FairyTale Comes True in Tribeca


It was not the colorful procession of guests dancing down Desbrosses Street or the groom's ceremonial arrival on a motorcycle that made this wedding so remarkable. Nor was it the traditional Hindu ceremony against the backdrop of Lower Manhattan's skyline.

		For Pia Awal and Tim Dutta, a New Jersey couple married at Tribeca Rooftop on July 30, what made the day special was the joyful prospect of life itself. "My body was buzzing with energy and sense of fulfillment that I can actually be here and be well," said Awal, a former Dalton School teacher who is in recovery from a deadly form of leukemia. "I can continue with the person I've chosen to live my life with." Three years ago Awal, now 30, was diagnosed with the disease and told that her hope of survival was nil without a special procedure. Only a transplant of stem cells from a matching donor-what amounts to installing a new immune system-might save her life. But such a match seemed unlikely.
In the pool of potential donors, Awal would learn, volunteers of South Asian descent are underrepresented. Dutta gave up a successful management consulting business to devote himself full-time to finding a donor. He put Awal's story on a CD and distributed 5,000 copies to church groups, government agencies and news outlets. And he started a Web site, MatchPia.Org, that urged people of South Asian descent to become potential donors in order to save Awal and others like her. In the meantime, several grueling rounds of chemotherapy led to remission in March 2003. The couple scheduled a wedding for last October, but then canceled it after receiving the devastating news that the cancer had returned. But Dutta's efforts, which expanded the pool of registered South Asian donors by 20,000, paid off. Awal found her match. Last November she received the stem cell transplant and with it hope for a healthy immune system. (Matches also have been made for six other patients.) For once, said Dutta, "it didn't matter what religion you were, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian, male or female. We put aside all differences and came together for humanity, to save a life." As for the bride, she happily noted that she is not only marrying the love of her life, she is also marrying her hero. "Fairy tales do come true," she said. "I feel very lucky to be part of one."