Henna designs on a bride's hands. Representative Image.
Credit: Reuters Photo
Lucknow: For the casual onlookers and the passers by, it was indeed a wedding even though the venue, which was a stinking nullah filled with sewage water in Uttar Pradesh's Agra town, appeared to be quite shocking.
There was a priest, who recited the mantras and the couple also garlanded each other and after the wedding the 'guests' enjoyed a sumptuous lunch as well.
But for the residents of the nearby colonies in the town it was a unique way to protest the failure of the local authorities to provide drainage, roads and other civic facilities despite their best efforts in this regard.
This unique protest took place in Nagla Kali area in the town on Sunday.
Scores of residents of the locality assembled at the venue, which in fact was a road that had turned into a nullah filled with sewage water and witnessed the wedding, which in fact was the 17th marriage anniversary of Bhagwan Sharma and Uma Devi, who had been living in the locality for the past many years.
On Sunday, Uma Devi went to a beauty parlour, dressed like a new bride and arrived at the venue. Her husband Bhagwan Sharma, who was also dressed like a groom, arrived there with the 'baratis' (guests) and the couple garlanded each other amid chanting of mantras by a priest. The guests carried placards displaying, 'No sewer, no vote....no roads, no vote''.
A community feast was also organised later and the guests enjoyed lunch standing on the muddy and stinking road.
''We wanted to draw the attention of the local authorities....all our efforts to get them to act have failed....so we decided to protest in this fashion...maybe now they will do something in this regard,'' Sharma said as he got into the car to take the 'bride' home.
He said that the residents of the colonies had been staging protest demonstrations for the past several years without any success.
It remains to be seen if this unique protest will now yield some results for the residents.