Daniel and Sruthi met at RISD. Daniel took an instant liking to her, and spent the first year they knew each other making up songs about her. He’d serenade her in his terrible singing voice, replacing every 4th word of a popular song with ‘Sruthi’. He thought he was being charming, but she thought it was just weird and annoying. He had never seen anyone like her before— she was beautiful but down to earth, quiet but sure of herself. After RISD, they moved to different ends of the country for their jobs—Daniel to California and Sruthi to New York—but stayed in touch and visited each other.
Daniel would have loved to move to New York to be near Sruthi, but those plans were put on hold when she didn’t win a random visa lottery to stay in the US and had to leave the country. Daniel even formally petitioned his congresswomen to make an exception and let Sruthi stay, and received a letter back blaming the visa situation on the opposite political party. He was told to vote democratic in the next election.
Sruthi first got transferred to Dubai, and then London. Daniel was unhappy in California and he attributed much of that unhappiness to being away from Sruthi. He did something incredibly bold: he packed his bags and moved to London. It was a risky move: they weren’t serious yet, but he knew if he didn’t move to London to at least see if they could make it work he’d spend the rest of his life regretting it. It was a difficult adjustment at first and there were some ups and downs, but the more time they spent together the more they realized they just wanted to be in each other’s lives.
Daniel loved Sruthi’s quiet confidence and how she never had anything bad to say about anyone. Sruthi loved his curiosity, patience and kindness. The path to deciding to spend their lives together was not a straightforward one for them: they come from opposite ends of the world, from very different backgrounds and cultures. Despite their differences though, they ultimately just wanted to be together, and this is the first step in their new journey.
Our Story brought to you by….
Our story isn’t just about us, it was enriched and nurtured along the way by our friends and families. You know who you are, and we wouldn’t be where we are today without your support. We would like to make one special shout out to Evan Brooks and thank him for developing this website. Evan is a very smart boy and one of the few people we know who can effortlessly move between code and design. Thanks Ev!
