Marriages are made in heaven, and in research paper footnotes!

New Delhi, October 30

Once a quiet affair between two hearts, the act of marriage proposals is becoming increasingly public.

Gone are the days when conventional modes of proposing were the norm.

In the age of Twitter and Insta, social media spaces and flash mobs have long emerged as perfect settings to pose the million dollar question, but there also appears to be another interesting addition to the list of settings where two people can pledge to bond forever.

Physician SP Kalantri tweeted one such innovative proposal on Sunday, instantly attracting the attention of social media users who greeted his post with stupor and warmth.

The proposal, contained in the acknowledgments footnote of a published paper in The Marine Biology, came from a researcher to his colleague of many years.

”Marriages — so goes a popular aphorism — are made in heaven. But now researchers are discovering new ways where they can make them happen— in the acknowledgment section of a scientific paper!” noted SP Kalantri of the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, as he captioned the heart-warming image that reproduced the part of the research paper where David Tamayo proposed to his friend and co-worker.

The footnote features a series of acknowledgments for the research paper and goes on to add, “Finally Tamayo D wants to thank, in particular, the invaluable support from Muguruza, over the years. Will you marry me?”