Bhubaneswar: We cannot set aside the fact that corona pandemic propelled lock down has immensely affected social life of people. In a strange development, a marriage was held without the most important ritual of an Odia marriage ‘the hataganthi’. Undoubtedly, this was done to maintain the norms of social distancing. The wedding solemnized in Sundergarh district of Odisha.
‘Hataganthi’ is the ritual when the parents of a girl provides the guardianship of their daughter to the bridegroom, their son-in-law.
As per reports, the marriage between Amrit Patel, the elder son of Madan Mohan Patel of Nuadihi and Arun Patel’s daughter Subhashree of Jhargan was solemnized without ‘band, bazaa, baarat’. As per lock down norms people cannot be assembled. So only a handful of people including parents of the bride and bridegroom were present in the wedding.
In another happening, a wedding was solemnized in Talcher where the bride and bridegroom tied the nuptial knot wearing masks. A total of 6 members were present in this wedding ceremony. Pabitra Samal and Rajanandini married each other with masks on their faces. The members present in the wedding had also covered their faces with masks during the occasion. Apart from the priest both sides had the presence of parents during the ceremony. After the wedding ceremony was solemnized the couple donated Rs 10,000 to the PM cares Fund to help fight against corona.
Indian weddings are usually a crowd gathering affair. In that case scenario the covid-19 lockdown period has affected many planned wedding across India. Due to social distancing norms most of the weddings are postponed to a further date or are cancelled for a brief period. Hence, these weddings in Odisha have come as a surprise to many people across the region.
Prasanta Patnaik