Legacies

Romance keeps us young, or so goes an ancient adage. And if there is any truth in this saying, it comes alive in the stories below which highlight the experience of true love among the senior members of our community. They share their tales of romance which are still strongly unravelling, even after half a century or more in each others’ company.

a great laugh.

Sushmita and I were married in 1977. Our honeymoon that continues to date could not have begun in a more symptomatic city than Mumtaz Mahal’s Agra, and one can imagine how much and in what measure viewing the Taj by daylight and in moonlight, and strolling through centuries of history in Agra fort, added to our commitment to each other. Old fashioned, we rate this God-gifted opportunity as monumentally romantic, which just keeps growing upon us.

More recently, our cherished togetherness took us on an Alaskan cruise where we travelled through the inner continents. We now agree that romance has less to do with ‘buying stuff’ for one another, but more to do with knowing that as life partners we are there for each through the thick and thin that everyone faces at one stage of life or another. Conscious of this Natureimplanted boon, no problem seems unsurmountable and no challenge too difficult for us together. own currency.

Anand Shome is Vice President for COMMON (Centre of Melbourne Multi-faith and Others Network), affiliated to United Religions Initiative and United Nations - and the epitome of politeness!

In 1951, I was invited to Delhi to see Lalit, my future wife, at whom I barely stole a glance, for during that era morality ruled the epoch, and I did not wish my staring at beautiful Lalit to be construed as improper. I admit I had seen her photograph before meeting her. Although lady Lalit had little say in the matter, we got married in 1952, and to this date, are completely immersed in each other. Soon came our first and some in the UK. We recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary, and inshaallah, we will celebrate my ninetieth birthday in December 2012.”

Tilak and Lalit Chaddha quite appropriately address each other as ‘Jaan’, or soul. Tilak is sentimentally poetic and owns a Diwan-e-Ghalib, so whenever us Urdu lovers stumble upon a technicality, Tilak will sort out our conundrum.