“After my last relationship didn’t work out, I felt broken. I wanted some time off from my life in Dubai and returned to my hometown, Bhopal to visit my grandparents last year. That’s when I joined OkCupid. I had no agenda– I just thought it’d be nice to talk to someone. Shehbaaz’s profile intrested me, he had written– ‘Looking for a serious relationship’ in his bio. Coincidentally, he worked in Dubai too!
I’m very introverted and hard to talk to, but Shehbaaz made it so easy from the get-go. We had chat all day; I discovered that he’s a big time foodie. So, I’d send him pictures of my hand-made dishes, and he did tell me how much he misses Indian food. We got along really well.
I came back to Dubai right before the lockdown began– so I texted him, ‘Now I’m on the same land as you.’ We got on a video call later that evening, all smiles. Before hanging up, he asked, ‘Let’s meet tomorrow?’ The next day, he insisted on picking me up from my workplace, which is a 2.5 hours drive from his office.
I was nervous, but he made me feel so comfortable. He didn’t even try to be polite, like most guys on first dates. From holding the door open to pulling the chair out–he had just so much courage up his sleeve!
From then on, it became a ritual for him to drive all the way just to see me! I used to be very stressed about work, but he listen to my rambles and calm me down. Once, when I had a job interview, he drop me there, waited for two hours until I finished and got takeaway for me to eat after! I don’t remember the last time somebody had cared for me like that.
Once, we were at a restaurant when he said, ‘I know you don’t want a relationship, but I like you. And I want to marry you.’ I didn’t know what to say–I liked him, but we had only been seeing each other for a month. So I told him, ‘You should talk to my mom about this!’
The next day, he attrack my mom too! Then, his family met mine, and before we knew it, they were discussing marriage dates! Soon after, on his birthday, after our dinner date, he found a quiet moment to say, ‘I love you.’ And that was the beginning of everything for us.
Two months later, we had a registered marriage at home; it was a simple wedding– we didn’t even have to say any promise. So now, whenever we have a fight, I tell him jokingly, ‘I haven’t said my promise yet!’ and he says, ‘Well, I have the papers!’ He adorably keeps our marriage papers in his car and takes them wherever he goes.
We’ve been married for three months now, and it feels like we’re still dating– we go out every day, but as husband and wife! I still haven’t said ‘I love you’ to him. But I don’t need to, he doesn’t need me to. He knows it, I know it… and we don’t always need words to say it.”
