Harbhajan Singh and Geeta Basra gave their very first interview together after marriage to TOI and they revealed some pretty amazing things about their love story. This love wasn’t simple, but it was real.
How they met
Harbhajan said,
I saw her in a song – Woh Ajnabee – when I was playing county cricket in London. I told my friend, ‘I want to meet this girl.’ I know many people in Bollywood now, but at that time I didn’t have too many friends in the filmy circuit. I told a couple of friends ki, ‘Mujhe isse milao yaar, kaun hai yeh.‘ When we went to South Africa and won the T-20 World Cup, I got her number from a friend and messaged her, ‘I am so and so and I would like to meet you over tea or coffee’. She didn’t reply for three-four days. After we came back from South Africa, all she wrote was, ‘Well done on winning the 20-20 World Cup. We are very proud of you and all the best. Keep making all Indians proud’. I said, ‘Wow, that’s a nice reply to what I asked’. Then when the first season of the IPL was about to start, she messaged me, ‘I need two tickets’. So I said, ‘Okay, ticket toh de hi deta hoon‘. And then it was during the IPL that we met. I think isko laga ki inhone tickets di hain, toh ek baar toh milna chahiye. She met me for coffee and then we became friends and after that, we got into a relationship. She made me wait for long and said, ‘We will be friends first and then see’.
Their doubts
Geeta said,
At that moment in my life, I wasn’t interested in getting into a relationship. I was very new to India and the industry. The Train had just released and my focus was on movies. I knew if I got into a relationship, then things will change. He pursued me for 10 months. I think the media also played a role in getting us together. I realized one day that he’s a nice guy, you don’t find a lot of nice guys these days. My friends loved him and they gave me the go-ahead.
The struggle
Geeta added,
There was a time, when I told him, ‘Let’s stop talking. You move on and I move on’. And then I realised that there was such a void. In October 2008, I told him, ‘You should just find someone and settle down’. That’s what he wanted at that time. He wanted to get married but I wasn’t interested. But I think destiny had other plans. When something has to happen, it will happen. It was a couple of months back that we decided that we should get married during the week when he had his off.
This could easily be a Bollywood rom-com!