A lifetime of love

Most of us never forget our first love, but only a few of us actually end up marrying our childhood sweetheart. As actor Varun Dhawan married designer Natasha Dalal — the girl he met at school while he was in the 6th grade — you may ask what is it that binds these people who met in their teens.

Kanika Khosla, psychologist, says, “Love is an umbrella term and is not about just romance like movies depict it to be. When we see people who have been together for a decade or more decide to tie the knot, we see the superficial layer. We do not often realise the efforts that the couple may have put in to sustain the relationship.”

From best friends in nursery to high school sweethearts and husband and wife now, Delhi based Arjun Lamba and Srishti Dixit have defied all odds with a simple mantra. Srishti says. “When we said ‘I do’, we meant it for life. Have we struggled? Yes, absolutely! Do we fight? Yes! Are there times we wanted to go our separate ways? You betcha. But we are committed to each other. With all our idiosyncrasies and failures, we love each other deeply.”

Khosla feels when couples grow up together, they know each other well enough to develop a kind of love language of their own. She says, “The feeling of being at home with a partner starts to lure them and comfort them more as compared to the need of impressing someone and having to put the best foot forward after a long and tiring day.”

“Relationships that have stood the test of time — changing careers, new homes, financial hardships, deaths, health issues and all — become a beautiful journey worth cherishing and worth holding on to,” says Manoj Talwar, relationship expert.

And Khosla humorously puts it: “A known devil is better than an unknown one.”