Virus, changing rules play havoc with wedding plans

BHUBANESWAR: Marriages are made in heaven but solemnised on Earth. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the solemnisation of marriages impossible with many families forced to frequently change the date to adjust with the government norms and many more shifting the ceremonies to the year-end with the hope of the infection fizzling out by then.
Some families are keen to go through the ritual by the end of summer or the rainy season fully aware of the difficulties they might face in organising the ceremonies. “My daughter’s engagement took place in 2019. I don’t want to delay the marriage further,” Debadas Mohanty, a retired government servant, whose daughter is set to get married on June 29, said.
The family had initially decided upon June 28, which falls on a Sunday, as the date of marriage. But they were forced to change the date with the Odisha government implementing the weekend lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Faced with a similar situation, the family of banker Sikhya Priyadarshini, changed her marriage date from June 28 to July 17. Even her engagement ceremony with a Kolkata-based engineer, which was scheduled to be held on April 26 (Akshaya Tritiya), was cancelled owing to the lockdown. “We are keeping our fingers crossed. It’s difficult to predict what will be the government norms after June,” Sikhya, whose family is toying with the idea of a temple or mandap as her wedding venue, said.
“According to an Odia almanac, marriages can be held on June 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30 and July 1,2,6, 7,8,11, 12, 13 and 14 in the end of summer and the beginning of the rainy season in Odisha,” astrologer Sripati Acharya said.
But organising a wedding in this time of crisis is no mean task. Sikhya has been juggling office and running around to put her wedding preparations in place. The bride-to-be is extremely worried for her father, who is constantly interacting with outsiders to organise the ceremony. “The pre-wedding functions would be low-key and the number of invitees at the wedding would be 50,” Sikhya said.
The Mohanty family has also planned to conduct the pre-wedding ceremony at their home with a limited number of guests. “I have invited one person from the families of each of my relative for the marriage. It would be a token attendance,” Mohanty, whose daughter, a dental surgeon, is set to get married to a doctor, said.
Both the families have decided to limit the baraat to 20 people. “There were suggestions to scale it down further like going for a court marriage, but I preferred to go the traditional way as she is my only daughter,” Debadas said. He is planning a low-key wedding in a hotel.
Hotels are also not allowing more than 50 people and taking all the necessary steps to sanitise their premises while being sceptical of cancellations owing to constant changes in government norms. “The business of marriage in hotels has been hit. This June, we have just four marriages and two thread ceremonies lined up compared to much more the previous years. We will follow all social distancing and government norms to organise the ceremonies,” Chidanand Mohapatra, the assistant general manager of a city hotel, said.
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