For those who don't know me
For those who don't know me, I'm Dev, and I have known the groom since we were eleven, which means I am legally required to tell you one embarrassing story. I have chosen the least dangerous one, and his mother is here, so please appreciate my restraint.
The story
When we were fourteen, Aman decided he was going to learn the guitar. He borrowed one, watched four videos, and announced he would be ready to perform in a week.
He was not ready in a week. He was ready in about nine months, and here is the part that matters: for nine months, he played the same three chords, badly, in a garage, every single day, to an audience of one increasingly bored friend.
Years later I asked him why he kept going when he was so obviously terrible. He said, and I am quoting: "I wasn't practising chords. I was practising being someone who finishes things."
Why I told you that
I told you that because it is the exact quality that makes him a safe person to marry.
He does not do grand romantic gestures. He does the unglamorous version, consistently, for a very long time. He is the person who will still be doing the hard thing on the nine-month Tuesday when nobody is watching and it is not fun.
To Anjali
Anjali, you did something remarkable. He told me once that he had never met anyone who made him feel like he was allowed to be slow at something. You gave a man who practises three chords for nine months permission to not be finished yet. That is a rarer gift than it sounds.
The toast
So here is my toast, and then I am going to sit down, because there is cake and I have been told there are exactly two speeches before it.
To Aman and Anjali: may you both always have something you are willing to be bad at for a long time, in front of each other, without flinching.
Ladies and gentlemen, please raise your glasses. To the couple.