We have seen in happen in movies and TV series and read it in the news: the bride calls off a wedding because of dowry demands. We all cheer the gutsy woman for standing up to the cruel patriarchy that continues to devalue the woman by seeing her as a burden. However, this is far from the only reason for the ‘baraat’ to return. Recently a bride decided to cancel a wedding after the drunk groom and his baraatis forced her to dance.
At a wedding ceremony to be held in Tikri village in Pratapgarh, UP the groom was drunk and so were his baraatis. He wanted his bride to be to dance on stage. She was not inclined. When he forced her to do this before the jaimala, she decided to walk out. The bride's family held the baraatis captive and asked for the cash and wedding gifts back from the groom’s family. They were allowed to go after the police intervened and the gifts and cash were agreed to be returned.
In Rasoolabad village in UP, Lovely, the bride asked her groom-to-be, Ram Baran to add 15 and 6. He answered 17 and she called off the marriage. Turned out the groom was illiterate and the bride decided she didn’t want to marry him. The police intervened and everyone returned the gifts that had been given and taken.
This wasn’t just one bride, but several brides who wanted an in-house toilet as a prerequisite for a wedding. In fact, this one became so famous that they made a movie based on this theme; Toilet – Ek Prem Katha. Gudiya, Neelam Sharma, Sakina, Seeta, Nazrum Nisa and Kalavati were six women who stood their ground over a toilet inside the home. They refused to go or to return to their marital homes until toilets were constructed there.
This incident occurred in Rampur in UP. The groom was known to an epileptic but this was hidden from the family of the bride. When Jugal Kishore had an epileptic seizure right before the wedding ceremony, Indira, the bride decided not to go on with the wedding. The bride still wanted to get married, so she asked a man from the family of her brother in law – a guest there – to marry her instead. He agreed.
At one wedding scheduled to be held in Etawah, UP they demanded better lighting arrangements before the wedding could proceed. For Vijay, the groom and his family, the lighting wasn’t good enough. A fight broke out and the groom and the bride’s father Natthu Singh. The bride’s family was threatened and in the end, they wisely decided to call off the marriage. When there is deception, demands and misbehaviour before the wedding, this is usually an inauspicious indication of things to come. In such circumstances, it is best to cut one's losses and nix the nuptials.
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