Roopak Saluja, actor-producer, and Tara Sharma, actor
The Courtship
Roopak met Tara across a couple of weddings. Sparks flew at the wedding of their friends, Asad and Pooja in Lucknow in December 2005 -- dancing with each other, glances exchanged and all. "We then met at Kanpur at another wedding. We spent four days together and reached a level of closeness without all the awkwardness of first dates and 'will he call?/will she text?' moments. I knew that if Tara and I were to start something, it would be big and eternal."
Tara recalls meeting Roopak at a common friend's house before she met him in Lucknow in 2006. "But it was those four days that I really got to know him. It was instant attraction. Straight out of a movie."
The Proposal
He knew they'd get married well before he popped the question. "We started dating in January 2006. By summer we were talking of marriage and our parents had met. My biggest challenge was how to propose in a way that still surprised Tara. On her birthday, I spontaneously planned an overnight getaway to the Neemrana Hotel at Matheran: Horses, moonlight, Dom Perignon 1998... and the proposal!"
She suspected something was fishy when she saw Roopak coming out of her parents' room the night before her birthday. "Roopak had a brainwave to go out of town on my birthday. In Matheran two horses were waiting for us. We rode to Neemrana. In the moon light Roopak went down on his knees, produced a beautiful ring and proposed. I was thrilled and immediately texted my parents. We were engaged!"
The Ring
He decided it had to be his mother's lovely South African solitaire. "She had bought it 20 years before for my future wife. It was set in a gold ring. But both Tara and I are much more partial to platinum/white gold/silver as a colour, so Mom and I had the solitaire re-set in platinum. I kept it away safely for a few weeks until the big day."
She gifted him a platinum wedding band. "Since Roopak doesn't wear rings, he insisted on choosing one."
The Wedding
He loved that people had come from all over the world (her friends, his friends -- they had people from 45 countries) to celebrate their wedding. "We had a blast. The Bombay reception at the Breach Candy Club became very tiring because we had to stand at our positions as 750 people came to congratulate us. Between my father and friends, my glass kept getting refilled during that time. By the end of it, I was seven vodkas down!"
She adored the way Roopak looked in his elaborate tailored sherwani. "I'm British-Punjabi while Roopak is Nepali-Sikh. So our wedding was an amalgamation of traditions. We ended up having four ceremonies across Delhi and Mumbai. The wedding happened at my parent's garden at Breach Candy. We had our share of (mis)adventures. Roopak's Man Friday forgot the outfit he was supposed to wear on the Anand Karaj ceremony!"
The Marriage
He considers communication, mutual respect and no egos as the ingredients of a happy marriage. "I have to give Tara much more credit than myself for the last bit. When we fight, I sit and sulk while she's really quick to try and make up. That's quite a big thing."
She believes she has found her big love. "Far from a let down, marriage is many times better than I ever imagined. It gets better every day. "
The Moments
He loves the little things they do together. "Around two weeks after we start seeing each other, we cooked a Valentine's Day dinner together. Actually I cooked but I made Tara devein the prawns with me. It was a quirkily funny bonding experience."
She still can't get over the way he proposed. "Roopak also took me for a surprise honeymoon. I had no idea where we were going and after hopping three flights, we found ourselves in Borokay Islands in the Philippines!"
