Bengaluru-based pilot gets married online, complete with virtual ‘sangeet’ and ‘aarti’

Bengaluru-based pilot gets married online, complete with virtual ‘sangeet’ and ‘aarti’

Farheen.Hussain@timesgroup.com

Bengaluru:  12.05.2020

It was to be a big fat wedding spread over three days with all frills thrown in. Thanks to the nationwide lockdown, the marriage of a Bengaluru-based pilot, 28, turned into a two-hour virtual ceremony watched from nine locations. The bride and the groom got married in Gurgaon, with his parents catching the action live from Bengaluru.

Sameer Varma, a senior first officer with IndiGo, was scheduled to marry 27-yearold Ayushi Kataria, a consultant with Accenture, on April 17 with hundreds of guests, including a few from Australia and Belgium, in attendance. The bride’s family had nearly completed the wedding preparations before the lockdown was announced.

Sameer, Ayushi and her family were in Gurgaon. Sameer’s parents — Rohit and Kiran — were in Bengaluru. Rohit Varma, a retired IAS officer and a decorated Kargil veteran, is also with IndiGo as a senior captain.

By May 1, Sameer’s mother Kiran realized they should go ahead with the wedding since there was no sign of the lockdown being eased. “Ayushi lives 10-15 minutes from Sameer and we asked them to go ahead with the wedding with Ayushi’s parents, a photographer and a panditji, with the permission of local authorities,” Kiran said.

The original wedding was to be held at a Delhi resort with a pre-wedding cocktail do for 200 guests. Around 45 guests were to fly down to Bengaluru on April 18 for a reception and a puja at the Varma residence in Whitefield. The plan went for a toss.

The wedding was held on May 6, and a virtual sangeet the previous evening. “Some 35 family members attended the online wedding between 3.30pm and 5.30pm that day from nine locations – Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Jaipur, Pune, the northeast and Singapore. Our older son, who lives in Singapore with his wife and son, participated from there. Our grandson was glued to the screen to watch his ‘chachu’s’ wedding,” Kiran said, adding she was in tears because she couldn’t be physically present for her son’s wedding.

Besides Sameer and Ayushi, five people were present at the bride’s residence for the wedding: Her parents, brother, panditji and a photographer.

Since last-minute shopping was ruled out, the bride turner mother’s finery into her trousseau and the groom colour-coordinated it with a kurta from his wardrobe.

The bride broke down during the gruh pravesh ceremony that was conducted on a WhatsApp video call. “There was Ferrero-Rocher instead of laddoos. My mother-in-law completed the aarti. It was a beautiful experience,” she said. Sameer completed the rituals by sprinkling water on the threshold, placing rice and played the ‘shehnai’ instrument. “I performed the aarti from here for my son and daughter-in-law,” Kiran said.

REMOTE PARTICIPATION:

Family members and friends attended the online wedding of Sameer Varma and Ayushi Kataria from nine locations