An Indo-American Love Story

Now i´m not known for being much of a romantic; indeed this is a man who married in a football stadium after all, but i thought this story was too cool to pass up.

I rarely take an auto-rickshaw if i can. Every trip taken involves aggravation. You can haggle for ages, sometimes down by 70% and you know they are still cheating you on the price. Despite the hassle, they can quite pleasant guys – maybe because they know they´ve just fleeced you.

I was thus quite intrigued to come across this story today.

AFP reports that

a 26-year-old American tourist travelling in India hitched a ride in a rickshaw last week and married the driver a few days later, a report said today.

Whitney from Chicago met her prince charming in Jaipur in Rajasthan, a state west of the capital famous for its stately palaces, after hailing a motorised rickshaw and hiring the driver for her stay in the city, the Mail Today newspaper said.

"On the third day, he surprised me by popping the question," Whitney told the paper. "'I want to spend the rest of my life with you', he told me. I fell in love."

After meeting last Saturday they were married on Wednesday in a simple ceremony. Whitney was pictured in the paper, standing with new husband Harish Hotala, wearing a traditional sari that covered her head.

The paper said Hotala was "a cabbie with a difference," however. "Though a school dropout, he is fluent in English and owns three auto-rickshaws," it said.

Whitney, whose surname wasn't given by the paper, is to fly back to the US on September 30 to face her parents.

"My father was surprised but my mother took it sportingly," she said.

Brilliant story! Although i still reckon i´m far more likely to throttle a rick-shaw driver than marry one.

Wonder why she doesn´t give her full name?

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