Happy Together After All These 25 Years!

By Jawahar Malhotra

HOUSTON: They may have met a few times in the same college they went to in Katmandu, Nepal but they didn’t know that their fates would bring them even closer together years later. He was a busy soccer player, having formed the 3 Star Club and if he wasn’t practicing, he was competing against other teams. He was a soccer player on the national team. She was busy with the usual college activities and concentrated on studies. And then, he got a scholarship to study engineering in Russia.

Instead he decided to come to the US in 1984, where he had an older sister, and opened a grocery store in Atlanta, Georgia.  Seven years later, he went back home, and his parents had arranged a marriage for him with the same girl whom he used to meet occasionally in college, as if Fate had pre-ordained it!

This past Saturday, February 20, Dinker and Iren Amatya must have remembered that time well, as they celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary with a few hundred family and friends at the Taj Hall on Savoy Drive, off Harwin Drive. They sat garlanded on stage as others posed for pictures with them and then after dinner, let loose in a loud night of dancing and partying.

Dinker and Iren moved to Houston in 1991 to be closer to his sister Dr. Anjali Jain who has a pain management practice near Hillcroft and Harwin. The Amatyas have built a business in medical supplies, billings, collections and help to manage Dr. Jain’s clinic. They have two children, Devin, 20, in college at the University of Texas and Alina, 16, still in high school and they have kept their passion for Nepalese culture alive in many ways. Dinker was one of the founder of the Nepalese Association of Houston and is currently the President of the Shri Krishna Pranami Mandir and Pashupatinath Mandir in Richmond.

But he never lost his passion for soccer. A while back Dinker formed the 3 Star Club USA for teams to compete every year for a Nepal Day trophy. “I still get to play sometimes,” he grinned.