Still lit, after all these years
It’s been 25 years since Maachis, with its nuanced take on radicalisation, hit the screens. Few films in the years that followed can hold a candle to it
For Bengaluru-based Rupini Dharan, 26, a digital marketer, and Vikas BS, 39, who works in information technology, the lockdown served as a pre-marriage trial run in disguise. They two had connected on a dating app a year before the lockdown. In March, with the prospect of being separated for an unknown period, they realised they’d rather just take the next step.
Vikas moved into Rupini’s flat and, by November, they were engaged. They will be married in April this year.
It sounds fairytale but it wasn’t, they admit, laughing. The initial days of living together were difficult, since they’d both lived alone for a while.
“But each day taught us to deal with our differences,” Rupini says. “We discovered we both love to cook, dance, play Uno. We share the chores, which usually involves a lot of laughter and mischief.”
The lockdown was also peppered with date nights. They’d cook for each other and share a meal with wine (when they could get their hands on it) and music.
“Our cat Mango, whom I had adopted when Vikas and I were still just friends, provided a lot of entertainment. He’s part of the reason Vikas and I got close. We consider Mango our Cupid.”
Living together confirmed what the two had suspected — that they had the same values and interests.
Rupini says she found Vikas to be more supportive than she’d expected. He was there for her, she says, even when he
THOUGH IT SOUNDS FAIRYTALE, IT WASN’T, RUPINI AND VIKAS SAY.
BUT EACH DAY TAUGHT THEM HOW TO DEAL WITH THEIR DIFFERENCES
couldn’t sometimes fully understand her bouts of depression.
“The idea of mental illness was new to him,” she says in their engagement video. “So he read a lot of articles and books on it, and he helped me cope with those tough periods.”
True to form, it was she — the more extroverted and romantic of the two — who proposed. “The lockdown would have been really lonely without Vikas,” she says.