All-religion mass wedding in UP

By Amita Verma

Lucknow: Exactly a month from now, on October 28, the sleepy town of Pilibhit will buzz with activity and merriment.

Nearly 2,100 grooms will walk into a sprawling wedding pandal spread over 50 acres of land and more than 4 lakh ‘baraatis’ will dance to Himesh Reshammiya hits. As the 2,100 brides take the wedding vows with their chosen partners, the event will, in all probability, get listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest mass marriage event in the world having an all-religion flavour.

A team from the Guinness Book of Records will also be attending and recording the event. "This will be an all-religion mass marriage and we will ensure that each couple is married according to rituals associated with his or her religion. So far, we have plans to get 2,100 couples married but seeing the response, the number could go up as the D-day approaches," says Inderjit Singh who is supervising the arrangements for the event.

The event is being organised by Sant Baba Makhan Singh ji, the head of the Dera Sant Amir Singhji in Amritsar.

"We chose Pilibhit because of the sizeable Sikh population in the region. We want to help the poor and bring an element of uniformity between the various classes of society. There are a number of couples from rich families too who believe in our ideology and will be getting married here on October 28. All the couples and their guests will be served the same vegetarian food at the event and everyone will sit on the floor in eight batches for the meals which will be served by our volunteers," explains Inderjit Singh. As a gift from the organisers, each couple will receive 5 saris, one suit length, a bed and bedding after the marriage ceremony. The entire cost of the event, estimated to be around Rs 3.5-4 crores, is being raised through donations. "We are not taking a single penny from the couples who are to be married. The aim of the event is to essentially help the poor in getting their children married and the purpose would be defeated if we accepted any contribution from them," he added.

The organisers are still unsure about the exact number of ‘pundits’ ‘maulvis’ ‘granthis’ and priests who would be supervising the weddings. "We are still working out the number of couples who want to be married according to a particular religion. Once we have compiled the list, we will see how many priests are required for each religion," the organisers said.

The event requires the couples and their parents to fill up forms, giving details of their families. "We do not want to attract any controversy by encouraging runaway couples at this event and are, therefore seeking the consent of the concerned families. However, there are some orphan couples for whom we have made certain relaxations," the organisers explained and added that a month-long ‘akhand path’ was now being held at the venue to invoke blessings for the success of the event.

Source: www.asianage.com