Meet a married couple of 31 years with three children who are still exchanging sweet nothings with each other.

Almost every morning, Ms Pooja Chandiramani, 51, receives an SMS from her husband Udeykumar Chandiramani, 57, saying 'I love you'.

'Sometimes it can be a verse or poem that I see on the Internet, which I reword to send to her,' he says.

Small gestures such as these keep the romance alive, say the couple, who wed on Aug 14, 1979.

Theirs was an arranged marriage, as was the custom among many Indian families in Singapore then. His family moved here from Mumbai in the 1950s but when he became of marriageable age, they sent him back to India to find a wife.

There, a relative matchmade him. 'My aunt told me, 'I've got a beautiful girl for you. Come to my house at 6pm',' recalls Mr Udeykumar, who runs an export business.

He showed up and was immediately smitten by his would-be wife's smile. 'That was the first thing I noticed about her. Nothing else registered and I said 'I want this girl'.'

Not knowing what else to say, he asked what degree she had obtained.

'Psychology,' she replied demurely.

'Well,' he quipped, 'are you going to psychoanalyse me then?'

On their engagement day, he sent her 14 red roses - to symbolise the number of days they had to wait till they got married. The bouquet came with the message: 'A rose for your smile.'

She, on the other hand, says she barely remembers him after their first meeting. 'I remember that he was tall, had a moustache and didn't wear glassses. That's all,' she recalls with a laugh.

Despite the awkward start, love grew when the couple returned to Singapore to set up home. She had never travelled outside of India before and had to get used to the way of life here.

She says: 'Everything had to be learnt in a different way, but if you have your husband by your side, everything becomes easier. Till today, he's still by my side.'

They have three children, Priya, 29, Kiran, 24, and Jagdish, 21.

Being in an arranged marriage set up the right expectations from the start, says Mr Udeykumar. 'Falling in love, you might go in with a lot of preconceived ideas. But this way, you get a blank sheet of paper and you write what you want.'

They have learnt to give and take. He is a meat-lover and his wife is a vegetarian, but no meat is cooked in the house. If the family dines out, he checks to see if there is a vegetarian option on the menu.

He says: 'Any couple who says they don't fight, they are lying. But our advice is never go to bed angry.

'After all... I just can't sleep without her.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times.