Shah Rukh Khan played a very important role in our love story. He makes two strategic appearances without which, Ranjit and I would not have been married to each other today.
Appearance 1: Ranjit and I were friends for some time and though he made it clear that he was interested in me, I kept saying we were just 'friends' and thats all I was willing to give to the relation. He was quite frustrated with my attitude but kept waiting patiently for me to change. One day we were sitting together waiting for the rain to stop and I heard someone's tape recorder play 'Is pyaar se meri taraf naa dekho', Shah Rukh and Urmila's song from the movie Chamatkar. Something about that song made me accept the reality of our relationship and I turned to him and asked him "have you heard this song before?" and sang the first couple of lines out to him pretending to be very innocent. He had a twinkle in his eye and a grin from ear to ear. Our courtship officially started :)
Appearance 2: Ranjit and I broke up once I joined college. He had some serious problems to solve on his home front and I was eager to embrace the new world that opened up for me. I simply called it quits and he had no time to react (except for being completely heart broken). He left to work in Kurnool, a town in southern AP as a medical rep, his first job.
After we got married, Ranjit took me to Kurnool to introduce me to his friends and to show me the place he lived, more importanly, in full filmy style, my name engraved on the wall (I am not kidding!!) I digress.
So we broke up once I joined college. For 2 years, I experimented with making new friends and utterly failed. Ranjit in the meanwhile was back from Kurnool. One glimpse at him after so long, I knew he was my real best friend and will always remain so. Ranjit, however, behaved like I did not exist. That night I sat in my room with the lights turned off, knowing that Ranjit must be sitting on the terrace of the opposite building looking at my house. It was too dark for me to know for sure but I sensed his presence. We stayed in Railway quarters that were clustered very close together so it was common to hear the songs played in someone's house loud and clear. This time it was Shah Rukh's 'Najane mere dilko kya hogaya' from Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. That song felt like someone was tearing my heart apart. I turned on the lights of my room and I saw Ranjit light a match on the terrace almost at the same time. We got together again and 3 years later, I became Mrs Behara.
All of this sounds so silly now though it was very real back then and extremely special always. God bless Shah Rukh Khan!
The rest of the anecdotes about my love story are under the label My Love Story