The lockdown love story that led them back to Visakhapatnam  

Love stories often begin with finding a reason to spend a little more time together. For Ankhi Nandi and Abhishek Sharma, it was a pair of COVID vaccination appointments. Introduced by mutual friends in Visakhapatnam during lockdown, the two first got to know each other through long conversations, virtual bike rides and Abhishek’s virtual tours of the city.

With movement restricted and the world on pause, their relationship found its rhythm through screens and conversations. When they finally wanted to meet, coordinating their vaccination appointments gave them a reason to be in the same place. It was hardly a conventional first date, but it became the beginning of something lasting.

Lockdown and distance

Not only did their relationship have to manage lockdown, it soon had to navigate distance. Ankhi moved to Ahmedabad to pursue her master’s degree, while Abhishek prepared for his MBA and AFCAT examinations. But the separation became less about the miles between them and more about the effort they made to remain part of each other’s everyday lives.

For instance, Abhishek once chose an examination centre in Gandhinagar simply to be closer to Ankhi. There were surprise ice creams after long days, countless FaceTime calls and the comfortable kind of silence that comes with knowing someone well enough to happily do nothing together. Their relationship grew through these small, ordinary moments: the ones that rarely make for a dramatic love story but often become its foundation, and soon they realised that they wanted to marry each other.

So, nearly five years after they first met, Ankhi and Abhishek returned to Visakhapatnam, the city where their story had started, this time with their families gathered around them.

Celebrations in Visakhapatnam

Held at The Park, Visakhapatnam, from February 18 to 20, 2026, the wedding brought together Ankhi’s Bengali heritage and Abhishek’s Uttar Pradesh roots. Across three days of celebrations, the couple created a wedding that felt rooted in tradition while remaining distinctly personal, with colour, music and family woven through every event.

The festivities began with the haldi, which made the most of the seaside setting. Bright florals, colour and music set the tone, and a detail that carried a more intimate significance: a floral dupatta handmade by Ankhi’s mother. Worn by the bride during the celebration, it added a personal layer to an already meaningful occasion.

The mehendi and sangeet followed with equally warm energy. Friends and cousins took over the dance floor, while family performances turned the evening into something closer to a gathering of people who had been waiting to celebrate together.

Two traditions, one wedding

The wedding day brought Ankhi and Abhishek’s two cultural backgrounds together. The Varmala reflected Abhishek’s North Indian roots, while the Bengali ceremony honoured Ankhi’s heritage.

For Ankhi, one of the most memorable moments came when she saw Abhishek dressed in traditional Bengali attire and wearing the iconic topor for the first time. It was a visual expression of what the wedding represented: not one tradition taking precedence over another, but two families and their histories finding a place within the same celebration.

The backdrop was unscripted

There came a moment that no wedding planner could have scripted. As Ankhi and Abhishek exchanged garlands, fighter jets flew overhead, warships formed the backdrop. The spectacle coincided with the International Fleet Review taking place in Visakhapatnam, transforming an already significant moment into something entirely unexpected.

The couple had planned rainbow cold pyros for the varmala. Instead, they found themselves looking up at a scene that had been created entirely by circumstance: fighter jets above them and naval ships behind them as they completed the ceremony.

It was the kind of wedding photograph that became unique. A city that had witnessed the beginning of their relationship had, quite literally, become part of their wedding day.

A celebration that came full circle 

The celebrations concluded with a reception, bringing the three-day wedding to a close on a contemporary note. Across the festivities, the focus remained on the people and details that made the celebration theirs: two families, two cultural traditions, friends who had been part of their journey and the city that had brought them together in the first place.

For Ankhi and Abhishek, the wedding was less about marking a new beginning than recognising how much had already been built. Their story had started at a time when the world was uncertain and ordinary ways of meeting, dating and being together were impossible. It grew through phone calls, chosen detours, surprise ice creams and also the comfort of simply being present, even when they were miles apart.

Nearly five years later, they returned to where it all began, and also surrounded by everyone that they loved. And as they exchanged garlands beneath a sky unexpectedly filled with fighter jets, their wedding offered a fitting final detail to a relationship that had always found its way forward, one small gesture at a time.

Photo credits: Jumping Souls 

Also read: Sapna and Ashish’s 14-year love story comes full circle in the mountains of Manali  

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