A Navajo Groom, a Delhi Bride, and a Late Father’s Wish
He traveled to India to ask for his wife’s hand. Two weddings later, their families found home in each other.
When Tejaswita “TJ” Bhardwaj agreed to meet Skye Gillson’s family near the Navajo Nation outside Gallup, New Mexico, she had a feeling she was in for something big. “You’re going to have to butcher a sheep,” Gillson, then her college friend, warned her gleefully. “My aunties are going to make you work in the kitchen.”
“Dude, I’m vegetarian,” Bhardwaj replied, mortified. “I don’t do that.”
Instead, she arrived to find no sheep in sight. Gillson’s grandmother had prepared vegetarian tacos just for her, while relatives huddled around to meet the Indian woman who had, unbeknownst to Bhardwaj, captivated their son. The meal felt oddly familiar. The taste and texture of the fry bread was reminiscent of bhatura, and the beans looked like rajma. “I thought, this is basically chole bhature,” Bhardwaj told The Juggernaut. From her very first visit, she felt like she was home.