Wedding Diaries – Chennai
It’s that time of the year when youngsters are trawling stores for jewellery and bridal wear, scouting around for the ideal venue and giving wedding planners sleepless nights. The wedding season closes in on us and we speak to three newly engaged couples about their wedding plans, that special proposal and how they’re planning their big, fat, Indian wedding!
Vedika Kejriwal looks back at her relationship with Manoj Mahadevan and says “We first met on a golf course with some friends, he was just someone in the group. Soon we got talking, but it was just as friends.” She calls their story a remake of two states with Manoj being South Indian and Vedika being Marwadi. A tennis player of high repute Manoj has won the All India Men’s National Grass Court Championship. He represented India at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open and the World Youth Games in the junior category. Having trained in leading tennis academies on scholarship, he has an MBA in finance and works with the capital markets team of an American multinational company. “When we started talking we were setting each other up with other friends, but the idea of us being together hadn’t struck,” tells Vedika. Later while talking one night she the idea of them being together was brought up .They decided they needed some time to think about it and let the idea slide. But Vedika being the more assertive one in their relationship opened up the idea again, showing Manoj why she thought their relationship would work and Manoj couldn’t agree more, If there was someone he wanted to be with it was her. It didn’t take much time for Vedika to realise what she wanted in life – it was Manoj. She had made up her mind.Eventually he came around and saw his life with Vedika. Manoj says, “ Without the pressure of marriage to get to know someone is what made us click. We first got to know each other as friends before making it anything more.”
Ironically it was the lady who proposed in this relationship. Manoj had planned a romantic beach-side dinner during which Vedika was sure he was going to propose but it didn’t happen , When he visited her she popped the question and they were enganged and happier than ever. “Looking back I guess it does seem like everything happened really fast, but when you know I guess you just do” explains the pretty lady. Manoj took some time to think about things, he recalls how it took him a while to even figure out what was happening. He says, “I had gotten used to my bachelor life and suddenly everything changed in the span of a few months. But since knowing her I had some time to think and I realised that she was the one.” After that breaking the news to their parents was barely an issue as they were both certain that if they were to get married it would only be to each other. They decided to embrace the large difference in heritage and plan out weddings in both styles. They planned a proper Tamilian Brahmin wedding, with the swing and the madisaar, in Chennai and had a sangeet and cocktail party in Bengaluru, which is where Vedika was brought up. Being together, they both agree, has been the best for them. The way their personalities are so different, it makes them work harder at their relationship. Since their courtship and marriage were quick, they say that they are still in their honeymoon phase and are constantly learning things about each other, making each day together a constant adventure that they are excited about embarking on together.
