For my wonderful wife on our 11th Wedding Anniversary

Today marks Kinjal and mine  11th year wedding anniversary. As I have decided, every year, I would like to share a letter that I would write to her as I am not as Expressive as I am expected to be and this is the only media and opportunity I have to share myself openly and honestly.

Today reminds me of where we’re coming from; our one bedroom rental house in Bombay where we started our lives together , to where God has brought us, to a really nice home in Ahmedabad City and an awesome daughter as a present with an unprecedented future.

Let me quickly confess that the idea to write you a public love letter might sound weird to you or quite a few but I think it’s a great one! The contents of the letter on the other hand, come straight from my heart and I hope it pleasantly surprises you as much as the thought excites me as I write.

As my pen meets the paper (fingers meets keyboards in literal sense) , my mind travels back a few years to 2001-2002, just when we started our wedded life. I remember how startled you were when I blasted at you on the very first day of our wedding when you made Bhakhri for Dinner which I hate to eat. I remember you told me how intimidated most men could be with highly caring wives. “But ………….”, you said with a smile.

Well my darling, time has changed a lot in us…… Today, God has been fantastic and wonderful to us both and not only have we been blessed with great daughter, I strongly believe that the greatest success we’ve seen so far is in the beauty of our marriage has been in the last year.

I mean every word when people ask me all over the world what my best decision has been and I reply “it’s following God’s instruction to ask you to marry me”. You are the greatest of God’s blessings to me ………….., more than life itself.

I keep saying that no other woman could have been meant for me. How many women do you know that would marry a guy staying away from family for over 8 to 10 years and working till mid-night to start off the career and meet goals. Not many, if any would bet their life on a man who had not much more than a great vision of his future.

Kinjal darling, sometimes you say that, I’m the best husband that any woman could have asked for but quite frankly, I think you make the best man that I can possibly be.

We’ve defied the law of “love fades away’. With you, it’s LOVE GROWS. I don’t know how you make me but I find myself waking up each day loving you more. You know it’s true every time I tell you that I love you greatly but I also like you amazingly. I know that I don’t call you often during the day as expected by you but believe me that doesn’t let me go away from you.

My darling, this is just to let you and the whole world know that the last eleven years since we’ve been married have been the most wonderful of my life and it keeps getting better each passing year .

I think with excitement of how we will grow old graciously together. Every time I think of you in your seventies, it puts a smile on my face. I’m sure you’ll be the funkiest 70-year old chic on the face of the planet. And you can be sure I’ll be the grooviest 76-year old bloke to ‘represent’.

Tanjal need to watch out for this ‘never grow old ‘ lovebirds she call her parents but the real trip for me is that we’re chosen to be role models for our future generations and I think we are well on our way to doing this.

You know I always feel that a husbandman is a ‘Grooms’ man, a gardener who tends his plant (his wife) into a beautiful vineyard. That is where a ‘Grooms’ man differs from a ‘hunter’. The hunter takes a beautiful thing and kills it but the ‘Grooms’ man takes a seed and tends it into an incredibly beautiful garden.

It’s amazing how real you have remained despite all the shortcomings from my end. How tolerant you have been with me working on first 3 days while on our latest vacation to Thailand. I don’t think anyone else would have that tolerance.

I am so happy to praise you publicly and say, “many women do noble things, but you surpass them all”. Indeed, Kinjal is a woman who I am proud to have in my life and will always be, irrespective of the small and big differences, knocks and fights that we keep having. Sometime I feel, if we didn’t have differences and those fights then how would I get to know the real value that you share..

With all my love in my heart,

Chintan