You probably think you’ve come to this site to find a gift registry, or maybe logistics information, or maybe to see pictures of the two of us… but we know different. You’re here hoping to learn a thing or two, or twenty, to answer what popped into your head upon hearing that we were engaged; “Huh, wow, wonder how that happened?!” Why thanks for asking, sit back and let me tell you…I’ll try not to disappoint.

It was the best of times, it was the wors…uh, never mind… We actually met in the lobby at work (wake up!). I opened the door for her, made some witty remark, or joke, or something (more on that in a bit), a chuckle or two was had and we introduced ourselves to each other as we chatted on our way to the parking lot. So what was the funny quip that came out of my mouth that started all this? I have no idea. Oindrila has no idea. We’ve spent countless hours over the last couple of years trying to recall because we knew you’d show up wanting to know. We tried very very hard… and you have no idea how much stress you wanting to know has put on us. But sadly, we can’t remember. It was certainly brilliant, obviously beyond words (or remembering), but alas it is something that will likely stay safe ‘n sound buried inaccessible in our noggins forever. That’s too bad. It was hilarious. You should feel cheated about now. Sorry.

So yeah, dang she was cute, seemed quite nice ‘n bright, and I was looking forward to running into O…Oin..Oin-something again. But “poof” she vanished. Gone. WTH?!!! Weeks passed and I didn’t see the lovely O..Oin..Oin-something again. Maybe she didn’t work in the same building? Nah, I’d seen her around a time or two before. Maybe all this was my imagination? Had the stresses of my life made me delusional and I somehow imagined meeting O…Oin…Oin-something? Sigh... Then one day I was walking down an isle not too far from my own desk and I saw a nameplate “Oindrila Mukherjee”. Hey, was that it? Is that O…Oin…Oin-something’s actual name?! Hmmm, doesn’t look like anybody has been here for a while. Holy crap that’s a lot of lipstick tattooed coffee cups. Wow… More time passed and I still hadn’t ran into her. I *might* have occasionally moseyed by her desk and taken a look to see if she was online via the company’s IM app, but nope. Same number of lipstick tattooed coffee cups but no Oindrila…IM said offline for 27162623819 days…sabbatical maybe?

Then one day there she was (apparently she left on vacation literally after the day we met). So I walked up to her cube and in the most debonair tone I could muster I said “Shit! You do actually work here!!” Smoooooooooth… A brief chat and I was on my way. She was very nice and sweet (no, seriously!!!), with a bit of a deer in headlights look on her face. Yeah, she didn’t really remember me. I wasn’t too surprised by this as it had been 27162623819 days since we met. The brilliant and funny quip, that we can’t remember, had an expiration date of 27162623818 days, so I wasn’t all that surprised.

What I didn’t know is that it was bugging her a bit that she couldn’t remember who I was, so she enlisted the help of her (former) roommate (Hi Parth!), who also worked at the company, to figure out who I was. Turns out she was successful as one day an IM popped up from Oindrila “coffee?”. Clearly coffee was her “thing” judging from the number of lipstick tattooed coffee cups in her cube. But why? I mean, I’ve heard of people doing that, but I never really understood it myself – work is…for work. Ah-ha! She obviously figured out who I was and that I’m a Director--so clearly she was looking for a management mentor as no way somebody that cute would be interested in me. Turns out, I was wrong on all counts. Sometimes “coffee” is just “coffee”… Obviously, that is not where our story ends. A few dinners and a bicycle shopping trip later (oh yeah, Oindy had ZERO bikes … she now has three!), and we were off and running…

An amazing adventure of love, companionship, and support ensued in the few years that followed. One beautiful evening late last summer, we took a stroll in Washington Park's Rose Garden before a planned evening out. We sat down on a park bench to take a break and it was, at that time, when I dropped to my knee, pulled out a ring, and told Oindrila what she had meant to me over the last few years...and that I wanted her to be with me for the rest of our lives. Obviously, she said yes. And there you have it. We are so looking forward to sharing our special day with you!!!