KOLKATA, India: He was twice divorced, she was a widow. They are both 65 now. But neither age nor heartbreak stopped Kunal Mukherjee and Ashoka Bhattacharya from falling in love in the autumn of their lives.
The couple were first childhood sweethearts. Mukherjee had hoped they would be more than that. “Every time I saw her, I sort of felt breathless,” he recalled. But things did not work out, and they married other people.
When they reconnected decades later, this time it was love. “I said, ‘Do you think it’s time we seriously started considering walking (down the aisle)?’” recounted Mukherjee. “And in a very soft voice, she said, ‘Yes, we can.’”
They married two years later, in 2023, in a private religious ceremony in the bride’s home. No guests were invited, not even their own children.
At their age, remarrying meant breaking a taboo. In conservative India, romantic relationships between older adults are largely seen as inappropriate, especially among widows and divorcees. The fallout was huge when Bhattacharya told those close to her.
