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 | | Terminal love: Deepti and Rugved were students at NID, Ahmedabad, but did not know each other |
Rugved Ghiya (27) was waiting inside the Ahmedabad airport terminal on August 27, 2007, for a flight to Mumbai, when he spotted a girl drinking tea a few metres away. The girl looked familiar, and he realised he had seen her at the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, where she was a couple of years his junior. Ghiya went up to her and introduced himself.Message on a napkin
Her name was Deepti Dutta. As they got talking, the announcement for the security check for her flight to New Delhi was made. She said goodbye, smiled and left, but he did manage to get her mobile number.
“Just as I saw her disappearing into the terminal, I realised I wanted to marry her. I was unbelievably attracted to her, but I thought it would be weird to tell Deepti I loved her,” said Ghiya.
He tried calling her, but her phone was switched off. Frustrated and increasingly restless, he sent her a message on a paper napkin (I don’t know you and I really don’t know how you would feel reading such words… I have the rest of my life to understand you and you have an entire life to be in love with me.) But he didn’t think it would reach her.
“So, I called her and told her I had sent her a message,” said Ghiya. At this moment, Dutta pipes in, “I asked pointblank what was the message. But that’s when (much like a film), the line became unclear.”
Says Ghiya, “I realised she was going off without knowing what I felt about her and I begged an airport official to make an announcement on the PA system. I told her, “This is for Deepti. I just want to announce, I think I am in love with you.”
An AAI official said it was difficult, but possible to make personal announcements at an airport. It depended on how insistent the person was.
Added Dutta, “I did not say anything. I was too stunned. But after returning home to Delhi I mailed him a regular, normal email. That was the beginning of our friendship. We chatted every day on the phone and emailed and I realised I was falling in love with him too.”
On October 10, 2007, Ghiya proposed and Dutta accepted. As a toast to the airport where it all happened, they have designed their wedding card to look like a boarding pass. | 
