Chennai: What’s better than falling in love with your best friend? Kshama and Sarvesh’s story reads like a real-life rom-com. At age 14, they made the ’40s pact’, where they’d promised to get together if they were still single at age 40. Here is what happened.
“Having grown up together we shared the best rapport. I remember how as a chatty 6-year-old with pigtails, I used to boss him around in school,” laughs Kshama. “Three years ago, Sarvesh asked me – Will you be my Valentine? – as he held my hand, and I said yes to go on a date with my best friend of 20 years. I got lucky,” she gushes.
Sarvesh says, “We considered ourselves soulmates because, although we had been seeing different people, our connection was still so strong. I’m still not sure how to explain it but our respective partners would be jealous of our relationship, even when we were just friends.”
Their love really took off after an intermission when studies took them in different directions. “I still remember that whenever I felt happy and content, it would be her I’d think of before falling asleep,” says Sarvesh.
“When we moved back to Chennai we didn’t see each other as we had as kids but as partners in love,” says Kshama. “Since then, we’ve loved hard and fought harder till we decided we wanted to spend the rest of lives together!”
Talking about how being best friends influences their relationship, Sarvesh says, “Throughout our time together, I’ve watched our friendship give new meaning to our relationship and vice versa. Around her, I feel at peace…like it’s meant to be… like I’m home. I imagine this is as close as I can get to explaining what love feels like.”