Have you ever thought what happens when two of the best minds in the country get into the relationship? They indeed make a super couple, isn’t it?

Here, you are going to read a unique love story and it is not glorified by any college relationship or meeting through common friends, it is a romance that took off in a Sarkari setup. Yes, it was love at first sight for them.

Tina Dabi made headlines after she topped the coveted UPSC exam in 2015 at the young age of 21. The second position was grabbed by a guy from the valley, Athar Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan. Khan lost the first rank to Tina Dabi and also lost his heart to her. Despite losing his heart to her, he won the heart of her.

The story of Khan, a Kashmiri from a small village, and Dabi, a Delhi girl born in a Dalit family, highlights how the country’s complex social structure is witnessing a sea of change. Khan, an intelligent man from Kashmir had to face its share of flak from people around them who questioned the fate of this cross-cultural match. The couple has overcome all obstacles got married.

They met in the morning at a felicitation ceremony in North Block’s DoPT office and, by evening, he was knocking at her door. Aamir-ul-Shafi Khan floored Dabi with his wit and charm. “I thank Aamir every day for his perseverance. He is a wonderful person,” Dabi said.

The couple has been quite open about their relationship, with Dabi sharing pictures of their time together in the Netherlands and when with friends. However, the pictures, which Dabi made public on Facebook, have invited criticism from certain quarters with most questioning her choice of partner.

“We are in love and very happy. But I must admit that I get very disturbed when I read stuff about us. We have stopped googling our names and reading news about ourselves. I think it is a small price to pay for being in the public eye. Training for the country’s premier administrative service, the couple doesn’t care much about negative comments and are busy planning their engagement party,” she says.

Dabi says their parents have accepted their relationship and were happy with her choice.

“As any freethinking independent woman, I am entitled to certain choices. I am very happy with my choice and so is Aamir. Our parents are happy too. But there will always be those elements, that small minority who will always pass negative comments about dating someone from another religion. It is just that 5%. The majority are very happy. You would have seen on my Facebook timeline that most of the comments are encouraging. In fact, I am overwhelmed by the support and congratulatory messages. I thought ‘yeh toh achcha hai” (this is good.),’” Dabi says.

Dabi was trained at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy for Administration in Mussoorie.