A love story that was arranged to be on a video call: Pankaj & Sheenam

Have you ever heard of an online wedding? Even we hadn’t heard of any such thing to date.

But we did have a taste of this futuristic thought in our story.

Excited already? So, here it goes.

This is a tale of an arranged marriage transformed into a bond of love between a Canadian

boy Pankaj and an Amritsari girl. And I am the bride, Sheenam Awasthi, your captain for the

exciting ride of our marriage filled with surprises and emotions.

It all started on 15 April 2018 when Uncle Surinder Sharma, one of my father’s

acquaintances, came to meet us. During some random chit-chat, my mother (like those

typical Indian mothers) started discussing my marriage and asked him to suggest a perfect

match for me. And, he mentioned about his grandson.

As a Hindu tradition, families shared horoscope details for a match-check and voila!

Horoscopes matched. But wait, that didn’t just give the relationship a go ahead. Both

families started meeting for further discussions, and the groom’s family expressed their

willingness to see me.

We met on 6 May 2018 at Shivala Mandir, and they also arranged a video call for both of us

to see each other.

Like a matchstick catches fire, our hearts got filled with a desire… A desire to stay together

forever…

And we made our decision to get married within minutes.

Next, parents finalized the date 20 June 2018 for the Roka Ceremony. But there was a

problem – the groom was in Canada and couldn’t visit Amritsar.

That’s where we enjoyed a taste of something like a digital marriage function. An online

Roka ceremony was organized with the groom marking his presence on a big screen from

overseas.

Now, every second started feeling like hours (or days), and we were waiting to meet. But he

was going to visit Amritsar only a week before marriage, i.e., 15 Jan 2019. Hours, then days,

and months passed on communicating through voice and video calls. And the day of the

marriage came closer.

It was 1 Jan 2019 when his family planned to visit us to give the first invitation card for the

marriage function.

While all the family members were sitting and gossiping, suddenly something surprising

happened. It was Pankaj walking in from the gate. The whole family was surprised, and a

flood of emotions gushed down my eyes. It was joy, of course – the unexpected one. We

spent some good moments together, and it was one of the best days of my life.

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Then, the rest of the marriage shopping, functions, and everything in-between happened

happily. Our shopping destinations included designer Payal Keyal for my wedding outfit and

Frontier Bazar for Shagun outfit, both in Delhi. Pankaj’s outfit for shagun and wedding days

came from Creater Villa, Amritsar. We purchased jewelry from Maliram Jewellers for Shagun

and Manohar Lal Jewellers for the wedding day.

But wait! Where are you going? That isn’t the end. I got a unique mehndi designed from

Sohan Lal Mehndi Artist, Amritsar. It was a collection of our relationship’s memories with CN

Tower, Amritsar, his favorite coffee, and our first picture together filled with the color of

love.

He returned to Canada on May 3. I missed him a lot when Karva Chauth (15 October) was

nearing, and he wasn’t coming back. My father-in-law hid my phone and returned it to me

on the morning of 15 October. And, I was left stun to see Pankaj walking in.

I feel like the luckiest daughter, wife, and daughter-in-law on this planet.

And waiting for another lovely surprise.

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