Lots of adjustments, and one adoption

They went to the same Mumbai school, but he was a year senior and they never interacted. When Conroy D’costa and Joshna Joseph did connect, it was on Instagram, more than a decade later, in January 2020.

“For months we chatted continuously over text, and we finally met in June, a few months into the lockdown,” says Joseph. To make that meeting happen, D’costa got on his bike and rode 60 km to Badlapur, on the outskirts of Mumbai, where Joseph lived.

“There were still a lot of restrictions, but I picked her up and we ended up spending the whole day together. We talked about our lives and careers,” says D’costa, a business development manager. “On that first day, we decided it would be good if we could find a place in the city together.”

His parents were on board, hers took a little convincing. But the two were so convinced of it themselves that “we made a compelling case,” says D’costa.

A month later, after many 120-km bike rides to and fro, they moved into a flat in the western suburbs. “I had found a new job close by,” says Joseph, a quality assurance manager with an F&B company.

Adjusting to each other’s quirks took a while. Joseph, an only child, was disorganised and unused to chores. D’costa is a neatness freak. “He helped me become a bit more disciplined,” Joseph says, smiling.

Conroy, she adds, is caring and patient.

He even got her a Rottweiler after she showed him a picture of one that she saw. They’ve named him Bob.

“Even though it’s quite a bit of work cleaning up after him, and most of our fights are over him, I wouldn’t replace him

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Source: Statista with any other dog,” laughs Joseph.

Any second thoughts? “It’s going to be a year soon and I think we’re doing okay,” says D’costa. Joseph concurs. “Everything happened so fast and with such ease, it’s all a bit of a blur now,” she says but now I understand it,” she says.

Even the clashes have been productive, they say. “We want each other to be better as human beings and with our extended relationships,” is how Gupta puts it.

Yermunja eventually introduced Gupta to his family, and Gupta told hers about him. He’s making his way to Delhi this weekend to meet them.

“The lockdown would have been so much worse if I hadn’t had her to spend it with,” he says.