She resides in a village but she took a step that many girls of her age in town and cities of our country would have hesitated to take.
The 24-year-old gutsy girl,  Tuni Jena hailing from Indupur village in Orissa’s Kendrapara district called off her marriage right on the marriage mandap itself when she found her fiance to be a drunkard. The incident has become the talk of the entire coastal district.
The bride had already stepped into the marriage mandap along with her groom and the marriage was about to be solemnised when she suspected him (the groom) to be in an inebriated condition.
While the priests from both parties were still chanting the ‘mantras’, Tuni asked her friends to enquire about her would-be-husband. The courageous girl got up and refused to marry him after she was informed by her friends that he was really in a drunken state.
Shocked over the development, the elders from both parties tried their level best to persuade her to change her mind.
But she stood firm on her stand and refused to carry on with the marriage.
Her bold decision finally forced the seniors in her villager to convene a meeting immediately and direct the groom’s father to return the cash and other items which were given as dowry.
Tuni had been working as an anti-liquor campaigner in her village for the last two years. In fact, she was heading a self help group (SHG) in her village which had forcibly closed a number of illegal country liquor shops in the area.
Several women’s associations in the state have already congratulated Tuni for her bold and path-breaking step.