Groom in prison, bride marries doll

 It is said that marriage is not child’s play – no gudda-gudia ka khel. At a village in Uttar Pradesh's Raebareli district, however, it turned out that it can be exactly that.

In an unusual wedding at Gangauli village on Tuesday, a woman married a gudda (doll) made of cloth as the groom, who is lodged in jail on charges of murder, failed to get bail as expected by his family members.

According to reports, the parents of Ramu had fixed his marriage with the daughter of Suresh Kumar of Gangauli village a few months back. Ramu was later arrested on charges of killing a relative over some dispute.

“Since the marriage, which was fixed in February, had been scheduled for May, we thought that Ramu would be out on bail by then. Unfortunately, he could not get bail. The application was rejected a day before the wedding ceremony,” said his father Thakurdeen.

He said it was too late then to call off the marriage as it would have resulted in huge financial loss to them. “Both the families decided to go ahead with the wedding,” he said.
The ‘barat’ (wedding party) reached the venue without the groom. According to a suggestion by the priest, a cloth gudda was prepared and all the rituals completed by the bride with the makeshift groom. The bride even performed the pheras (seven steps by the fire) with the doll amid the chanting of vedic mantras.

Ramu had been told about it earlier, and had given his go-ahead for the wedding, Thakurdeen said. The guests and villagers found the ceremony quite ‘unusual’ and ‘strange’ but both families appeared to be happy.