(CNN) — Nupur Gupta was nearing the end of a two-week stint teaching at a yoga retreat in Goa, India.
It was February 2019 and the weather was balmy, bathing Goa's famous beaches in a warm glow. The sea glistened, invitingly.
In between yoga practice, Gupta always made time for a swim.
On
this particular day, she floated out further than she usually would.
When she realized how strong the current was, it was too late. The water
had started to pull her under.
She tried not to panic.
"I knew somewhere that, 'Okay, if I constantly, and with consistency, keep swimming, I might make it,'" she tells CNN Travel today.
Whenever
Gupta attempted to crawl back to shore, the current dragged her under
and she'd fight her way back to the surface, gasping for air.
"Then I saw this man coming towards me."
This was Attila Bosnyak, a financial adviser in his forties hailing from Hungary but based in the Netherlands.
Coincidentally,
Bosnyak was a student at Gupta's yoga retreat where, he says, he'd been
trying to "disconnect from the hustle and work pressure and the Dutch
winter."
Gupta didn't teach Bosnyak's beginners group, so they'd never spoken directly.
Bosnyak was a strong swimmer, so he wasn't scared, but he was struggling to reach Gupta in the face of the strong current.
"He came very close to me, to hold my hand and pull me out, but just about that time I was pulled in by the ocean," says Gupta.
That's
when Bosnyak realized that, even if he could get hold of Gupta's hand,
he wasn't strong enough to pull her back to the shore alone.
Glancing
around, trying to stay calm, he spotted a nearby cluster of rocks that
were blocking Gupta and Bosnyak from the view of anyone on shore.
Bosnyak
figured if he could climb on top of one of them, he could wave back to
land and catch a lifeguard's attention, but there was a risk of being
thrown onto a rock and injuring himself.
"So
I tried to do it carefully," Bosnyak recalls. "But I couldn't really,
so two, three, four times I was basically pushed onto the rock by the
wave."
From Gupta's perspective, it looked like her potential savior was drifting uncontrollably.
"That's
when I panicked," she says, recalling thinking: "What if the wave just
throws me on the rock and I have a head injury or something?"
Eventually
Bosnyak managed to clamber on top, and pull himself to his feet. Waving
and shouting, he caught the attention of the lifeguard on the beach,
who swam out immediately.
The lifeguard assisted Gupta back to the beach, while Bosnyak swam on ahead.
It was only when Bosynak reached the shore that he realized he was bleeding.
"Especially
my back and my thighs because of the scratches, and my fingers --
because I'd tried to hold on to the rock," he recalls.
"My
heart sank when I saw that, because it just made me realize that what
this man just did to help someone, to help me," says Gupta.
As
Bosynak, exhausted, collapsed onto a sun bed, Gupta jogged to the
nearest store to get some disinfectant and, on a whim, chocolate ice
cream.
Back on the beach, Gupta started tending to Bosnyak's wounds. Then she handed him the ice cream and he smiled gratefully.
"Something changed, for me, in that moment," she recalls. "There was a click in my heart somewhere."
Bosnyak felt it too, even as he lay there, bleeding.
"I think that was a magic moment," he says.
Fate intervenes
After
it was established that they were both okay, besides the scratches and
the shock, Bosnyak and Gupta made their way back to the yoga center
together, talking as they walked.
Back at the resort, shattered, they returned to their respective rooms to rest, but reconnected later that day at dinner.
There,
they introduced themselves to one another properly. At first, the
conversation lingered on their unexpected life or death experience.
They
talked about where they were both from, what had brought them to Goa,
and quickly realized how well they got on, chatting into the the
evening, then picking up again the next day.
The
yoga retreat was due to end the day after, with Bosnyak planning to fly
back to the Netherlands and Gupta catching the train back to Kerala,
where she lived.
But Gupta was starting to wish they had a bit more time to get to know one another.
Could they postpone their journeys home and spend some more time together in Goa, she wondered?
"But to say it out loud or ask it out loud was also a bit... you have inhibitions," she says now.
Luckily,
Bosnyak was on the same page. They both agreed to postpone their
returns by a week and instead they spent Valentine's Day 2019 together,
taking long walks on Goa's beaches, kayaking and exploring the region's
Portuguese churches.
The two extended their time in Goa beyond the retreat so they could enjoy exploring together and get to know each other better.
And as their extra week together came to an end, they celebrated Gupta's birthday.
"That morning, I remember we had this breakfast together and Attila drove me to the station before he left," she recalls.
Both of them were excited about what had happened.
"It
was a good feeling -- that you found somebody with a connection and he
would just leave that big smile on your face, and that tingling feeling,
that butterflies," says Gupta.
The two promised to stay in touch.
"That started really a beautiful couple of months, chatting, WhatsApping, video calling more and more," says Bosnyak.
Despite being separated by oceans, they soon knew each other's daily routines by heart, and spoke every day.
A leap of faith
About a month after they left Goa, Bosnyak called Gupta.
"We should take this connection forward," he said.
"My
heart was pounding and I immediately agreed without any second
thoughts, despite knowing that it's a huge distance, different cultures,
continents, countries, cities," says Gupta.
They decided to officially embark on a long-distance relationship.
"I
wanted to do this. I mean, I wanted to have this experience. I loved
his vibe for that time when I was around him and I was very happy,"
recalls Gupta.
Looking
for a destination roughly halfway between India and the Netherlands to
meet up for a vacation, they'd begun to seriously consider Dubai when
outside influences took hold.
Gupta's mother was diagnosed with a brain tumor and was scheduled for emergency surgery.
"I
knew I had to be there," Gupta recalls now. She left Kerala and flew to
her family home in Lucknow, in the north of India, to support her
family.
"My
days were [spent] discussing her health and finding the right hospital,
the right doctor along with my family, and I saw my mom very low and
unhealthy," Gupta recalls.
Flying to Dubai -- or indeed even leaving Lucknow -- was off the table.
“My
heart was pounding and I immediately agreed without any second
thoughts, despite knowing that it's a huge distance, different cultures,
continents, countries, cities”
A
tearful Gupta phoned Bosnyak one evening and explained that she
wouldn't be able to meet him anywhere for the next few months.
Bosnyak helped comfort her from afar, and as they were talking, an idea started to percolate.
"What about if I traveled out there, to be with you?" he suggested.
Gupta
couldn't believe this man she'd met just once would be willing to do
that for her, but she felt instant relief at the thought of Bosnyak
being by her side.
She suggested he come after her mother's operation.
The procedure was successful, and after some recovery time in hospital, Gupta's mother was back home.
Not long afterward, Bosnyak arrived in Delhi Airport, Gupta was there to meet him at Arrivals.
En route to Lucknow, the couple stopped off at Agra to visit the Taj Mahal.
Gazing at the spectacular marble building, they shared a significant moment. Bosnyak got down on one knee and proposed.
It wasn't a marriage proposal but a promise to love one another, and to commit to making their relationship work.
Gupta's family couldn't wait to meet the man who'd saved her life and swept her off her feet.
"I've never seen them this excited to meet a boy," says Gupta, laughing.
Bosnyak fit right in right away.
"Everything was so organic," says Gupta.
It
was the perfect trip, the grand romantic gesture at the Taj Mahal
complemented by quieter moments of Bosnyak supporting Gupta and bonding
with her family.
Everything felt so natural that the idea of Bosnyak leaving, and the two being separated again, was hard to stomach.
A Dutch reunion
The
couple decided that once Gupta's mother was fully recovered, Gupta
would apply for a visa that would allow her to spend a month with
Bosynak in the Netherlands.
But
with legal complications meaning a likely six month delay, the pair
decided to meet wherever they could -- Dubai in the height of the summer
and then Serbia.
"Not
a usual romantic destination, I guess," says Bosnyak, who explains they
picked their locations based on Indian visa requirements.
"But
we really enjoyed our stay there. We were swimming in the Danube and
Sava rivers and really exploring that city. We rented an Airbnb, so we
lived like a couple."
It was a taste of a future life together they hoped was on the cards.
Their
final meet up was in Thailand. Not long after, in September 2019, Gupta
received her Dutch visa and flew to the Netherlands a month later,
moving into the apartment where Bosnyak lived in in The Hague.
It
was an idyllic few months. The couple traveled to Hungary together to
visit Bosnyak's family, and they spent happy weekends exploring the
Netherlands.
While
they were both thrilled to finally be together, for Gupta, it was also a
huge move that required acclimatizing to a different country and
culture as well as finding a job.
"It was a 360-degree shift for me," she says.
The
cold Dutch winter was an adjustment. It was also strange, Gupta says,
being an Indian woman in Bosnyak's very white, Dutch neighborhood.
But before long she had befriended many of Bosnyak's friends and colleagues, and also connected with other Indian expats.
And she kept in close contact with friends and family back home via video calls.
As
Bosnyak and Gupta spent more time together, their relationship
deepened, and the idea of marriage, which had always been in the air,
became the obvious next step.
For Gupta, the idea had been in the back of her mind since Bosnyak saved her life in Goa.
But
it was when he visited Lucknow in the aftermath of her mother's
surgery, that Gupta felt sure she wanted to spend the rest of her life
with this man.
"I was secretly dreaming about marrying him already by then, I think," she says.
"It was really natural," says Bosnyak.
The
couple say their friends -- more used to dealing with the ups and downs
of dating apps than saving a future partner from drowning -- were
blown away by the romance of Bosnyak and Gupta's story.
Still,
some were skeptical about whether the relationship would work in the
humdrum reality of everyday. Others wondered if cultural differences
might sever the connection.
"But
you know, as time goes by, and we are still together -- not just
together but we love each other -- they get an answer to those logical
doubts," says Bosnyak.
The couple hoped to bring together their friends and family from across the globe for a big wedding celebration.
But these plans were put on hold as other events took over.
A year in lockdown
Bosnyak and Gupta got married in March 2020, right as Covid-19 took hold in Europe.
Courtesy Nupur Gupta/Attila Bosnyak
Bosnyak
and Gupta were married on March 21, 2020 in a modest ceremony with only
a couple of witnesses at Trouwlocatie Groenmarkt, the former city hall
of The Hague.
The
Covid-19 pandemic had started to take hold in the Netherlands, and they
were the last couple to get married at the venue before lockdown.
Bosnyak
and Gupta went from counting down the days until they could reunite in a
new destination to spending every day together in a small apartment.
"In
a new relationship it's a lot, and that also taught us a lot," says
Gupta, who says their one-year of marriage feels like far longer.
"It's
the acid test, I think, for a relationship," agrees Bosnyak. "That you
can live with that person for months and months and months with no
events around, no places to visit, no fun activities apart from the ones
you can invent inside your apartment -- or during your short walks in
the next one and a half, two kilometers in your neighborhood. So if you
can make it, and keep on your happiness, then that relationship is rock
solid."
There
were difficult moments along the way, but the couple were happy to be
together, to be able to be there for one another and provide emotional
support.
They also navigated their cultural differences along the way.
"We
are both quite patient with other cultures and other thoughts and,
other personalities, patient and empathic," says Bosnyak.
"It was so fascinating to know someone so closely from a different country or culture," says Gupta.
The two cooked for one another, introducing each other to their home cuisines and meeting halfway when their tastes diverged.
While
they inevitably had disagreements, they tried to stay patient and
pragmatic, and put themselves in the other person's shoes.
Gupta,
a dog lover, also successfully persuaded Bosnyak that they should get a
puppy. Their dog Sukhi Ram joined the household in May 2020.
The couple, pictured here on their wedding day, have looked after one another during the stresses of the pandemic.
Courtesy Nupur Gupta/Attila Bosnyak
Gupta
struggled to find work during the pandemic. She'd registered her own
yoga company in the Netherlands, but had to pivot to teaching yoga
online, mostly to friends back home.
When the EU eased Covid travel restrictions in summer 2020, Bosnyak and Gupta seized the opportunity to travel to Greece.
The
three-week trip was a delayed honeymoon of sorts. The couple explored
beautiful destinations including Santorini and Mykonos, where they were
among some of the only tourists.
"We
walked empty Santorini streets, watching sunsets and we also woke up at
6:30 in the morning to watch the sun coming up," says Bosynak.
They
also made it to Hungary to see Bosnyak's family in August 2020, and
enjoyed exploring the Netherlands' castles and lakes together.
Holding onto hope
By the fall, Europe was experiencing another wave of Covid-19 and the long lockdown days returned.
The couple spent much of the winter months inside, caring for Sukhi Ram and looking after each other.
About
a month ago, as spring started to bloom and the pandemic seemed to be
subsiding in the Netherlands and in India, Gupta made the decision to
travel back to her home country to see family and friends, including her
newly born nephew.
Unfortunately
Gupta's arrival coincided with a spike in Covid cases in India, which
has turned into a devastating second wave for the country.
Gupta caught the virus, and is currently recovering, with Bosnyak supporting her from afar.
"Right
now, the situation is so overwhelming here," says Gupta. "I see people
struggling and I just hope that something gets better."
Gupta
and Bosnyak are currently focused on supporting family and friends
who've been impacted by the disaster in India, and trying to find
pockets of joy via planning for the future, and reflecting on the past.
They're
hoping to move to Athens, Greece next summer, as Bosynak has a job
offer there, so they're excited for this new adventure. They're also
considering starting a family.
And
reflecting on how they met, and the series of coincidences that brought
them together, never fails to put a smile on their faces.
"It really seems like a heaven sent relationship," says Boysnak.
There
are so many ingredients that led to where they are today, he explains.
It's not just the fact that they were both in Goa at the same time, or
on the same retreat, or even that they were bonded by what happened in
the sea. It was deeper than that.
"Because
we could be completely different people, having some memories of that
accident, but spending our lives in different places and different
cultures, and continuing as we were before," he says.
As
for Gupta, she finds it funny that she'd often cancel dates with guys
who lived only a few miles away, but ended up meeting and marrying
someone from a different continent.
"There
was so much positivity, and everything fell into place so organically,"
she says. "There was so much trust and love at every turn, and I think
that's why we are together today."
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