Real People, Real Romance: Jasmita Oberoi & Sujith Sathyadas

After an astounding response in 2015, we decided to retain the tradition this year as well, and so, this Valentine’s Day, we focus (again) on real people and real romances. Whether discreet or larger-than-life, these are romances that normal people like you and me have experienced.

Here is one story we absolutely loved.

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Jasmita says:
It was a regular, buzzing evening at Kurla railway station in October of 2003. I was heading back to Calcutta after a terrific trip to Goa with my elder sister, Simran. Dreading the long journey ahead, I pulled out my stash of books & magazines that I thought would be my perfect companion. While I arranged my things, Simran (being the quintessential responsible elder sister) hurried off to check the railway chart to see the list of my co-passengers. Within minutes she was back with the details. “There is a family boarding tomorrow, some old uncle on the side berth and then there is a 24-year-old guy boarding from Thane (pause), you don’t have to talk to him okay,” she said. Little did I (or she) anticipate what was to follow.

Sujith says:
That train from Mumbai reached Calcutta on a rainy day, very early in the morning. There were people in the train whom I didn’t know and whom I knew in the last 30 odd hours. And somewhere I knew that the last 30 hours would change the way I will live for the rest of my life. There was this beautiful girl with whom I spent time over intriguing conversations inside the train, and sipping cutting chai in numerous platforms for the couple of minutes it stopped.

Howrah station, and there comes the end of my cute little journey. It was early morning, raining, and raining quite heavily. I stood outside waiting for her to come out with her bags full of shoes that she had bought in Mumbai. This girl is really different, there is something about her. She came out with a trolley bag and a shoulder bag which was hanging loose and heavy on her. We walked our way through the crowd, people going home after a long journey, wondering how to reach home in this heavy weather. Inside me I was wishing if this journey had never ended, maybe just a couple of hours could be played again and again in my life. Or maybe it was all in my mind.

We neared the exit of the station I really wished if time could actually stand still. It didn’t. It was still raining and how I wished if I could just stand there with her. As I said bye with a heavy heart and a pleasant smile I knew that the first thing I will do that night after recharging my mobile, is call her.

As I stood in the flooded taxi-shed, waiting for my turn in the queue for a pre-paid taxi, all I could do was think of her. My turn came and I got my taxi. I sat inside, rolled down the window hoping to get a last look of that beautiful girl who came into my life. I could not.

Why did I like her? Was it her smartness or the way she talked, no maybe it’s her smile. I am confused. There should be something about her that made me forget the great time I had with my family in a beach resort in Goa! How could someone actually make you feel so wanting to see more of her?

Jasmita says:
Sujith did call me that night. And the only other person who knew about this was my closest friend, Anvita, who later went on to become our confidant, both Sujith & mine. I was in my final year of Political Science in St Xavier’s College & Sujith went on to complete his second year of management at IIM Calcutta.

The next time we met was probably after over a month. It’s been more than 12 years now, of which we have been married for 6 years & parents to a little boy for the past 20 (very exciting) months. Ask us how it is today and we’ll tell you that we feel like we’re still in that train, all the time!

Sujith says:
Relationships get redefined over and over again as time progresses, but for the better, if you are in love, and I am, with you.

P.S. Jasmita is a Sikh & Sujith is a Hindu Malayali. This was their story about how they met, what happened next deserves another one some other time.

As narrated to Khristina Jacob.

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