Two Secret Christians Found Each Other in Arranged Marriage

When Dr. Smita Ramanadham's mother pulled out her Bible on her honeymoon in 1978, she thought her marriage was over before it began. She and her new husband had married just four days after meeting at a bus station in India, and she was terrified of what he might think.

Her father had just stepped out of the shower when she frantically tried to hide the book behind her back. In their conservative Hindu families, being Christian was dangerous enough to disgrace everyone you loved.

"What are you hiding?" he asked. "We cannot hide things from each other."

When she showed him her Bible, expecting anger or rejection, her new husband's face broke into a smile. "Praise God!" he proclaimed.

Both had secretly become Christians, independently of each other. Both had grandmothers who had quietly converted in separate villages miles apart. Both were the only ones among many siblings who had kept their faith into adulthood.

Neither family knew. At their 4:50 a.m. Hindu wedding ceremony four days earlier, conducted by a Hindu priest, not a word had been spoken about Jesus. Her brothers and uncles had been clear: she was not to mention her faith under any circumstances.

The odds of two secret believers finding each other through an arranged marriage in that time and place were nearly impossible. Her father had run away from home as a teenager and arrived in America with seven dollars in his pocket. Her mother had broken barriers by graduating medical school in the 1970s when few Indian women received any education at all.

They met through her younger brother at a bus station. She had a medical degree and strong opinions, but she was told to stay silent, avoid eye contact, and above all, hide her faith.

Sunny's Take

Dr. Ramanadham, now a plastic surgeon in New Jersey, says this story reminds her that we're all being led somewhere, even when we can't see the path. Her parents were complete strangers who turned out to be perfectly matched in the ways that mattered most.

Sometimes what looks like a detour or a leap of faith turns out to be exactly where we needed to go. Her parents built a life together in America, guided by the shared faith they almost never discovered in each other.

Two grandmothers in separate villages, two secret believers, one chance meeting at a bus station: sometimes the impossible happens right on time.