CELEBRATIONS on a potential doomsday may sound paradoxical, but my own wedding was fixed for February 5, 1962 — the very date when a rare planetary alignment sparked widespread fears of the end of the world. In 1955, I became engaged to Prakash, the sister of my hostel roommate, while we were studying marine engineering in Bombay. Although we had never met before our engagement, we soon began exchanging letters and occasionally met during my vacations in Amritsar. After joining the Merchant Navy in 1961, I was serving aboard a ship that had arrived in Trieste (Italy) when I received disturbing news from home. My engagement had been broken due to a disagreement between our families. Prakash’s parents wanted an early marriage so that they could arrange the wedding of her younger sister, as sought by the latter’s prospective in-laws. However, having just started my career, I could not return until my ship completed its voyage. Unwilling to wait, her parents married off her sister without informing my family and ended my engagement to Prakash, despite her refusal to consider another match. When my ship returned to Bombay in January 1962, I resigned because my company would not grant me leave. Back home, I worried about Prakash’s fate. In those days, an unmarried girl exchanging letters and meeting her fiancé was uncommon, and a broken engagement could impact her marriage prospects. I persuaded my parents to pursue reconciliation. Prakash’s brother also agreed and was able to convince his parents. We decided to marry at the earliest opportunity. I randomly chose February 5, 1962, and both families accepted the date. Astrologers warned of a catastrophe on that date. Public anxiety was so intense that, according to reports, even a royal wedding in Bhutan scheduled for that day was postponed. To the credit of both families, no one objected to my insistence on proceeding as per schedule. When we booked a brass band, a mare and a bus for the wedding procession, the vendors readily obliged because many bookings for that date had been cancelled. Some relatives advised us to postpone the wedding, and a few chose not to attend. During the marriage ceremony, the usual advice to the newlyweds was overshadowed by praise for the courage and faith shown by the two families. Our decision was vindicated when the so-called doomsday passed off uneventfully. Our happy marriage endured for many decades, a reward for our commitment to one another, until my wife’s death parted us. The writer is a retired Chief Engineer, Merchant Navy