22 years after marrying in a school play, Kerala couple get married for real

Dubai: In 1997, two children in the state of Kerala, pretended to get married for a primary school play. The play was titled “An army man’s wedding”.

Twenty two years later, a captain in the Indian Army, Sreeram Renjith went on to marry Arya Sree, the very girl he pretended to marry in that play.

Renjith and Arya seem to be a match made in heaven, or to be precise, in primary school, right down to their similar sounding names. Turns out, the chain of events that led to their wedding on January 26 at the Bhavani Shivakhstera temple in Kerala, precedes their meeting, according to a report by Malayalam website azhimukham.com.

As part of the wedding celebrations, the couple visited friends, family and staff members at the SDPY (Sree Dharma Paripalana Yogam) School in the city of Kochi, where their story began.

Sandeep recalled in her Facebook post that Renjith was afraid before the play and said: “I don’t want to tie the knot, I just want to ring the bell [as part of the ceremonies].” She also remembers carrying home a sleepy Arya, tired out by a long day.

That could have been the end of the story. Renjith and Arya went their separate ways and did not interact again for a long time.

Renjith went on to write the National Defence Academy exams and become a captain in the Indian Army. As for Arya, she was doing her fourth year of medical school, 22 years later, when Renjith reached out to her on Facebook. Eventually, he proposed rekindling the old marriage, according to Malayalam news website asianetnews.com. A long conversation ensued and the couple came to the conclusion, that this wedding was always meant to be. Their families were more than happy to support them said the Asianet report.

Social media users were happy for the couple.

Facebook user Jacob John posted: “Made for each other! God Bless you both !”

Others took to calling it the next level of the ongoing social media craze - the 10-year challenge.

Mejobiju Biju commented on Sandeep’s Facebook thread: “I thought of calling and asking what this 22-year challenge was all about.”

According to Asianet, the only misfortune in this fairytale wedding was that Renjith and Arya were unable to find her a sari, a traditional Indian garment, in the same colour as the one she wore in the play.