September 5, 2010. Gaurav Chakrabarty and Ridhima Ghosh meet for the first time at Kaushik Ganguly’s place for the script reading of Rang Milanti, where t2 drops by. The two start dating within two months. 
November 28, 2017. Gaurav and Ridhima exchange wedding vows and move into their new house within a month. About a week before Valentine’s Day, the newly-married couple welcome t2 into their den on the 16th floor of Avidipta, on the Bypass. “The main reason why we wanted to get married is because we wanted to stay together. It feels great,” says Gaurav. Cue for us to settle down for an adda with 
Gaurav-Ridhima...

New Home

Ridhima: I have been demoted (from her 25th floor apartment in South City to 16th in Avidipta)!

Gaurav: And I got promoted, from first floor to 16th. I am seeing the city from a bird’s eye view. It is really calm, and we don’t get to hear so much noise. No noise of honking. The home literally feels like our baby. I feel so happy returning home every day.... We shifted on December 15 at night. We spent so much time to set everything up. 

Ridhima: This is our baby. I used to always like going out. But I love being in this house. Every little thing has been put together by us. 

Gaurav: We got the house in October and we set up everything in a month. I have installed the bulbs myself. It felt surreal when we shifted. We were so happy. I could not sleep that night. 

Ridhima: I slept in peace. The first thing we did after moving in? We got beers and ordered pizza and watched Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The first thing you watch on this TV has to be Ranbir Kapoor! 

The look and feel

Ridhima: I wanted white walls. It had to be minimalistic and simple. I am obsessed with grey, so I wanted a grey-white combination. 

Gaurav: And I was really happy with that.

Ridhima: I like to keep it neutral. I would never impose a pink bedsheet. Also, we have a lot of mirrors in the house. Our entire wardrobe is all mirrors.

Gaurav: Getting to see the open space adds to the openness of the flat. Also, the sense of freedom. 

Ridhima: I don’t have to answer to my parents what time I am going back home (laughs).

Gaurav: Having your own place is like the greatest freedom ever. I am sure our parents miss us a lot but we keep dropping by. 

Ridhima: I miss Rufus (Ridhima’s pet Labrador) a lot. I would have brought him only if there was someone living in the house 24 hours to take care of him. Rufus gets confused. He always sees his mother coming home, and then leaving and not staying at night. But he has completely taken over my room. No one is allowed to sleep on my bed. He sleeps on it alone. Maybe he is happy about it! He has a whole bed to himself!   

Gaurav: He gets very upset when we leave her house. He won’t look at you.

Being newly-married 

Ridhima: Waking up in that house (in Golf Gardens, where Gaurav’s parents Sabyasachi and Mithu Chakrabarty live) was new to me. The first morning I woke up post-10.30am... that’s not what you expect from a so-called new wife! But then his parents are so chilled out. 

Gaurav: Waking up in my house with her felt good. We stayed there for a week or so initially, and then we went to Allahabad to attend a family wedding... then we stayed at her South City home for a few days (oshtomongola) and then we moved into our new home.... Earlier, we would go back home late because we would spend time together after our shoots got over.

Ridhima: Now we go to sleep early because we have to wake up early. I wake up by 9am if I don’t have shoot. Previously, I used to wake up post-11am. That’s a huge change for me. I am the more responsible one! 

Gaurav: My first realisation of responsibility came when I saw the electricity bill… it felt really weird seeing my name on that thing. That is when the sense of responsibility sank in.

Ridhima: For me, it is sansar khoroch, and maasher bajar... which vegetables to buy… we get everything delivered through Big Basket. 

Gaurav: I have a small bar, and I keep it well-stocked.

Ridhima: I realised both of us have OCD. Which is a good thing; we are compatible. He always makes the bed in the morning.

Gaurav: I like that. And I feel so good about myself!

Ridhima: I have discovered that I love doing laundry. I like a proper bed, but I don’t like making it!

Gaurav: I hate doing laundry.

Ridhima: The first thing that comes to mind in the morning is… ki ranna hobe? Now, I have to get up in the morning, look at the fridge and decide what is to be cooked for the day. 

Gaurav: She asks me, ‘What will you have?’ That’s a terrorising question. How do I know that? I’ll have whatever is there. 

Ridhima: Every day you can’t have the same thing. You have to make something different. 

Gaurav: I can have the same thing every day.

Ridhima: We often live on leftovers! Sometimes I cook, otherwise it is the domestic help. Gaurav makes his own breakfast, and he makes it quite well.

Gaurav: I have learnt to make omelette now. 

Ridhima: He made pancakes for me on my birthday. 

Gaurav: I did not enter the kitchen in my (Golf Gardens) home. 

Ridhima: The first meal I cooked here was pasta. I can make Continental food. It is easier, because you need less ingredients. With Indian food, you need a lot of things. And he has rice, I have roti. Other dishes are common. Okay, I might as well say it — for Valentine’s Day I was planning to make biryani for you. 

Gaurav: Wow!

Together time

Ridhima: Even if we are always together, we still have our own space. Initially, I thought I had come on a holiday! It took me some time to figure out we live together. It feels like I am in a live-in relationship. I can’t relate to that whole ‘married’ thing.

Gaurav: She hates spending time alone.

Ridhima: I always need people around me.

Gaurav: But I can laze around all day, doing nothing, watching television, or YouTubeing tech videos, say when she goes out on work. I got this from my father, he also loves his alone-time!

Ridhima: Till early evening I am okay in the house, when he is not around. I do my work, have my lunch, maybe watch a movie. But right after sunset, I don’t know what to do anymore. I get restless. Either I go to my place or meet up with friends. Friends come over. If I have nothing to do, I start cleaning the house.... He does a lot of work too. 

Gaurav: I also didn’t know you can do so much work!

Ridhima: He gets pissed off when I do a lot of work.

Gaurav: She just would not sit down for a bit. 

Ridhima: Okay, so one evening our friends came over. And after they left, someone (looks at Gaurav) preferred going to sleep while I had to clean up. I had to take the garbage out!

Gaurav: That has happened once, come on! 

Ridhima: I like to wake up to a clean house.

Wedding jitters 

Ridhima: Our entire biye portion was fun, starting with aashirbad. The reception was hectic! Just like Durga Puja.

Gaurav: We kept on standing for like four hours! 

Ridhima: By the way, we had done the rituals before for a Byomkesh shoot in 2014 (Gaurav had played Byomkesh while Ridhima had played Satyabati in a Byomkesh serial)! 

Gaurav: Mala bodol, sindoor dewa hoye gechhilo aagey on the set! 

Ridhima: This was quicker. I was laughing and smiling throughout. I was cheering when they lifted me on the piri, and I gained more height than him.

Gaurav: Your competitive spirit came out then.

Ridhima: I freaked out even before I got on to the piri. Mala bodoler aage boshtey hoy alada, that’s when I realised I was getting married. My hands became cold. Once I got out there, I was fine. Throughout the ceremony, we kept on fighting, though we were smiling for the photographers. We fought about random things. 

Gaurav: When we were doing the seven rounds, I suddenly noticed she was slowing down at a certain place. Eki jaygay… then I realised she was slowing down for the photographers, so that she gets preference. She did the paanpata shorano in slow motion!

Ridhima: So that the shot looks good. Technical bou!

Gaurav: She got the best position in every photograph.

Ridhima: I had to take the light, na?!

Gaurav: We signed the registry papers on November 24, 2017. That is the date we had started dating in 2010. 

Ridhima: We fought that day also, just before we signed.

Gaurav: I freaked out a bit on that day.

Ridhima: Oh, you didn’t tell me this.

Gaurav: See, a new phase of life was starting, it was a new step for me. I was not unsure in any way, but I was getting stressed. 

Honeymoon plans

Gaurav: She was shooting for Byomkesh (web series) in December, and I had theatre shows. Then we set up the house, and had to complete everything before moving in. Finally, we are going to Australia in March, for around 20 days.

Ridhima: I didn’t want to go to Switzerland or Bali. We’ll be seeing mountains and the sea… weather’s great in Australia. We’ll be exploring on our own. You get up and you get out and do a whole lot of things.

Arindam Chatterjee
Pictures: B. Halder
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