The efficacy of such a ritual in bringing showers to a drought hit region is to be judged by one’s own faculty of reason but if sources are to be believed, it rained during the wedding. (Photo: ANI)
Two men in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore married each other in a symbolic gesture to ‘appease the rain gods.’ The rituals were conducted even as several districts of the state are reported to have a rainfall deficit. The efficacy of such a ritual in bringing showers is doubted but it reportedly rained during the wedding.
Locals witnessed the two men, dressed in traditional wedding attire, putting garlands on each other and circling the ceremonial fire. The Times of India reported that there was a ‘proper baraat and the usual dancing to Bollywood numbers as the marriage possession passed through the main roads of the locality.’
“There was no bride. Both Sakaram and Rakesh were grooms in this marriage. They tied the knot as a gesture to draw Indradev’s attention for good rain on Indore,” Ramesh Singh Tomar, the organizer, told the newspaper. Tomar said that Indians have taken to western culture and same-sex marriages and live-in relationships are now a common feature. “It gave me the idea of performing a marriage between two men as a gesture to please the gods for rainfall,” he said. Post the rituals, the two men returned to their wives.
Responding to reports of drought in the state, Union Minister Uma Bharati had earlier stated that her ministry has proposed to irrigate 1,71,030 hectares and 68,007 hectares of land in areas of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh falling in the Bundelkhand region under the incentivisation scheme for bridging irrigation gap. The scheme will benefit Jhansi, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Lalitpur and Banda districts of Uttar Pradesh and Tikamgarh and Datia districts of Madhya Pradesh, she added.
