Gul Panag's wedding on Sunday to her childhood sweetheart Rishi Attari came as a surprise to everyone,except Gul.
"I've known him forever... almost! It was one part of my life that I wanted to keep completely away from public forum, including the internet, because he wanted it that way. He was and remains very uncomfortable with being written about. I have to respect that," she says.
Gul has known Rishi from the age of 14. "He was the headboy in my boarding school. Every girl in the school had a crush on him. I had decided then and there that this was the kind of guy I wanted to marry. At that time I didn't know I'd marry him one day. Besides the fact that he was so good-looking I also had other reasons to bond with him. We are both Sikhs and from army backgrounds."
She has known Rishi closely for 15 years. "It's just that people didn't know about it. We kept our relationship a secret for his sake. He has been my pillar of strength for 15 years now. He encouraged me to get into Bollywood.At one point I wanted to leave and join a business school, he persuaded me to stay back. He gives me unconditional support. He looks out for me, he tells me what to wear when I go out and whether I look good in it. He's the smarter one of us, even he'll agree to that."
A day after the whirlwind wedding Gul sighed, "I haven't had the chance to let it sink in. It has been one crazy chain of festivities. We wanted it to be a small intimate wedding in Ladakh. But heck,it turned to be this big fat Punjabi wedding with his family, my family friends and relatives. And you know what? I'm glad it became so large.We had a ball because I wasn't just the coy dulhan sitting in a corner watching the show. I really participated in my wedding."
Guests, 150 of them, rode to the wedding on motorbikes. "Even my 62-year old aunt rode a bike Both Rishi and I are passionate bike riders. I initiated him into bike-riding. Everyone in my family, including women, are into bikes." Laughs Gul, "We wanted to keep it a secret because Rishi is a very private person. He wanted it to be a totally low-key wedding, and I respected that. Unfortunately people did get to know about it. And we had cameras trailing us... In a way that was good because those mediapersons got such pictures of the wedding that we could have never got."
Gul sees no difference in her life after marriage. "There's no dramatic change in my life. Rishi's business is in Mumbai.So we shall continue to stay in Mumbai. At the moment it's all about pooja, celebrations, family and festivity. It's turned out to be an amazing wedding."
And now for the honeymoon. "Rishi is keeping it a surprise. But I know he knows me well enough to take me where I want to go."
