At a time when the country’s high and mighty are sprinkling crores in lavish weddings mustering hundreds of guests in contemptuous defiance of the corona regulations, an inconsequential couple in comparatively lesser known part of Bengal on Thursday entered into a proverbial “no-frills” wedlock sans guests.
Neither Swati Nath nor Sourav Karmakar’s grandfathers are former Prime Ministers (like HD Deve Gowda). Nor their parents are ex-Chief Ministers (like HD Kumaraswami). Yet the couple had the humble discernment that tying the wedding knot amid a large crowd could be a suicidal proposition when the country is under a lock down to ward off the dreaded corona virus.
The Kharagpur couple’s marriage ceremony was not only sparsely attended by a group of 10-15 “very close relatives and friends” but also everyone was conscious enough to mask their faces to keep the virus at bay.
Kharagpur is barely an hour’s drive from Bengal’s one of the four hotspots of Egra in East Midnapore district. The icing on the cake came when Karmakar the humble owner of a fast-food kiosk decided along with his wife to donate a paltry amountRs 31,000 — that he had saved to host the wedding party --- to feed the 500 poor souls who had been caught stranded nearby amidst the complete shutdown for two days.
“I had saved the money to spend at my wedding. But in the changed circumstances I asked myself: why not spend it to feed the poor! … When I told my family about it, they all readily agreed,” Karmakar said with his newly married bride saying how happy she was at the decision taken by her husband. “It is a great thing to feed the poor people at our wedding. They will bless us.”
One wonders whether the blessing will land the couple one day on Prime Ministerial or Chief Ministerial chairs.