Let’s remember S.R. Nathan

I am a sucker for a good love story - and the one of SR Nathan and his wife Umi is nothing short of a Bollywood esque tear-jerker. :) President Nathan was cycling past a house in Muar, one day when he spotted a beautiful girl standing by a window sill. He soon befriended her, a then 13 year old Umila, who was of Bengali descent (North Indian). President Nathan, who is Tamil, was 18 at that point. They stayed as friends and soon started courting, but as he was a South Indian and she north, her family throughly opposed their union. Her parents wanted her to be married to a lawyer or a doctor and her father was a very hot tempered man, who did not fail to show President Nathan his disapproval. But after seeing how relentless he was in pursuit of his wife, his father in law and mother in law finally agreed to their union. They dated for 16 years before finally being wed was he was 34 and she 29.