Underwater wedding makes history

The traditional Hindu wedding lasted 36 minutes and 33 seconds, but the couple hope it will set a world endurance record for a marriage underwater.

Chandan Thakoor, 33, and his wife Dipti, 31, who got engaged in mid-air a fortnight ago, yesterday exchanged their vows wearing scuba gear over their traditional wedding clothes 12 feet under water in a Mumbai suburban pool.

"The wedding was like our dream come true," Chandan, now dressed in a grey suit and a red tie, told a post-ceremony news conference.

The happy couple said they had felt no fear despite staying submerged for more than half an hour, but the water pressure had left them feeling a little giddy and breathless.

"It was an emotional moment for us," bride Dipti said. "There was excitement and a great feeling that we had set out to accomplish a feat and we had succeeded."

Diving instructor Ravi Kulkarni, 35, who had trained the couple for more than a month before the big day, gave a commentary on the ceremony for nearly 500 invitees, and for dozens of press photographers and television cameramen.

The bride's father was among relatives who entered the water with the officiating Hindu priest to assist the couple, their clothes weighted down to hold their shape.

The ambience was that of a typical Hindu wedding with the 'mandap' or altar bedecked with flowers, a havan or pit of sacred fire in the centre and the strains of 'shehnai' in the air even as a priest chanted the Vedic mantras while guests milled around.

The underwater marriage mandap at Marine Centre, Vashi, had four decorative columns topped with flower bouquets. In the centre, emerging from the pool, was a pipe emanating flames of the sacred 'havan' designed by Nitin Desai of the film Devdas fame. It was only the commentator, speaking in Marathi, who informed the gathering what was happening below.

The bride's father, also under water, gave away his daughter to the groom. This was followed a little later, by the most significant part of the ceremony – the saptapadi or taking seven steps around the sacred fire to confirm them as husband and wife.

As the gathering cheered and the couple came up, they were helped out of their scuba gear and then, hand in hand, slowly made their way up the ramp. The bride in a deep pink salwarkameez was already wearing her bridal jewellery, only to later change into a beige and brown silk saree with make-up and hairdo to face the cameras and the press.

"It was a great experience and we loved every minute of it," the bride later said. The only problem, risky to their lives, was that they spent far more time under water. "There was a lot of water pressure and one tends to breathe more. I felt a little dizzy."

So far, the longest underwater marriage ceremony to enter the record books was that of about 10 minutes. The process of getting into the Guinness Book of World Records is a lengthy one, but the information has already been sent across to the organisation.

"We both love adventure and met each other when we were travelling in Ladakh where we fell in love," Dipti told reporters.

Her husband added: "Our parents agreed to our wish but said they would give permission only if all the rituals of the Hindu wedding were observed, especially the most important of all – the saptapadi. Both did not know how to swim before they started their three-week intensive training.