COVID-19: Wedding party stays at bride’s home for 35 days
When they were supposed to return, a nationwide lockdown was enforced by government
Patna: A wedding party has been staying at the house of bride for the past 35 days in Bihar, leaving the bride family in a peculiar situation. The procession has got stuck due to nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus, which resulted in suspension of all transport services.
The wedding party had arrived at Mathia village in Bihar’s East Champaran district from Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh on March 20 to solemnise the marriage of Salma with Abid.
Salma’s father Anwarul Miyan was on cloud nine when the wedding party, which comprised 30 members arrived at his home to perform the wedding.
However, right on the day when the wedding group was to return, a nationwide lockdown was enforced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This left the guests with no choice but to stay at the bride’s home since all kinds of transport services, from trains to buses, stood suspended overnight.
The bride family hoped the lockdown would come to an end on April 14 but suffered another setback when it was further extended to May 3.
Guests served only one meal a day
Initially, the family head tried to arrange food on his own, but as he faced limits due to the lockdown, he sought help from the neighbours and village council officials. But now all have expressed their helplessness to extend further help to the family.
“We are indeed caught in a critical situation. We don’t know how to serve the guests who are stuck at my home. Initially our neighbours and village council members helped me but now they are maintaining a distance from me,” said a sullen Anwarul. “The situation is such that for the past 10 days, I am able to serve food to the guests only once in 24 hours,” he said.
Another problem for the guests is that Bihar is strictly enforcing the lockdown with the number of COVID-19 cases increasing fast. In the past 24 hours, as many as 54 cases of COVID-19 have been reported from across the state, bringing the total number to 197.
Alarmed at the situation, the state government has ordered for conducting house-to-house survey of every village across the total 38 districts of the state on the line of pulse polio immunisation drive.