It all started with a sleepover in October 2023 with my best friends, Elma, Alena and Tina. We were discussing relationships and my friends decided to find me a soulmate and decided to create a Dil Mil account for myself and my friend Elma. As I flipped through some profiles, I came across a particular boy who stood out to me, Carol Mannamplackal. As I read through his profile, a slight hint of familiarity drew me in. My friends, seeing this on my face urged me to swipe right. To be honest, as curious I was about him, I was a little fearful about the prospect of a long distance relationship because he was settled in Texas, whereas I had been in NY for almost my whole life. Today, I am so thankful to my girls for pushing me to make that swipe right, because shortly after a few hours, we matched! We started talking and clicked almost instantaneously, sparking that same sense of familiarity and comfort I initially felt. Something in me made me feel he's the one and we eventually met for the first time on December 1st, 2023. I remember being so nervous about meeting him for the first time as I picked him from the airport, but after finally seeing him, I felt surprisingly comfortable, which made me more sure about moving forward with this relationship. We went out for our first date in NYC and the rest is history :)

Our story starts from 7 years ago when we attended the Syro-Malabar youth conference in Houston, Texas. We don't recall meeting each other at the conference but we do have references of being on the same table for sessions. Fast forward to 2023, the year that changed everything for both Liji and me. In Oct 2023 when I came back home from a trip , I decided to update my dating app with pictures and bio.... Yes, we met via a dating app. At first glance, she looked very familiar, her bio and pictures caught my attention especially the one with a Mother Mary statue. I swiped right and we instantly matched as she liked me first :). We instantly hit it off and I was very comfortable talking to her within few days. On the fourth day I asked her number and few calls and facetime lead to our first date two months later.