neha nawwab

Vedika (32) and Arvind Kapil (33), who met at Countrywide Finance, are mighty glad they met each other at office.

But now that they are married, they prefer to work separately. "I think office romances are increasing because a lot of professionals don't really have the time to socialise.

So, the office becomes an ideal place to meet that special someone. I found it a bit awkward to work with Arvind. It felt weird to be formal with someone I loved," says Vedika. "We find it easier to keep our personal and professional lives separate. In my opinion, that's the way it should be," believes Arvind.

For ad man Prahlad Kakkar (he thinks it's rude to ask a man his age!) and wife Mitali (40) romance at work pushed them towards separate jobs.

"I met Mitali when she was modelling for my production house. She worked for me frequently and we started seeing each other.

Soon after, Mitali came on board as my production manager and that's when all hell broke loose. I don't think falling in love with a co-worker really works because you lose perspective. In my case, my wife was working under me and in an attempt to be fair, I ended up being very unfair to her.

Basically, I would go out of my way to show people that I wasn't being nice to her and as a result she had to bear the brunt of my ill-will.

People involved become subject to a lot of resentment and snickering at the workplace," says Prahlad who drove Mitali to tears almost every day. "In order to save our relationship, she left and started her own company."

Sudeep Amodia (29) and Madhu (28) met while working at TBWA, an advertising agency in Bandra. While they admit it was hard to keep their professional and personal lives separate, working together was super fun, they claim.

"It all started in 2002. Initially, even though we didn't hide our relationship, we maintained a low profile. We didn't want to become hot office gossip. Gradually, we got used to it, and so did our colleagues.

And then it turned out to be quite an adventure. I think advertising as a field, has a more casual attitude towards relationships at the workplace, and that gave us our space.

There were times when we carried our fights with us to office; that got pretty ugly. But since I worked in the creative department and Sudeep in client servicing, there was some sort of a divide," Madhu says.

When the two contemplated on shifting jobs, they decided to do it together and moved to Triton.

"From a guy's perspective, it is much easier to deal with romance at work. We are less emotional, cool headed and don't care about gossip.
What you have to learn to do is work towards keeping your work and private life miles apart. You can afford to fall in love with a co-worker, only if both of you are mature and strong enough to handle nonsense from colleagues," says Sudeep.

TV affairs that went a step further

Manav Gohil and Shweta Kawaatra
Vikram and Pallavi met on the sets of Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and could not take their eyes off each other. There was parental resistance from Shweta's side, but the couple stuck it out and married last year.

Ram Kapoor and Gautami Gadgil
A friendship that began between Rahul and Aanchal on the sets of Ghar Ek Mandir slowly evolved into love.

The expert says, "go for it!"

"In my opinion, it is a very positive and natural thing for a couple to get to know each other at the work place because they have more realistic expectations of each other.

They spend so much time together that it increases their understanding of each other.

The only issue I can think of is a legal one where some companies have a policy that forbids husbands and wives from working together in the same office," says Aarti Gandhi, marriage counsellor.