Swetha and Raj initially met virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic in winter 2020, while Raj was in his second year of Radiation Oncology residency in Richmond, VA and Swetha was in her third and last year of Internal Medicine residency in Pittsburgh, PA. Despite their initial reservations regarding starting a long distance relationship as Swetha had already signed for a job in Columbus, they found that they couldn't stop talking to each other. After weekly FaceTime dates and wrangling their resident schedules for an open weekend, they finally met in person in April 2021 when Raj drove 6 hours to see Swetha. For their first date, Swetha took Raj on a gastronomic food tour of Pittsburgh, which was ALMOST as good as Swetha's company. Meeting in person confirmed how much they already liked each other! During their dinner date at a modern, fusion style Japanese restaurant called Umami, Swetha was bubbling with nervous excitement while she looked upon Raj, and accidentally flung a piece of shrimp tempura 10 feet across the floor of the restaurant. Raj, ever the gentleman, barely managed to contain his laughter and was kind enough to casually pick it up and dispose of it--after taking a picture of it, of course. Thus began their first inside joke. Fast forward to the future, and they are now on the hunt for the perfect shrimp tempura Christmas ornament to commemorate that special moment when they both started to fall in love with each other.

From then on, Raj and Swetha dated long distance as Swetha returned to her hometown of Columbus after residency, to work as a Hospitalist and Raj was completing his residency in Richmond. They traveled between Columbus and Richmond to visit each other whenever they could and also met up in a few other places in the country, including Massachusetts, South Carolina, New York, Florida, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and Georgia, while visiting friends and family and going on their own adventures.

They then had a busy 2022 and 2023; Raj signed for a job in Columbus at THE Ohio State University in October 2022, and then popped THE question along the sandy shores of Torrey Pines beach in San Diego, California. Swetha helped Raj move to Columbus in July following a group friends' trip to Cancun/Tulum and at last, they were able to say bye bye to long distance!