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Student's Indian Summer Yields Enduring Bond

Duleep is not alone in her recent foray down the aisle. Of eight senior couples engaged last spring, four are now married. Two of the couples are still engaged, and the other two couples could not be reached for comment. Iit may be early to judge the success of these Harvard newlyweds, yet all of them expressed enthusiasm about married life.

"I think it's wonderful," said Robyn A. Liu '98, a sentiment her husband, Jonathan H. Liu '98 was quick to echo.

Rachel M. Kadel-Garcia '98, who, like Duleep, also married an older man, agreed with the Liu's assessment.

"Married life is good," she said of her relationship with Nico Garcia, 35.

Osvaldo E. Pereira '98, who had a long-distance engagement to a student at UCLA, said that just being together is vastly better than negotiating a long-distance relationship.

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"It's a 1000-fold improvement over what it used to be like," he said.

For Duleep, being engaged meant returning to Harvard and traveling to Connecticut every few weeks to visit her Hill. Initially, the couple planned to marry this spring, leaving time forDuleep to finish school.

"We knew right away that we wanted to getmarried, but practically speaking I didn't want toget married in College," she said.

But as her sister, Anuradha, who was alsoengaged, began plans to marry her boyfriend thissummer in Bangalore, India, Duleep's ownengagement gradually evolved into plans for a fullwedding, at the prodding of her mother, whose "whydon't you have an engagement party (since we'llall be in India anyway)," turned into "why don'tyou have a small ceremony," and finally into plansfor a double wedding.

It was a Coorg ceremony--named after the Indiantown where her family is from--held on August 28,that consisted primarily of a long reception line,during which the guests congratulated the couple,blessed them and gave them gifts. Indian weddingscan often last for several days, so the couple'sfive hour ceremony--long by Americanstandards--was considered short.

Although Duleep (now Anna Hill) is used to along-distance relationship, she said that gettingused to a long-distance marriage is harder,especially since Kevin's son Darin, 9, has becomea major part of her life.

"Any marriage is difficult, and anylong-distance relationship is difficult, and anyrelationship that involves a child is difficult,so when you put them together, it's difficult,"she said.

However, Hill arranged her schedule thissemester so that she only has Tuesday, Wednesday,and Thursday classes, giving her the flexibilityto spend long weekends at home with Kevin. Thecouple is currently looking for a house inNorwalk, where she will return after this semesterends

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