Mohit Raina built a foundation of friendship before they began dating (Source: Instagram/Touching Hearts)Sometimes, love starts with friendship, patience, and a nudge in the right direction. Actor Mohit Raina, known for his work in Devon Ke Dev…Mahadev, has spoken about how his relationship with his wife, Aditi Sharma, began —through mutual friends, quiet moments of connection, and his conscious effort to take things forward. “I met her through common friends. My favourite quote is ‘See what you want, get what you see’. So, I worked towards it. I was the one who started conversations and slowly-slowly pushed things,” he said during a conversation with Siddharth Kannan.Aditi, who comes from a tech background, and Mohit built a foundation of friendship before they began dating. During the second wave of the pandemic, things became serious, and he met her family. The couple eventually tied the knot on January 1, 2022, in a quiet ceremony in Rajasthan. Explaining his decision to keep the wedding intimate and under wraps, Mohit said, “I did it in a small way. I have always been a very private person. Since I joined the industry, I have preferred to keep my personal life away from my professional life. That’s the way I am.”DISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to. What role does patience play in modern relationships?Jai Arora, counselling psychologist and co-founder of Kirana Counselling, tells indianexpress.com, “In a world obsessed with instant connections and grand gestures, Mohit’s approach reminds us of that genuine old-school slow love that doesn’t always begin with fireworks — it often begins with a spark and a little patience.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mohit Raina (@merainna) He adds that meaningful and long-term relationships are not built overnight, rather respect, care, and communication are displayed over a sustained period. “Patience here becomes a quiet form of emotional intelligence — it allows time for mutual comfort, curiosity, and trust to develop. In modern relationships, this kind of slow blooming can create safer, more emotionally grounded equations, especially in a world where rushed connections often lead to burnout, misunderstanding, or worse, a split,” Arora emphasises. How important is friendship before romance, and how does it shape long-term compatibility? Every “successful” couple needs to be romantically involved, attracted to each other, and able to be friends as well. Friendship lets couples know each other as whole people—beyond attraction or surface-level traits. “It nurtures empathy, playfulness, mutual respect, and a shared sense of humour — all of which are predictors of long-term compatibility. But a friendship-first approach can buffer a relationship against the highs and lows of passion, making the bond more sustainable and resilient,” says Arora. How can couples benefit from maintaining healthy boundaries between personal milestones and public sharing?Arora stresses, “This boundary-setting isn’t just a preference but a practice that supports psychological well-being. In an era of constant social media sharing, many couples feel pressured to broadcast every milestone. However, maintaining privacy allows a relationship to breathe without external validation or scrutiny.”This can protect couples from comparison, unsolicited opinions, or the stress of acting out “#couplegoals.” But as with everything else, couples should make it a point to set these boundaries together, as to which lies within and beyond them.Story continues below this adDISCLAIMER: This article is based on information from the public domain and/or the experts we spoke to.