INDIA: Two sisters in central India’s state of Madhya Pradesh momentarily swapped grooms during a quadruple wedding function when a power cut — coupled with the tradition of wearing a veil — led to a bizarre mix-up of the brides.
The bungled wedding, which happened last week in the village of Aslana, around 250km away from the state’s capital city Bhopal, came to national attention after a local media report in the Hindi language went viral on social media.
The bizarre mix-up happened after the father of the brides, Rameshlal Railot decided to organise the weddings of his son and three daughters all on the same day, according to a wedding invitation seen by The Independent.
All three sisters wore the same bridal outfits and had their faces covered with a veil, in keeping with local traditions, when they arrived for the wedding rituals, a relative who attended the wedding told The Independent.
But as the pre-wedding function began at around 9pm in the evening, the town suffered a power outage and two of Railot’s daughters ended up sitting with the wrong groom for the initial wedding ceremonies.
One daughter named Nikita, who was to marry a man called Bhola, swapped grooms with her sister Karishma, who was to marry Ganesh. The grooms were not related.
The two brides performed a number of pre-wedding rituals with the wrong partner before power was restored and the family members realised the mistake.
An elder brother of Railot, Sitaram, who goes by only a first name, said one bride’s hand was given to the wrong groom due to the power failure, which he described as a regular occurrence in the village.
“They did not exchange garlands or wedding vows, but the [mixup] happened for one of the rituals,” he said.
Sitaram said the village does not have proper electricity pylons and the incident showed how serious a problem the frequent power outages could be for the locals.
- THE INDEPENDENT
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