Yolande & Prashant (2002)

Yolande Escher (Exchange 2002) & Prashant Dwivedi (PGP 2002)

I term us as campus couple (and not PGP couple) as she traveled all the way from Switzerland to find me. Wasn’t she lucky?

Yoyo as she was called back home (which I thought was a joke or her dorm name when we first introduced ourselves) made the grave mistake of mentioning to her fellow dorm mate that she finds me remotely attractive. In the true WIMIAN spirit, the news of this mention reached to me before she could even explain the mundane reasons why she said something as outrageous as this. Ever so weak in my knees in matters related to girls, I pounced on this opportunity treating as my first and most probably last chance to know a girl from close.

The set-up could not have been any better – a cold night around bonfire in middle of Kutch desert for an ERI (so aptly named) course. I went to ERI, as most of others to get a credit for full unit course, but ended up finding my life partner. This was her first week on the campus and hence my success with her could have been possible only if I would not have allowed her to be misled by guys with better CGPA, better looks, better sense of humour, better dancing abilities – parameters on all of which I scored miserably.

Hence, as per my master plan I proposed to her within two weeks of meeting her between some messages and couple of meetings, to which she responded in only way possible – “Hey, you know what you are talking about? We have just met”. Not the one to lay down arms, I reasoned that I have a chance to propose now and we get to know each other over next three months, or we get to know each other for next three months and the day you are on plane I propose you. I prefer the first option. She had no choice but to go along with this line of argument. This also helped me in chasing any of her other suitors away, which by the way, were there (three if I remember correctly), I have to admit. I wrongly assumed that those will just denounce her, deriding her for the pathetic choice that she had made. As for me, I sealed the deal, by making her meet my parents on convocation.

Together we choreographed the meeting to perfection, when she went to receive my parents at Ahmedabad train station in the back drop of one of the worst riots that country had seen. A die hard, Bharat-mata fan (who always wanted to live and work in Bangalore), I chose to come to land of our colonial rulers for the promise of love. We maintained long distance relationship for three years before she moved to London and we got married in 2006. The paperwork and the whole civil wedding approval process is raw material for a good book for more able writer which can be aptly named “2 Countries”.

Ten years (of marriage) and three kids later, we sometime look back (as you can have only so much time to look back between work and kids) and felt reasonably happy that she chose India for her exchange program.
Needless to say, the fun that we or mainly she had, in travelling together in Indian trains, having bun-omelet at Ram Bhai’s, walking around the campus, sneaking out of each other’s room in early morning, trips to Bermie’s and ice-cream at Naturals cannot be gauged on paper but at least this opportunity to write gives us to think back about the time when we were still in love.