brina and matt

Let me introduce my hosts: Brina and Matt are both Americans, and originally come from Seattle. Brina and I attended vet school in London together, and we also shared a house for 3 years. She is currently trying to save the street dogs of Delhi more or less single-handedly, doing volunteer work at various clinics. Her husband Matt, is a diplomat at the American embassy, and as the super-intelligent creature he is, also fluent in Hindi. As you are.

But let's rewind this a little bit. About 2.5 years ago, Brina tells me that's she's going to Ireland in March for a week, with this great friend of hers from high school (who I had never heard of), and who's currently working at the American embassy in Pakistan, and isn't he cute?! She admits to have had a secret crush on him for years, but as they've always been in relationships with others, they've stayed just friends.

A few weeks later, on her return from Dublin, I pick Brina up from the airport. We haven't even left the Stansted area before she announces that she thinks she is in love and that Matt and her are probably getting married. I'm like "ooookay..., don't you think you might be jumping ahead of things just a tiny bit.". "No, he's the one, I know it". I leave the discussion at that, not really thinking more about it.

Now Ireland was their first "date". A month later, in April, after millions of phone calls and emails back and forth from UK to Pakistan, they meet up in Paris. Where Matt proposes to her by the banks of the Siene. That was their second date.

On their third date, in May, Brina and Matt went to Dubai for a long weekend of loooove.

And on their fourth date, in June, they got married in Istanbul, in front of a small crowd of family and friends who had flown over just for the occasion.

Now, for all of you who think that a relationship like this can never last, I hate to disappoint you, but Brina and Matt are still as bubbly about each other as when I first picked her up from that airport, and they aren't shy about publically declaring their love either. "Matt, you are the best husband in the world", I read on Brina's Facebook status. "Oh I cannot wait to get home to my beautiful wife", I see a few hours later. "Oh, hurry home, I miss you my fantastic husband".

Now, for a long time I thought that this was just a private joke between the two of them with the aim of driving their less fortunate, and single, friends insane. But no. The moment I walked into their kitchen here in Delhi I realised that their love is very, very real. On the fridge, there are little messages scribbled down on a whiteboard: "I love you more than life, my whole world revolves around you", "I cannot wait to go away to Borneo with you, my love", only to name a few.

Their story is almost better than a Bollywood movie, and it makes even a hardened cynic like myself believe in true love. However, I have to confess that I'm still secretly expecting for either of them to suddenly burst out singing and dancing, wriggling their hips and bellies, true Indian style. Something tells me I will be waiting for a long, long time.