It goes without saying that we live in bizarre times – our reality has been almost unrecognisably altered by the pandemic, the lockdown and our own fears. It’s now got to a point when I see things in a movie and I'm like where’s your mask or why are all these people out in crowds! Things that we did without thought earlier are now unthinkable – even attending funerals and getting married.
There are good reasons for limiting the number of people that can attend a funeral – to avoid congregations of people, which the virus loves. In any case, there are so many tragically passing away before their time in present times, that our crematoriums and burial areas are crowded nevertheless. Perhaps some thought that those rules apply only to human funerals?
In Karnataka there was an unusual funeral procession – for a horse. This apparently was a holy horse according to reports. The horse belonged to a religious organisation in the Maradimath area of Karnataka’s Belagavi district. According to one source, this was the village’s guardian deity and was worshipped as such. Thousands turned up for the horse’s funeral, gathering shoulder to shoulder, many of the attendees seen to be without masks. Now the village is sealed and there will be mass testing.
There is a limit to the number of guests you can have for a wedding these days: 50 people. I would think that is an excellent reason to avoid having to call hundreds of guests one barely knows and rarely meets (and great savings!) But this couple from Madurai actually did not see it this way. In fact, they went out of their way and created a really unique loophole to get around the mandatory maximum for the number of wedding guests permitted. They decided to get married aboard a SpiceJet plane.
They chartered a plane and got married on the plane. Their whole guest list of family and friends was also aboard the flight so they managed to circumvent the COVID regulations and have a unique wedding. Some thought this was a really smart idea since people are anyway unable to socially distance aboard a flight. There is some confusion about whether appropriate permissions were sought for this unique midair wedding. It seems clear that COVID protocols or mask-wearing were most certainly not practised aboard the flight. As such it is likely that disciplinary action will be taken in this matter.
While the official position is that there was no permission granted for ceremonies to take place onboard the flight, some of the images viral on social media suggest otherwise. In this tweet, the flight crew is seen posing with the newly married couple and they don’t look as though they were too upset about it all.
Yes, we should know better than to gather in large numbers. We most certainly shouldn’t be breaking the rules made for our own safety and we shouldn’t be trying to find loopholes to circumvent these protocols. But we don’t really care do we – so long as we get what we want? And if there is a religious angle somewhere, that seems to make it all OK, doesn’t it?
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