Chaya Babu
Parita Patel was taken by surprise when Raj Balwani broke into a jig. Here's what happened next.
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Raj Balwani moved with his family from New York to California when he was 13.
Coming into a new world at what everyone knows is a kind of awkward age, he never fell into any Indian circles because social groups were formed at that point and he just made friends where he could.
This also meant that he never dated Indian women because he just wasn't around them much.
When he moved to Foster City, CA, in 2010, things changed a little.
A friend of a friend, another Indian guy, took Raj in and introduced him to a group that had more Indians and that Raj fit into well.
One night one of the guys suggested that Raj try Match.com, a potential way for him to seek out women who met his criteria and priorities.
He was hesitant, but the guy was encouraging. So he signed up for a three-month trial.
Then he set his filters so that he could see the Indian women within a 60-mile radius.
Based on how the site sorts profiles, Parita Patel fell to the bottom of his list of potential matches, so he didn't see her at first.
Luckily, he caught her eye, coming up near the top of her list of matches. She wrote him.
They met shortly after for coffee.
"We through Yerba Buena gardens while they ate it.
They sat down for a moment on a bench in the gardens by the water. It was the spot where Raj had planned for the choreographer and dancers to be waiting. When Raj gave the signal, the choreographer hit the music.
"Once we sat down, all of a sudden I started hearing music, and I was like 'What is that? I think I hear Gangnam Style.'" Parita says.
"People started coming out and I was like, 'Woah, look at this, we're here at the right time to see a flash mob!' Or maybe I didn't say flash mob, but I knew there was some type of organised dance happening.
Then I started recognising faces and I was pointing and yelling out their names, like 'Hey there's so and so!'"
The dancers, aka friends of Raj and Parita, wore bandanas covering their faces, some of which started to slip during the dancing.
Raj let Parita watch for a few more seconds before jumping in himself. It was then that she got what was going on.
"When Raj got up and joined, that's when I knew," Parita says, choking up as she recalls the story. "And I was completely floored and shocked beyond belief."
After the dance ended, slower music came on, and Raj walked over to Parita to get down on one knee and propose.
The performers were the audience and they all cheered as the newly engaged couple embraced.
A friend caught the whole thing on video. Parita's back is the camera, so her sentimental reaction wasn't captured.
"She's a very emotional person; I mean a commercial can make her cry," Raj says.
"It was super surprising," she says. "I was completely thrown off guard. Never in my dreams did I think that's how I'd be proposed to. It was by far one of the sweetest things he's done."
Raj and Parita got married in August 2013 in the Bay Area, not far from where they met and got engaged.
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