About the Couple
Rushabh, 27, is a graduate of The Pennsylvania State University.  He resides in Arlington, Virginia and works as a Software Engineer for Verizon Communications. His parents Ashwin and Leena live in New Jersey, and his younger brother Parshv, lives in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Rushabh is also a recent graduate of The George Washington University by having completed his MBA this past May, however, his enthusiasms lay outside the business world.  His passions are in the arts, music specifically, traveling, outdoorsy activities, enjoying life with his family and friends, and now, his new wife, Rajju. 

Rajju, also 27 years old, is a graduate of James Madison University.  She calls Atlanta, Georgia her home and currently works for Motorola ESG as a Software Engineer. Unlike Rushabh, Rajju's family is a bit larger consisting of both her parents, Raman and Shaku, who live in Alexandria,Virginia; her older brother Sanjay, his wife Manisha and their 2 1/2 year old son Rohan (all of whom live in Suwanee, Georgia); along with her older sister Sangita, her husband Nitin, and their new son, Devon, born on August 22, 2003, whose home is in Aurora, Colorado. Despite Rajju’s IT-oriented career, one can barely call her a computer geek. Rajju’s passions lie in traveling, decorating, her family & friends, keeping fit, sports, and her new found love & soul mate – Rushabh.

How We Met
According to Rushabh and Rajju; nowadays, there really is no real "conventional" way of meeting people.  You either have mutual friends in common, or a family member introduces you.  There is always the "bio-data" route, but lately the craze has been on-line matrimonial sites, which tout being able to find the life partner that you've been looking for.  Some, might think that it's a bunch of nonsense, but is it?  Although Rushabh is often the last to admit it, we met in one of the newest ways to meet people, and as you probably guessed it by now, it was via the Internet."

As a gag gift for his 26th birthday, Rushabh’s friends had gotten him a membership on an Indian matrimonial site, and although the gift was received as the joke it was intended on being, it actually changed his life forever. Similarly, Rajju and her friends always wondered who was on sites like these and decided one night  (“after a few cocktails”, Rajju adds) to create a profile online and see what would happen.

Well for two people that never intended on meeting online, things certainly did have a funny way of working out.   The fateful day was October 16, 2001 proclaims Rajju, as it was a day that “I had received this 10 page email which required me to take numerous breaks to read [laughing], actually, no, I’m joking, but I did receive this extremely thought out email and I appreciated the effort so I responded to it. Little did I know what was going to happen from there”.

After a couple months of email exchanges and phone conversations, Rushabh and Rajju finally met in December 2001 and well, as they say, the rest is history. The couple continued seeing each other, and soon their friendship turned into courtship, and as if it was written for all eternity, Rushabh and Rajju were married on June 15, 2003.

Our Engagement
Says Rajju: “Well, it happened on October 4, 2002.  I went to go and pick Rushabh up at the Atlanta airport. As per usual, I was running a bit late, thankfully so was his plane. I picked him up and we headed back towards my home. Rushabh asked me if we could stop off at Kroger (a local grocery store); I immediately asked if it was because he wanted to buy me flowers, he was a bit exasperated because he claims he can't surprise me with anything. Well we got back to my apartment and he asked to see my new digital camera so he could look at the "cool features". While he was doing this, he nonchalantly said, "I brought you something to eat". I of course hearing anything related to food was all ears! He handed me a box of Jelly Belly jelly beans (my favorite), and told me that he had opened the box already because he wanted to try them, I said it was okay, just as long as he hadn't touched the good ones. So I sat on the couch, opened the box and stared down at the Jelly Beans (Rushabh claims I was drooling!).  I happened to look at the inside of the box top and noticed that the paper that covers the jelly beans was stuck inside the top and it was wrapped in another piece of paper. I pulled it out and there was a poem written on it.

"There comes a time in every man's life
when he must take a chance and choose a wife.
That time has finally come to be.
So will you take a chance and
MARRY ME?"

There I was sitting on the couch with tears in my eyes and I looked over only to realize that Rushabh was on one knee, with the camera in his hand (he had been taking mini-movies of my reaction) and I asked "Are you asking me?" and he spoke the words that he had written on the paper, and asked me to marry him. I, at first didn't know what to say, but the word finally came out and I said "YESSSS"! I took the plastic cover off of the jellybeans and sitting there in the center compartment in a little plastic bag was a tiffany style platinum ring with a princess cut diamond that he slipped onto my finger.”