“I hopped out of the taxi, called my sister and said, ‘I think I like my taxi driver.’ She laughed at me.”
It’s fair to say Michelle Sood didn’t meet her husband in the most conventional manner. Not in a bar, nor a blind date or a dating app. Less than a year after she jumped in the back of a cab at Melbourne’s Southern Cross station, she married the driver.
She and Kunal now have a three-year-old son. But they won’t be celebrating Valentine’s Day with a glass of Champagne as their second child is due in just a few days.
It took just three trips for the pair to become smitten with one another.
It was September 2012 when the couple unexpectedly met. But if Michelle’s travel plans had worked out as expected, she would never have met her future husband.
“I was coming back for the weekend from the mountains and I was trying to be the first person off the bus so I could be the first person in the taxi to go home. But this girl beat me to it and so I headed to the next taxi and Kunal hopped out,” she told News.com.au.
We couldn't round off Valentine's Day without telling you a love story! Some people meet in the strangest places! https://t.co/VPL1rtzn7B
— David Woodward (@TasValleyFire) February 14, 2017
“I remember looking at him thinking he was nice looking,” she admits. “That girl might have beat me off the bus but it meant we could meet.”
Kunal, who is a driver with Melbourne taxi company 13CABS, remembers his passenger that night was in a major rush.
“The rank where I was standing got very busy but she was running towards me and I just opened the boot straight away.”
They both agree the first ride was hardly romance filled. Nevertheless, Kunal — who has a background in IT — says he can remember every detail including the small talk the pair made. For her part, Michelle, who is a software implementation manager, was just impressed the cab was clean and the driver didn’t need to be directed to her destination.
So much so, that with several work trips coming up, she wanted a reliable cabbie to get her to and from the airport. So she grabbed his number.
Was it just a ploy to get her cute cabbie’s details?
Not at all, she insists. “It was purely for work, he had good customer service.”
With each subsequent trip, the conversations continued and something began to click. Michelle and Kunal talked about the differences between Australia and India — where he hails from — about food and even their favourite comedians.
Kunal was a fan of Canadian comic Russell Peters, who is also of Indian descent, and chatted about his routine with Michelle.
It was this comedian that saw their relationship go from the purely professional to the personal.
“I looked him up and sent Kunal a text saying I was watching Russell Peters and he was really quite funny.
“We kept texting and then Kunal said, ‘would you like to have dinner sometime?’” Michelle didn’t hesitate. She said yes.
Three weeks after their initial ride, the pair had their first date at an Indian restaurant in Melbourne’s swish Albert Park neighbourhood. Kunal did not pick her up in the cab, said Michelle.
As their dates went on, Michelle set herself a mission of introducing Kunal to more cuisines.
“I only thought there was one cuisine in the world — Indian — and it’s the food I love so much,” said Kunal. But on the next date his repertoire expanded to Mexican, then to Italian and beyond.
As the months went on, something more than just gastronomy crossed Kunal’s mind.
“Being from another culture, I was not a person who could have gone with a girl and just had fun and all that — I’m not into such things.
“I was quite clear that I liked her and [after] two or three months I said I would like to settle down. I asked if she would like to go with me with me back to Punjab to meet my family and once you meet them we should see if we want to go ahead.”
“It was very full on,” says Michelle. “Very traditional and I’m not as traditional as Kunal but after spending time with family and getting a better understanding of who he was I remember thinking, yes, I could spend rest of my life with this man.”
In September 2013, a year after meeting at the Southern Cross rank, the couple married in Melbourne. Members of Kunal’s family from India made the trip.
“It is very whirlwindy,” laughs Michelle. Two became three with son Arjun. Their second child is due next week.
She never imagined she would meet her future husband on a simple trip home from the coach station. But, on Valentine’s Day, Michelle has a message for the lonely hearts out there.
“You just never know when you’re going to meet that special someone. They could be anywhere.”