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Love that’s evergreen
Roshni Rustomji met Chuck Kerns in 1976. She was a professor, and he, a student. Little did they know that meeting would spark a love story that would last 44 years.
They began as friends. Roshni discovered his love for film and that he had returned to university on the GI Bill. Chuck learned Roshni was a child of the Partition.
The fact that Chuck is white and Roshni is South Asian melted away as they got to know each other better over many evenings of desserts and walks. It helped them deal with the occasional racism tossed their way.
The Kerns live in Alameda. Their interracial marriage illustrates the joy and power of sharing experiences, knowledge, and traditions from another culture.
What matters to them? Their families accepted their union with grace. And in their eyes, they don’t see each other as a person from another race. “I know you as a person from our marriage,” Chuck tells Roshni. “The real difference is that I’m short, and he’s tall,” she says.
This article was published as part of a series – the Desi Golden Years Project – on aging in the South Asian Community, made possible with funding from the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF). The views expressed on this website and other materials produced by India Currents do not necessarily reflect the official policies of SVCF.
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