Dreams of big fat wedding fade away

New Delhi, March 30: No band, no baaja and certainly no baraat. Dreams of a big fat Indian wedding have faded into the far distance for many a couple who have had to cancel, postpone or downsize their celebrations to the barest minimum.

Like for 26-year-old Delhi boy Harshad Khurana who was all set for the wedding he had always dreamed of on April 8 and now doesn’t know what to do. The venue was fixed, theme decided, the cards distributed and his suit stitched too.

The threat of Covid-19 started as a little blip before blowing up into a huge cloud of dread and a nationwide lockdown from March 24, ending his hopes for a grand once-ina-lifetime celebration.

After a day’s ‘Janta curfew’ on March 22, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 24 announced a three-week lockdown.

“Who had expected this? There is very little that we can say or do now... Hope everything becomes normal soon. Our last resort will be a truncated function with close family members only,” Khurana, a P.R. professional, told PTI.

But that would be minus extended family, no cousins and possibly not even grandparents, and what is a wedding without them.

“You know I also joined a gym to get in shape for the special day, but it was all for nothing,” he said dejectedly.

Mr Khurana is not alone. The entire D-Day drill – with months spent on zeroing-in on the menu, haggling over the price of the venue, preparing guest lists, whitewashing the whole house, picking the right jewellery and clothes — has come to naught.

Vipul Verma, 38, was set to get married on April 12. The compulsion of a limited gathering and that too without his brother who can’t leave Australia due to travel restrictions has led to Verma cancelling his wedding – at least for now.

Particular about ‘auspicious dates’, Priya Malik has eventually accepted the inevitable and pushed her wedding from April to November-December.

“All of us felt it’s better to be safe than sorry, and so decided to postpone the wedding date. We have to call up all our guests and inform them about the postponement date, which is both embarrassing and exhaustive.

“We have made advance payments to so many prewedding planners and are not sure if the money will get refunded,” said the 26year-old IT professional.