I am married for 12 years. My wife has psoriasis so she was unable to find a partner. Our fathers knew each other socially so they decided to get us married. From the day we got married, we had zero compatibility. There was no love or romance. I used to get her flowers, and try to keep her happy and like most married couples in an arranged marriage, we had a child in the second year of our marriage. I have tried so many ways to find intimacy but that is missing in our relationship. There is no conversation between us apart from discussing groceries, school fee or attending family events together. I am looking for a friend, a companion which is missing. Recently, I discussed my problems with a female colleague who is facing the same with her husband. We got along quickly and there is instant chemistry, a spark. But we are both married and have young kids so we are worried how to take this forward. Please suggest the right way. I am 42, she is 39. My wife is 38.

Dear Anu, I am a 44-year-old married man. My wife and I had a love marriage. But just after the birth of our second child we started developing some smaller differences and issues. Nothing really major. However my wife started staying away from me physically. The intimacy and love in the relationship reduced and eventually stopped. Along the way I tried to go close to her but she wasn't interested. I tried a lot but it didn't help. We even tried to go to the counselor but she wasn't quite interested so we stopped midway. Now eight years have passed since we have had any physical closeness. We live like roommates just looking after the kids. However now my wife is making attempts to come close to me but somehow I don't feel anything for her and I am not co-operating. I feel like I just want to go away from everyone and start living independently. What is your advice? We have two daughters.

Hello Kanchan I'm 43 & my wife is 39. We have known each other for almost 25 yrs now (8 yrs before marriage and 17yrs of married life). We had our ups and downs in our relationship. But somehow we stayed together. We have a daughter who is 8. I've been working abroad for 4yrs and I used to come only once in a year to see my family. Now I'm back and doing a full time job. My wife works from home as a freelancer. I've observed that, after I returned, my wife has lost interest in me. She's also not interested at all in physical relationship. It is really very irritating as I am a romantic person. She simply says she doesn't feel like having intercourse. She does love me but what's the solution? How do I satisfy my feelings? She agrees to have intercourse so that I don't feel bad. But it is not satisfying! How do I tackle this situation?

I am 50 years old and got married 15 years ago. I am a very spontaneous sort of a guy and enjoy life, partying etc. I was also very active socially.My wife being the complete opposite put a stop to all that once we got married. She also does not display any affection and has no interest in physical intimacy. She is just concerned with her housework.We also have lot of differences in mental attitude & intellectual abilities. At no stage will we ever seperate, however, I am unhappy with her nature. She has lot of friends, however is always at daggers drawn with in her in laws. We had to stay separately for 6 months, and I tried looking for love else where, however after a couple of months, I realised, that I missed her. I am in a quandary. Despite requesting her to work on our relationship, I get no response. Please advise on how to proceed.

Hi Anu, I, 33 years old guy, working in corporate recently entered into an arranged marriage with a simple cultured girl who is also 33 years aold working in corporate, following a previous two-year relationship with another girl who was way hotter than my wife. Although my relationship with ex involved quite a bit of passion and physical chemistry, we had often found ourselves at odds when it came to other aspects of life, such as finances, careers, and family matters. Due to these differences, I chose to get into arranged marriage with the girl of my parents choice through the traditional arrangement process. After ex and I parted ways, she moved abroad to pursue her master's degree. Despite all this, ex and I have managed to maintain a friendship and remain in contact. It has been over seven months since my wife and I tied the knot, and we have been working on developing our sexual connection. To provide some context, here are a few reasons why this aspect of our relationship has been challenging: As my wife has never been in a sexual relationship before, she is not very experienced when it comes to expressing romance or fostering intimacy. Also, we are quite opposite to each other be it movie choices, eating habots, dressing sense, spiritual beliefs etc. I frequently find my thoughts drifting back to my past experiences with ex, which have led me to believe that I may never be able to recreate the same level of passion and excitement in my current relationship. While I used to be instantly aroused by ex, I hardly feel any sexual attraction for my wife. In last 7 months, we got physical only 7-8 times. However, the experience was not so great, and I am left feeling unsure about the future of our intimate relationship and navigating my feelings about my past relationship with ex. It's important to mention that, without a doubt, my wife surpasses ex in all other aspects of life, except for romance.

Hi, my name is Dhruv, I have been married for 13 years. It was love marriage. We dont have any kids, though we tried but due to medical complications, we could not have a child. After a point of time, we both accepted the situation and moved on. Since last 3-4 years, slowly we have been drifting apart, though we are together but the love, feeling of togetherness has gone, we talk only about our regular lives, household chores, relatives etc but never about US. That feeling of being loved, even we don't hug each other anymore. Though we do care for each other but its not love anymore. Recently I met someone through work and somehow felt a connect with her, I could talk about things which I'm not able to talk with my wife. She make me feel that I'm still important and now I always think about her, want to be with her, talk to her. Though it makes me guilty also as somewhere in my heart I still love my wife and want to make it work. I am torn between what is right and what is wrong. If I think about myself, my happiness and t it hurts my wife, am I selfish or should I restrict my feelings, please advise way out