V-Day week special: Shilpa Rao, Ritesh Krishnan like to balance ‘self-love’ and ‘loving each other’

This will be singer Shilpa Rao and visual artist Ritesh Krishnan’s second Valentine’s Day together as a married couple. The pair tied the know in Januarylast year, and they say their marriage has only strengthened and avolved since then.

“I think every day is Valentine’s Day,” Rao tells us, adding, “Because both of us work and both of us have things need to do, so simultaneously we have days during which we just chill and spend time with each other. I think there are many such days through the year that is Valentine’s Day for us.”

Krishnan agrees and adds that spending quality time with each other is the only thing they wish to do. “Unplanned things are always beautiful,” he says.

The couple goes on to share their views on what love means for them. For Krishnan, it is about “trust, happiness understanding and supporting each other”, while for Rao, it means “being happy as yourself and being happy with each other”.

She adds, “You need to be able to like yourself and love yourself, be happy as a person yourself and only then every other relationship around you will mirror that. It’s a very big balance between self-love and loving someone so that is what it (love) means for me.”

The two have been dating each other for quite some time before finally tying the knot last year, so how has their V-Day celebration changed after marriage?

“We used to travel so much earlier but of course we cannot do that now and that is the only difference. As February used to be the gig season we used to travel somewhere. But now with the Covid-19 restrictions, we have stopped, and that’s the only difference in celebration,” Rao reveals.

As for any special plans for this year, Krishnan shares that it is going to keep it low key. “We will be at home and chilling. We are not stepping out for sure, until and unless it’s necessary. We are actually thinking about others in the Covid situation,” he ends.