Alumni love stories that started at SOAS: A Valentine’s Day special
Our alumni share three SOAS love stories that will pull your heartstrings. Meet Babs & Lawrence, Marta & Zara and the Sen family and discover how their time at SOAS shaped their relationships.
Babs and Lawrence: “A love at first sight that has endured and will last a lifetime.”
By their second day as SOAS undergraduates, Lawrence Tallon (BA History, 2000; MA History, 2002) and Barbara Viejo Lopez de Roda (BA South-East Asian Studies, 2000) had already experienced something life-changing: they had met each other.
Babs had travelled from Spain, via boarding school in Ireland, specifically to study at SOAS. Lawrence, meanwhile, inherited a love for history from his archaeologist mother and geologist father, growing up with stories of their work in the Rift Valley.
“It was the 16th September 1997”, Lawrence recalls. “We were both in halls at Dinwiddy House. We met at a welcome party in the courtyard for new undergraduates. I was instantly smitten with this girl from Spain and spent the evening trying to talk to her as much as I could.”
Their first date came about a month later, at an Italian restaurant. “I knew very early that Babs was ‘the one’ for me”, he says.
For Babs, “those days at Dinwiddy House were great fun. Being part of such a unique university really brought us close to one another. We connected through our shared values, interests and an outward outlook.”
SOAS is a unique university, and it really opened our eyes to the wider world beyond Europe.
SOAS continued to shape their lives long after graduation, to the point that they describe themselves proudly as a “SOAS family.”
They married in June 2003, with their best man being one of their closest SOAS friends. They now have three children (“they wouldn’t exist if we hadn’t met at SOAS!”), including Valentina, who was originally due around Valentine’s Day.
After finishing their degrees, Lawrence completed an MA in History, while Babs worked for eight years in the Southeast Asian section of the SOAS Library.
Being SOAS alumni meant that our married life has been full of adventures with many more to come hopefully.
They later lived in the Middle East for several years, carrying their SOAS experience with them wherever they went. “SOAS is a unique university,” they reflect, “and it really opened our eyes to the wider world beyond Europe. That shaped our lives, especially during the years we spent in the Middle East.”
Babs does not doubt that “being SOAS alumni meant that our married life has been full of adventures with many more to come hopefully.”
Marta & Zara: “Meet-cute over Japanese grammar and tea led to many lovely years together!”
One day, Marta and Zara sat down next to each other at the back of their Japanese grammar class. It took only a single Monty Python reference (“dead parrot sketch, I think?”), to turn what could have been an ordinary lesson on subject-object-verb order into a 13-year love story.
Marta (BA Japanese, 2017) was intrigued by how formally Zara dressed, while Zara (BA Japanese & Social Anthropology, 2017) couldn’t resist the sound of Marta’s Polish surname, Strzyga.
They soon realised they shared more than a language class: “Evenings discovering all of our shared interests over cups of tea in a nearby cafe quickly turned into spending almost every waking hour outside of class with each other”, they recall. “Until we both admitted we’d been besotted with each other since day one.”
We were spending almost every waking hour outside of class with each other, until we both admitted we’d been besotted with each other since day one.
That nearby café was the much‑loved Moreish Café - once a cosy haven on the corner of Marchmont and Tavistock Street, cherished by the queer community, though now sadly closed.
Their relationship grew from its SOAS roots and blossomed like a beautiful Japanese cherry tree: “It’s wonderful to be able to share memories of our time at university in London, and also during our year abroad in Kyoto, Japan. SOAS’ progressive values helped our relationship blossom into what it is now, over a decade later.”
Please join us in congratulating Marta and Zara, who celebrate their sixth wedding anniversary on February 15th!
The Sen Family: “My father’s footsteps became the path my sister and I now walk together.”
This family-love story begins in Delhi, India, in the 1990s. At the time, Sumit Sen was a young Rhodes scholar, eager to expand his education in London. He chose to pursue an LLM in International Refugee Law and South Asian Studies, before later settling in Canada with his wife Mahnaz.
Fast-forward to 2020: his daughter, Sara, walked through the SOAS precinct to begin her journey at the SOAS School of Law, soon followed by her sister, Sarina, who is now in the final year of her LLB.
Education has always been a central value in their family. “My mother takes a special interest in asking us what new thing we learnt today”, says Sarina. “This daily question sparks endless conversations about the debates we’ve had in class.”
I feel honoured to be studying at SOAS, like I am carrying on a family tradition.
When asked whether his experience at SOAS influenced his daughters’ decision to follow in his footsteps, Sumit confesses: “It’s every loving father’s dream...So, I would like to believe it was. However, the final decision was theirs.”
Sarina reflects on that legacy with pride: “I feel honoured to be studying at SOAS, like I am carrying on a family tradition. I grew up hearing how my parents wrote love letters from London to Delhi, describing Russell Square as a local gem full of life. Hearing their stories and then visiting the park for myself was a special moment.”
“Discussing lecturers with my sister is always amusing as we can relate to each other’s experiences”, adds Sara, who is an active member of the SOAS Canada alumni group and often organises alumni events in Toronto.
It is the dream of every immigrant child to build on their parents sacrifices and we feel grateful that we have the privilege to do the same.
Sara and Sarina believe the connection between their family and SOAS couldn’t be stronger: “A university experience is shaped by the community you build, and the places where you build it. SOAS is where our father’s dreams began and where my sister and I learned to carry them forward, side by side. It is the dream of every immigrant child to build on their parents’ sacrifices, and we feel grateful that we have the privilege to do the same.”
A special mention goes to Sarina’s mum: “I would like to thank my mother for her support: living with three lawyers means she is often playing judge.”
Did you meet someone special at SOAS? We’d love to hear from you! Email your story to alumni@soas.ac.uk!
