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Paul and Nikita, meet for about two hours each day. This when they live in the same house, work in the same office and are married.

Nikita catches up with Paul after she gets back from work every evening, getting a couple of hours with him as Paul gets ready to leave for his evening shift.

The wait is for their common days off. To spend time together and chill on the two days that they get to make up for an entire week of barely seeing each other.

But whoever said love was easy, when many a times it keeps lovers apart more than it gives them time together. And when you're a couple working in a call centre, it is all about managing time to keep romance alive.

"We share the same car and are lucky to have the same days off, which is every Sunday and Monday -- that's when we are stuck to each other, rest of the time we are stuck to the phone," laughs Nikita, who works at a Pune-based call centre interacting with customers in the United Kingdom during her work day.

Nikita, a Maharastrian Brahmin met Paul, a Christian, three years ago during a training period at work. She was getting over a sad relationship and found a friend in Paul who she could speak to about her angst and pain of a breakup.

"One day she just said to me -- is there anything happening between us? And I was stumped," says Paul. "I thought that was a very honest and sweet way of saying what she did."

Before meeting Nikita, marriage was not a priority for Paul. He wanted to concentrate on his career and was happy with a relationship but not marriage.

"Nikita was different from other women and five or six months later, I popped the question to her -- on whether we should take this forward and what was on her mind."

Nikita was on the verge of going to study abroad but decided on staying on and getting married. Her parents did not agree. They knew Paul as their daughter's friend but were unwilling to accept him as a son-in-law. By this time, Paul and Nikita had already moved in together.

A few months later, they had a registered marriage in their tiny one bedroom apartment. Two weeks after the wedding, Nikita's parents called them home finally. "I remember we had a Kinetic Honda and we rode to my in-laws. Nikita's mother came to welcome us with the traditional rice but her dad did not come out -- but after some time he did, with a box of Shrikhand, to welcome us both."

"It is always so important and nice to have the blessings of your parents and I'm happy that we finally did have it."

The couple has now moved to a 2,000 square foot apartment close to the work place which they share with Buddy, their dog. "One thing I wanted for certain in my man was that he loved animals and Paul and me have had two pet dogs that have seen us through our relationship," says Nikita.

Now four months pregnant and with Valentine's Day approaching, Nikita thinks Paul and she have a very practical approach to romance. "We like going out and checking out new places, movies, restaurants etc. So when we have the money, we romance and when we don't, we just shut up and watch TV."

For their colleague Bijoy Sahai, it's not all mush-gush, flowers and gifts this Valentine's Day either. This is the fourth successive year that he will be away from Purvi, his wife, who he married after a four-year courtship.

Though they both also work in the same call centre, Purvi is away in Britain on a two-month assignment. "We try to make an attempt to make it special. Valentine's Day as such is an excuse to party," he says.

For him, the best way to keep in touch with Purvi has been through sms, emails and phone calls -- in that order.

The couple, though worked together, did not really know each other till they were introduced by a common friend. They went out on a date and then started bumping into each other in the common area during their daily breaks.

"We used to chat, have coffee, I smoked and we came to know each other better. We also had a long distance relationship for two years," says Bijoy.

Working in nine-and-a-half hour shifts, the biggest challenge for a husband-wife duo employed in a call centre is getting the same weekly off. A fact that is so taken for granted with other double-income couples. "By and large BPO companies try their best to ensure that and we tried and made sure that we had the same days off," he continues.

Booming, with a young workforce, the BPO industry provides a meeting ground for youngsters who are often just out of college, many of whom have moved from other towns in pursuit of a career. They make friends, find partners and sometimes go on and get married to someone special they meet on the job.

"But it's not as if it makes it any easier just because it is the BPO industry," says Bijoy, "Romance, after all, can happen anywhere. It does not need a time and place to start."

A thought that Nikita quite agrees with. "It's just that the percentage of young people in a call centre is high compared to perhaps other workplaces. One can fall in love anywhere -- be it a workplace or a prison."

*Names changed to protect identities

Text: Archana Masih
Image: Dominic Xavier

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