It was a wonderful evening yesterday with Padma (my sister) and Sampath (my brother-in-law) hosting their 25th wedding anniversary event to close friends and family, amidst Vedic chants and rituals on the rooftop of their home (as the sun was setting), and then participating in fun rituals hosted by the clan.

As you can guess from the dates, Padma and Sampath and myself and Radhika got married just a few days apart, 25 years ago in the same year, and hosted our wedding reception on the same platform 25 years ago in Secunderabad. Sampath and I went to JNTU for our undergrad, just a year apart, in 1984, and studied MS during the same period in Texas around 1989. All four of us embarked on family life together in Houston 25 years ago, in 1991.

These are not just a few things in common. We both have two boys, born in Texas, and they are also just a few years apart. To make it even more interesting, we also returned to our homeland more than a decade ago to be with our extended family and raise our kids in the city where everybody knows us.

So, it was indeed fun hosting and celebrating many events together. Coincidentally, my parents also celebrated their 52nd wedding anniversary as soon as the clock hit midnight.

Here is a 3-minute cute glimpse from Sampath and Padma’s wedding anniversary. It includes footage from the seven-step walk ahead of the Vedic homam, cake cutting, the reenactment of wedding rituals, and more. It is powered by a peppy Kerala boat song by Vidya Vox. I shot about 25 minutes of footage on my Canon 6D and quickly condensed it into 3 minutes while waiting in the Premium Plaza lounge in Bangalore. Now on the way to the Maldives.

Be sure to check it out.

Sampath and Padma are one of the coolest couples in our clan. They are a classic example of how opposites can still be complementary. They have experienced life’s greatest challenges in the early years of marriage and yet handled them with finesse. Now they are nicely settled in life, with two awesome kids who seem ready to carry their legacy. Sharada, Ramesh, and I have asked everyone in the family on Sampath and Padma. I have captured what they said in the below video. This video was played to them yesterday on their big screen as a surprise. There were lots of smiles and a bit of emotion too, as it was being played on the big screen.

https://vimeo.com/168750297