Marriage- A nexus of heart, soul, families and love. It is one of the proudest, loveliest, sweetest moment in the life of a man and a women which can be witnessed only once (exceptions are there).

The moment bride puts the garland over the head on to the shoulder of the groom, she is telling to the whole world “he is mine now” and the same is felt by the groom. The nexus is set by god. One waits for a quarter of their life time to meet their soulmate. The engagement of soul is commendable. One waits for a variable 4-8 days, faces so complex and serious custom (in fact both enjoy it) to wait for the final day of this ceremonial activity. India is a land of various customs and tradition and marriage is an example of it. The groom comes to the wedding with a procession of his family members, either on horse, elephant or in ostentatious car. The lively one in procession dances and daring ones burst crackers, while the remaining simply follows. Then the procession arrives at bride’s house or arrangement where the groom and his family members are honored. For them, the next 8 – 10 hours is the perseverance to excel in every aspect not only for the groom’s family but also for the society to which he belongs.

The bride family spends humungous money for this show. The welcoming is something which should not be missed. This tells that the bride’s family is accepting the groom. And he should be honored is their motto for life. After all they are giving their daughter’s hand to a person who will sing, eat, dance, sleep, enjoy and also in bad times cry, grief and share the pain with her. The next happening thing, which is in fact the center of attraction of the whole event, is the GARLAND CEREMONY. Different place celebrate this in different ways. But in general the groom sits on a couch/sofa and after few moments of silence comes the euphoria when the bride attiring herself as a fairy queen arrives near the groom. She seems or is rather happy as this moment will never come again.

The beautiful bride and the king groom not only exchange smile but after few minutes put the garland of life, love, understanding over each other head to shoulder. This event lasts for few minutes following which is the CELEBRITY SHOW. Don’t get confused with this word. My point was that the couple feels like a celebrity as he is getting photographed by each member of family, few selfies and few single. He is not able to judge whether to stop or move on. Between all these happenings a feel of essence, pleasure, happiness, and satisfaction crosses the couple’s mind which can be perceived by the never ending smile on their faces. They know that in few hours they will be one soul.

Proceeding towards the MANDAP, the groom is followed by the bride, hand in hand, showing that this bond will not end even in eternity. In front of flames of love, god, faith, ancestors, belief, future and present both takes the oath of life. They will remain as a couple throughout the life; they will share their feeling, love, money. They will not let the other people down. And the love shall continue till any one of them follows the death bed and even after. They take this oath with fire as a witness taking 7 rounds around the flames, family members also being witness of such bonding. The bride knew that for the years living by the parents side is going to end. The dependency on parents’ side is over. The love she has got till now is going to carry forward to some person who she might be knowing only for few days. The faith her parent has on the groom side that her princess will be the queen for him.

Tears falling through the eyes of bride, the tears of parting overcast the happiness till now. She doesn’t want to part, but she has to. She has to become a wife, a mother, a daughter in law. She cries, but the groom is holding her hand. She is being consoled that she is in safe hand. She will be cared, loved, and always honored.

Written by: Devashish Ranjan