Superstition plays spoilsport in UP wedding

People may claim to be living in the age of computers, yet superstition continues to shackle their lives.

A marriage ceremony had to be cancelled at the eleventh hour in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district, merely owing to some superstition.

According to reports, the marriage of Vikas Kumar had been fixed with Kamini Devi and Kumar had arrived with his barat at the venue on Saturday.

The guests were enjoying dinner while others were dancing to the tunes of popular Bollywood numbers.

But a call to the bride by the groom’s mother around midnight changed everything. It made the bride so upset that she refused to marry her son.

The groom’s mother wanted that the saptapadi — the seven steps considered to be the most important ritual to solemnise a wedding — be avoided as she had been told by an astrologer that her son may die after completion of the last step.

The bride refused to accept the condition, saying the marriage was incomplete without the ritual.

While the groom’s mother tried to convince the bride that she should abide by the astrologer’s advice, she did not relent.

“I kept on telling her that it was just a superstition and that no harm would come to her son, but she remained adamant,” Kamini said.

She said she would find it extremely difficult to adjust in a family that was so superstitious. “I may face problems in future as I will be living with her,” she said.
Almost everyone tried to persuade the two, though unsuccessfully.

Even intervention by elders failed to produce any result, and finally after hours of unsuccessful attempts, the marriage had to be cancelled.