born, a daughter and a son, now working and settled. Along the way we switched careers and changed jobs in the hope that promising opportunities would help us navigate better through life. Like other married couples, we faced life’s challenges, too, including the unexpected ones, but always with a hope and a prayer in our hearts that the divine architect was watching over us and that all would be well. And sometimes we laughed away our problems, because in the end, the only thing that mattered was our collective well-being and the roof that sheltered us as a family.

While our union may have been a product of office romance, the years following that delightful summer evening in 1990 saw our love, friendship, trust, patience and understanding grow from strength to strength and inspired us to see the best in each other.

Marriages may or may not be made in Heaven but if Heaven had an annexe, ours was probably made there.

A Happy 33rd to us!

© Parizad Trikannad and Prashant C. Trikannad

4 Comments

Mahrukh Khajotia

May 06, 2023

Loved

apocketfulofhappin

May 20, 2023

Replying to

Thank you, Mahrukh!

mmkinberg

Apr 22, 2023

Happy anniversary to you and many, many more! My husband and I were young when we married, too. We didn't know what life had in store for us, but we know we wanted to find out together. I'm glad you've been making your journey with a partner and I wish you much happiness always.

May 03, 2023

Thank you very much, Margot. It's nice to know that you and your husband married young, too. It's one of the things that helps build a strong and lasting relationship, and spend many years together, as friends, parents and soul mates for life.

Pocketful of Happiness