Kadapa: As the Coronavirus is rearing its ugly head again in the second wave, it is casting a pall of gloom of a new kind. Thousands of weddings are being postponed due to the widespread fear caused by the rampaging Coronavirus both among invitees as well as organisers.
Not only that, crippling travel disruptions are also caused by the Covid-19, with several countries barring travel.
A veteran journalist from Visakhapatnam who had decided to celebrate his son's wedding on May 14 put it off as the groom was not able to arrive from the US in time for the wedding. The US has suspended flights to India due to the second wave.
In another instance, the son of an employee from Kadapa is working in Singapore. It was decided to get him married on June 4 in Visakhapatnam. Arrangements were being made for the big event from December. With the cancellation of international flights, the marriage has had to be postponed under unavoidable circumstances.
Thousands of weddings were scheduled for May and June, there were no muhurtams from 2020 December to April 30, 2021. Besides, the state government is also discouraging the gathering of crowds and is allowing only around 20 people to attend marriages. With most of marriages getting postponed as a result, life has become miserable for many dependent on conduct of marriages.
There are more than 15 wedding muhurtams lined up in May 2021. May 2, 4, 13, 14, 19, 21, 22, 24 and 26 to 31 are auspicious times to perform weddings. There are up to 10 more muhurtams in June. There will also be weddings on June 3, 4, 5, 16 to 20, 23, 24, 26, 27. Many elders are strongly determined to have weddings for their children on these dates but are being forced to defer due to the raging pandemic and lockdown restrictions. Exactly a year ago, it was a similar situation with wedding festivities being put off for six months from March 20. However, a few marriages did take place on a smaller scale.
Since the third week of January 2021, with the onset of Venus, good muhurtams ceased up to April 30. The corona epidemic has been hampering weddings and other festivities since May 2 this year.
Workers employed in the function halls, catering staff, photographers, video studios, hall decoration workers, etc. are much worried as their livelihoods are at stake. The owner of a wedding hall in Kadapa said five people who had booked their convention hall in May put off the weddings.
