First date

London Alumni Circle committee member Rishi Raithatha tells about his love who he married wearing cuff-links with the University of Groningen logo.

"During our first date, she asked me what I had been up to. We had met in Nottingham 12 years ago, but I left the city and closed that chapter of my life. I mentioned living and studying in the Netherlands in a city called Groningen, not far from the German border. It might have sounded phlegmy, but it caught her attention. She had been to the Netherlands on exchange, albeit in Nijmegen, and liked the country too. Some weeks later, I introduced her to an old-but-close friend from Groningen. His then-girlfriend (now-wife) said: "She's the one - you're going to marry her!". She was right; I did marry her, in front of 250 guests. Amongst these guests was my former lecturer from the Faculty of Arts. Two of my five groomsmen were Dutch: one from Leiden and my old-but-close friend from Grunn. Er gaat niets boven Groningen."

Rishi Raithatha, MA IRIO/IBIO 2010.