When we met:
October 5 2019 ( Yup we’re getting married on the same day!)

Where we met:
LA, Bali, Dili, ( First impression, first interaction, first foundation of friendship)

How we met?
God! ( He’s from Arkansas, I’m from Mumbai we met pretty far from home so it couldn’t have happened any other way)

Where did we fall in love:
Austin, Texas ( Two people who loved their space, found themselves fully enjoying each other while Covid struck in a studio apartment. What more can we say?)

When did we get engaged?
07/04/2023 ( Jake and I have visited each other every Fourth of July even before we started dating. We’ve spent it in Philadelphia, Washington DC and Austin and always had the best time. The goodbyes after these trips for the hardest, so after this one we wanted to spend each one together.)

Who do we love?
Three things (God, each other and everyone of you, who is going to be with us to celebrate our big day with us! We can’t wait to see you!)

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Now if our brief summary didn’t didn’t satisfy you, here’s Jake’s longer version of how we met:

Funny you ask, if you look at the big picture, for a girl from Bombay and a boy from Arkansas, the chances of meeting were pretty low. But God works in mysterious ways so here we are getting married.

We met in LA in 2019 for Peace Corps at pre-departure for Timor Leste to be English teachers.

After group introduction we already had opinions of each other.

Simran thought I sounded like a camp counsellor and I was determined to be friends with Simran because I wasn’t sure if I could pronounce her name.

After traveling for 32 hours, we opted out of much needed sleep on a layover to spent the time eating snacks and hanging out with each other.

Upon landing in Timor the group was greeted with a grand welcoming celebration, and like we were reading each others mind knew we both needed to find a quiet place to sit for a while.

From these little moments our real friendship started. We always found each other after language and teaching sessions to destress with laughter and amazement of what was going on in our lives. A few months into service we were paired together for teaching practicals, which is where we first learned some of our differences. But we prevailed through and continued to check on each other once we were in our permanent sites for service. At a time we both found ourselves in the capital for health reasons and during this time it was the first time we expressed we had interest in each other. Unfortunately in the next few weeks the world was tossed into confusion and chaos as Covid-19 started and we were all sent home.

During lockdown there was not a day that went by where we didn’t have a Zoom chat that lasted well into the night. This was a time where we learned to have fun together, know each other personally, and help keep one another sane. After a few month Covid restrictions lessened and we wanted to see each other in the states to make sure that the other was a real person and not just a fever dream. I decided that I would go spend 4th of July with Simran in Philly (which later became our tradition). This time in person showed us that we had a real connection and this might be serious. Unfortunately, we were not at the same place in our lives and agreed that we would respect each others time in life and part ways. But after 4 months of not talking, we realized that our friendship was real and we both wanted it back no matter where we ended up in life.

We picked back up where we left off and stayed up to date in each others lives. In this next season of life Simran would move to D.C and I to Austin. Another 4th of July would roll around and I found myself again spending it with Simran. During this time we found ourselves discussing holidays to come and I discovered Simran had never had a traditional Christmas experience and invited her to spend it with my family and I in Arkansas. She thought it would be invasive to attend and tried to politely refuse, but my parents happily welcomed the idea of her joining us.

After having a great time with my family in our small town adventure we went to a New Years Eve party together, where we both got COVID. We had to quarantine in my 400 sq ft apartment in Austin. Where most people would have gone crazy in this situation, we ended up falling in love in our confined space and started dating.

For the next 7 months we would have a long distance relationship where we would trade off traveling to see each other every month. Simran finally made the decision to come to me for a 4th of July adventure (our first as a couple). Despite some challenges over this course of time, love prevailed and Simran found herself in a position where she could move to Austin. We were lucky enough that the her new apartment was only 3 floors away from mine. From here we began to both grow into our community and our faith thanks to Christian Life Austin (our church).
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Next came the biggest challenge for both of us… being approved by our families. Simran met my siblings for the first time in October, who instantly fell in love with her charm and quick wit to fit right in with our family. For Thanksgiving we went to Virginia so that I could meet her mom and uncles family. I would say everything thing went well because their still talking to us to this day. This was a great experience for me to test the waters of how welcomed I would be into her family, as I knew I had a big challenge in front of me to meet her father. We went to India in March of 2023 and instantly after greeting her dad I knew I was far from my neck of the woods on this journey. But what could I expect: I was a white guy meeting her Indian family, the first person she had ever brought to India let alone dated, and she is an only child whose the oldest in her family 😐😳😐.

This worry quickly dissipated after learning the secret to how Simran’s family shows their love: around a table with good food. After surviving the week of 39 different meals and two misinformed situations about a proposal ( Simran’s grandmother, Mummy, kept trying to introduce me to everyone as her fiancé) , the last night I had what I thought would be a terrifying conversation with Simran’s dad. I began talking to him about marrying his daughter and he laughed with a smile saying “It was obvious you would ask me about this you can tell by how the week went we all expected it, and I think it will be good for you both.”
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The next part of our story for me was waiting and trying to hide the facts that I was looking for a ring for a proposal. One night at church during worship I was praying about these next steps and someone came up and told me “you don’t have to worry about anything with the ring”. This was a message from God because no one at service knew I was going to look at rings that upcoming weekend. Equipped with God’s blessing, I was able to find the perfect ring for Simran at the first store I stopped at. With our history, Fourth of July was the perfect day to propose and I couldn’t wait. This being our first Fourth together that didn’t involve us saying goodbye at the airport, I had Simran plan our day (without knowing it’s significance) and she did delivered that perfectly. We spent the day getting donuts, lounging at the pool, eating dinner where we had our first date, and then watching fireworks from the roof. She unknowingly tried to sabotage the perfect moment by wanted to go to bed early because we had work the next day and talking to the only other person on the roof with us. But luckily as we were about to leave God stepped in and our neighbors started shooting off more fireworks. As we stood there watching our own little private show I began to tell her “Simran I love you, you literally saved my life by encouraging me to be the man of God I am today. You have never shamed me for my past, you have always encouraged me, and make me want to be the best man I can for you. Everything says we should have never met but we did and I know you are the only women I’ll ever love. This Fourth of July is different because we didn’t have to travel and I want every Fourth to be this way. Actually I want the rest of my life to be like this and I want to spend everyday with you forever, will you marry me.” After being speechless for about 2 minutes and only putting her hand in my face I took that as a yes and we were engaged.

We have spent the last year enjoying our time together and falling more and more in love. We are getting married 5 years from the day we met. I know that God is the reason we have this relationship and look to honor Him by sharing our story.