Weather gods turn benevolent on to be Kashmiri brides

Srinagar, Sep 8 (UNI) Bright sunshine over the past few days has brought back smiles on the faces of prospective Kashmiri brides and grooms whose wedding hopes were dampened by heavy and incessant rains last week.

Several weddings had been postponed and rescheduled in view of the flood situation in the Valley triggered by heavy downpour since Friday morning.

Rains had poured cold water over the pre-wedding festivities in several hundred households.

According to some estimates, about 2000 wedding ceremonies were proposed to be held in this fortnight in Kashmir.

With weather gods now turning benevolent, the prospective brides and grooms now get ready to tie the nuptial knot in coming few days.

A large number of weddings have been planned in Kashmir for the next two weeks in view of the approaching Islamic fasting month of Ramadan which is likely to begin on September 25.

Advertisements informing the invitees about the new wedding dates were back on local TV channels and English and Urdu dailies.

All Urdu and English dailies have started carrying such messages in their editions since yesterday.

Abdul Ahad Wani, a resident of Shivpora here, had earlier placed an ad in a local English daily informing the invitees about the postponement of the wedding ceremonies of his son and daughter scheduled for September 4 and 5 respectively.

He gave an advertisement again in local dailies today informing that the weddings would now take place today and tomorrow.

While rains played villain to the prospective brides and grooms, the downpour came as a blessing in disguise for chefs. They were now much in demand and reportedly charging exorbitant rates for preparing the world famous 'Wazwaan (Kashmiri cuisine)' to be served during the weddings.

Similarly, the Valley faced severe shortage of essential commodities due to the closure of the 300-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway, the lifeline of the Valley, for nearly six days.

This had resulted in black marketing, skyrocketing of prices and illegal hoarding of essential commodities.

Many families faced lot of problems in arranging the essential commodities for the wedding ceremonies and were forced to buy these from black market.

UNI AG AK VC1718