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| Floods hit marriage season in Kashmir | | Weddings postponed, people pray for rains to stop | | Fazal Khan
Srinagar, Sept 4: Incessant rainfall and floods inundating various parts of Kashmir have hit the marriage season across the Valley especially in Srinagar city. Many people have been forced to cancel the invitations which they had forwarded to their guests, while a few people have changed venues of the function. It's after a longtime that Kashmir has witnessed such a heavy rainfall in the month of September.
Marriages in Kashmir are an ostentatious affair and involve lakhs of rupees. From setting up of Pandaal to serving Wazwan cost a fortune and people make preparation for a marriage ceremony months in advance. September was considered to be a cool month which used to record a few millimeters of rainfall thus it used to be considered as one of the perfect month for marriage ceremonies. Newspaper offices received many notices today informing that Nikkah would be performed simply and there would be no grand feast and invitations stand cancelled.
"Erecting waterproof tents is no big deal but roads and parks where these have to be set up are inundated. We have advised our clients to postpone the marriage ceremonies till weather improves," said Bashir Ahmed, who runs a camping agency.
Shahid Ahmed whose daughter's marriage ceremony is scheduled for Friday and Saturday said, "We have been making arrangements for the past one year for the marriage but if rain doesn't stop we will have to cancel the feast and will have to go ahead with simple Nikkah ceremony." Usually people fix the dates of marriage ceremonies in Srinagar on weekends and this weekend was no different as many marriages were scheduled to be held on Saturday and Sunday.
The traditional cooks (Wazas) who prepare Wazwan, a special mutton cuisine, usually set up their cooking unit in open as they have to prepare huge quantity of mutton. They too have advised their clients to call off the functions. "Rains have played a spoilsport and situation is beyond our control. It won't be possible for us to work under these trying circumstances," said Lateef Ahmed of Wazapora.
As the weatherman predicted that rain would continue tillSaturday many people on Thursday evening decided to postpone their functions to next weekend hoping that by then weather would improve. Many posh colonies in Srinagar, including Baghat Barzulla, Jawahar Nagar, Rajbagh and other low lying areas have already been inundated and people have kept their fingers crossed. They are hoping that rains would stop and the water levels of the rivers flowing through the Srinagar city would recede. "If rainfall doesn't stop there is every possibility of all low lying areas in Srinagar getting flooded and people facing tremendous difficulties," said an official. |
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