My parents’ wedding - 1953

I came to the United States with my mother and three year old sister in 1964. I was in the fifth grade. My father had come six months earlier to work at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Washington, D.C. as an internal medicine resident. I grew up in Washington and Maryland, and attended Wellesley College where I met my wonderful Indian friends at MIT.  I was a young woman straddling two cultures, and my friends were so kind and welcoming that I felt I had returned to India.

Shakuntala  Puranik (bride) and Surendra Rishi (groom)
My parents' wedding ceremony took place in the house, where they later lived with my grandparents. They had just bought it. Indore, Madhya Pradesh, May 15, 1953.

From the left, Professor Borgaonkar\; my father, Surendra Rishi (groom)\; my grandfather Dr. Ramchandra Rishi\; a friend of the family (name unknown to me)\; my mother, Shakuntala  Puranik (bride)\; my father's sister, Usha Rishi\; my grandmother, Leelavati Rishi, and another friend of my grandfather. Indore, Madhya Pradesh. May 1953.

Epilogue

We come into the world through our parents, and their wedding day is the first day of our lives too!

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© Shobhana Rishi 2018