Relationships Talk

Thiruvananthapuram: Wedding day ought to be life’s big day for the duo who commit themselves to an entire life together, but that day is also turning out to be a day of terror for many brides and grooms in Kerala, particularly in the Malabar region to the north of the state.

What started out a decade or so ago as a kind of icebreaker and some light humour for the newly-wed couple and the wedding guests has seemingly grown into a full-fledged nuisance that borders on the wicked.

Friends of the bride and bridegroom have been thinking up bizarre ways of “ragging” the couple.

‘Cruelty to the couple’

In recent times, it has stooped to the level of cruelty to the couple: Sometimes the bride is made to wash clothes or grind rice on the day of her wedding and the bridegroom is made to do equally distasteful things — like being made to lie in a coffin on the way home.

Not all brides and grooms take it with a happy frame of mind.

In a recent video that went viral (see below) in the state, a bridegroom could be seen kicking the table down and walking away, unwilling to stand the pranks being played on him and his bride during the wedding meal.

The state police has now stepped in with a word of advice in a bid to curb the instinct among youth to overdo wedding-day pranks.

Law-and-order problem

In a social media post, Kerala Police pointed out: “The ‘celebrations’ and ‘ragging’ to receive the groom and bride on wedding day is now becoming a law-and-order problem.

“Many celebrations and fun are now taking a form that actually snuffs out all the fun of getting together. These tendencies are breaking every limit and turning out into revolting and dangerous acts. Such pranks carried out in the name of celebrations and receptions are becoming a social problem”.

To draw awareness to the issue, police have listed some incidents like stopping the wedding cortege and making the new couple walk on the road, removing their footwear and giving them worn-out sandals to wear, and making the couple get into some goods carrier or an earth mover”.

Police point out that some of these acts may start as a prank but end up with serious consequences including a wedding break-up.

Significantly, the wedding ragging does not seem to be confined to any particular religion and has been noticed among Hindus, Muslims and Christians.

Even without the pranks, many weddings in Kerala are somewhat repulsive, feel some.

Says Celine K, a home maker based in Kochi: “Attending weddings is becoming a tough mission. There is an outsize guest list and there is commotion at the food counters. And on the stage, there is a lengthy introduction of the bride and groom and their near and dear ones. Once that is done, ear-splitting music ensures that you cannot speak to anyone in the hall.”

The ragging that follows appears to add to the pain.