We’ve all read the great works of fiction and come across the varied and beautiful folk tales that our native lands and tongues (as well as all of the popular ones across the rest of the world) have to offer. But still, it’s the Real Life stories that get to us the most, and right when we expect them the least.

We’ve also all heard the usual caveat – life is hard and unforgiving, Love even more so. And in the conventional wisdom to play it safe, we guard our hearts and cover our asses, and we often skip right past the little miracles of love that surround us in our everyday existence. Let’s take a look at a few of these, right from the celebrities whose lives (and often, love lives) we all covet right down to the average person.

1. Shah Rukh Khan And Gauri

Shah Rukh may be the badshah of Bollywood and reside in his palatial Mannat, but he sure didn’t start out that way. What was a normal middle class boy in St. Stephen’s college in Delhi ended up falling for one Gauri, whose affections escaped him at first, but a couple of long train rides and surprise visits culminated in an early marriage – one where SRK was sure he had found the one (and vice versa). After that, SRK’s rise has been meteoric and his loving wife and family, his bedrock. Have we mentioned the inter-religious aspect yet?

2. Gautam And Anshida

Gautam (a Hindu) loved Anshida (a Muslim), who loved him back. Of course, society had other plans for their love, deciding that some archaic and illogical definitions of sanctity were threatened by the practice of love between these two young people. They were chased out of their home town and across Kerala where gangs were sent to hunt them down. Of course, that one guardian of our freedom – the constitution – laid down the law as the Kerala High Court recognised their marriage and granted them police protection. Score one for education and modernity.

3. Mohit Suri And Udita Goswami

Both are affiliated to Bollywood in their own ways, and both aren’t quite names that the paparazzi would be over 24/7, largely because they have never coveted that sort of fame in the first place. In any case, their marriage came as the result of nine years of courtship between the two, nine years that weren’t the rosiest that the world has ever seen. There were ups and downs, sure, but even when it looked bleak to onlookers, they made it through. Of course, the two are happily married now, and are having the last laugh.

4. Kamlesh Vaishnav And Geeta

Speaking of not having the easiest of times, try this story on for size. Kamlesh and Geeta met in a hospital, where they were both undergoing treatment for polio – a disease that seems to always be on the brink of eradication – and neither was looking for love, by any stretch. However, as fate would have it, the two, for whom overcoming their polio is a challenge to even be able to see each other, would fall in love and get married. The smiles on their faces are wider than they’ve ever been.

5. Juhi Chawla And Jay Mehta

There was a little bit of disbelief when word got out as to the fact that Juhi Chawla had married Jay Mehta. “Him?”was the question on everyone’s lips, but little did they know there was a back-story. A rather large one, in fact. The passing of Jay’s first wife had been traumatic for him, to say the least, and it was at that time Juhi had met him and soothed him. Their eventual connection and shared history of overcoming family tragedy formed a bond that persists, perhaps stronger than ever, to this day.

6. Waseem And Ayesha

Waseem and Ayesha had been married a long time when tragedy struck their lives in the form of Ayesha’s fast failing kidney. As per convention, doctors approached the family of the bride to find a match, but when none was found, Waseem stepped up to the rescue offering one of his kidneys (a match made in heaven some would argue), giving his wife a new lease on life. She gets to live, and he has a few more restrictions in his life, but a whole lot more time with his beloved.

7. Mukesh And Nita Ambani

Mukesh Ambani may make more money in a week than we make in a day, but at the very centre of his motivation lies a certain Nita Ambani – a notoriously hard woman to woo as Mukesh will recall. Not one to be blinded by the allure of gold, Nita insisted the two take in Mumbai’s sights in a city bus, have an ice cream at the local joint and that she be dropped back before midnight when the two dated, considering Mukesh got off work and to hers at 11. And guess what, Mukesh, for whom a woman of lesser integrity and rigidity might have been an easy alternative, still went through all of it to win the woman that he loved. And the two have been besotted by each other ever since.

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