Gauri's parents were dead against the marriage. Her mother had threatened to commit suicide. Her father called me over and said it wouldn't work out. For six years, we carried on our relationship clandestinely. Once I even went to her birthday party incognito. I used the name I was falled in Fauji - Abhimanyu. Her parents innocently remarked that I looked like a distant relative of Mr Dilip Kumar. But when they got to know my identity later, all hell broke loose.

The're a typical Punjabi family. I was told that one of her uncle are very aggro. He kept a sword hidden in his underclothes. But when I got to know him he turned out to be a lamb. I managed to patao all her relatives one by one. I would take Gauri's cousins to the disco. Gradually everyone liked me and all her mamas and mamis kept assuring me that her parents would come around.

Things weren't working out, Gauri was locked up at home, she would keep on telling me, "Shah Rukh, you don't know my parents.. you take things so lightly" and I would tell her that things would be allright. I'd tell her that 10 years down the line, we'd be laughing about all the trying times. And that's just what we do today. Sometimes in the nights, we sit and think about all that had happened and have a good laugh. But at one point, the pressure did get to Gauri. She felt that I was stifling her with my possessiveness..

At one point of time, I was extremely possessive about Gauri. I would fight with her if she wore a swimsuit to the pool or even if she left her hair loose. She looked very pretty when she opened her hair and I didn't want other boys to look at her. It was basically insecurity because we couldn't talk about our relationship. We didn't meet so often. But I was extremely insanely possessive.

Eventually she could not take it. She needed a break. So in 89, she just came down to Mumbai with her friend without telling me. When I got to know I was frantic. The day before she left, she came to meet me. It was her birthday and I had decorated my room with balloons and bought her a lot of presents. When she came to meet me she cried and I thought maybe she was overwrought because of all the tension. I confided in my friends Ashish and Benny.

I told my mother about it.. she told me to go and bring back the girl I loved. She gave me Rs.10,000 and we all came to Mumbai. We spent the first two days at a friend's house. The rest of the time we slept on the footpath near Oberoi. I still remember we used to wash up in the Taj, the bathroom behind 1900's was being done up at that time and we used to sneak in early mornings for a wash.

We spent most of the time walking around looking for her everywhere especially the beaches. Gauri loves beaches. But I didn't know much about Bombay then. On our last day, here a met s Sardar taxiwala who spoke to us about Aksa beach. We took a chance and went there. By then we had run out of money. I had sold off my camera too. The cab dropped us to Aksa and we were left with 20 odd rupees. Then someone told us of a beach called Gorai. So we took a ferry across, searched a lot but couldn't find her.

And then when we were coming back by rickshaw to reah the ferry on time, around 12, I heard some people shouting. The rickshaw driver told us it was a private beach (I was describing her to people, telling them about her hair, saying she's a friend and I've lost her. I used to love her hairstyle. But she cut it just to spite me). I told the rickshaw driver to take me to this beach. So we went and there she was. Standing in the water, wearing a T-shirt. By then it didn't matter even if she wasn't wearing anything. She came over and we hugged, and cried. It was then that I realised I was being unreasonably possessive. I also realised that no one could ever love Gauri the way I loved her and that gave me tremendous confidence.

Our wedding took place in the strangest circumstances. We had already rung up Gauri's parents from her aunt's place and told them that we were married. Pandemonium broke loose, her mother stopped eating and the whole atmosphere at their place was like a house in mourning. I entered to meet her father. I felt guilty. I think when I spoke to them they realised that they had no other go but to take this risk. I really identify with this feeling when I do a film like Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge.