The Wonder Years

As Tarun and Sailaja Tahiliani invite Vogue India to flip through their wedding album, they reminisce about a time when nuptials were intimate, simple and all heart

- Akanksha Kamath

When our son Jahan got married in February this year, Sal and I were able to draw so many parallels to the simplicity of our own wedding in 1985. Jahan’s was an old-fashioned, 60-people ceremony in the garden, followed by an intimate lunch. And while we have Omicron to blame for that, it was perfect because keeping things small really has its own charm.

When Sal and I got married it was a different, simple world. I had just started working and Sal, an NRI, was a doctor in the US at the time. I met her while studying at University of Pennsylvania. She knew one of my closest friends, who was in fact trying to set me up with another girlfriend of hers. But life and fate has its own way of taking charge. I proposed early on and we got married right after we both graduated. India had been socialist for a long time; there was none of the madness or excess associated with weddings today. Everything was very proper, structured and civilised. There were no expectations or even budgets to serve alcohol.

“The best piece of marriage advice I would give my son is to always take care of each other with mutual respect and love. Give each other space to grow individually, and to grow together as a couple and a family” — SAILAJA TAHILIANI