Is it given or taken – or both? Does love double or halve the lives it touches and enfolds? Is it luck or gruelling hard work ... or the two together? Does it move the heart, the mind, as much as the body, the soul? How does it face life, cope, smile despite its knocks, its hurts? Is it a secret? Does it elude most? Can it be sought and found? Will it happen to you, has it ... will it not? Within these pages some clues, some answers you may find. From those few ‘chosen’ ones who choose to tell.

Love Sparkles in Like Fine Wine like never before. It intrigues, mystifies, varies as acclaimed writer Syeda Imam makes short and sensitive forays into the real love stories of nine unusual couples. Amongst them are the nawab of cricket Tiger Pataudi and superstar Sharmila Tagore, acclaimed director David Lean and Leila Matkar, chess grandmaster Viswanathan Anand and Aruna along with six other rare examples of love who fascinate.

With what protocol does a Knight of the Empire propose? How did Dr Karan Singh, the prince of Kashmir marry the princess of Nepal? When did famed sitarist Ustad Shujaat Khan take the plunge with his beloved Parveen? What made the Umrao Jaan filmmaker Muzaffar Ali fall in love with Meera and vice versa? Was it the ‘O Calcutta’ romance or reincarnation that united Uma with Mumtaz? Just how do a pair of indomitable twins chance to marry another such pair?

Like Fine Wine is a celebration of these extraordinary nine couples who found each other in curious, puzzling, eccentric ways and whose whirlwind romances quickly became immortal in popular Indian culture.