Pre-wedding rituals of archer Deepika begin in Ranchi

Ranchi: The pre-wedding rituals of archer couple — Deepika Kumari (26) and Atanu Das (28) — kicked off at Deepika’s ancestral house at Ratu Chatti here on Sunday. ‘Bansaropam’ and ‘Kalyani Puja’ were held on Sunday morning, followed by‘haldi rasam’ in the afternoon. Deepika will tie the knot with her archer beau from Kolkata, Atanu Das, at a banquet hall in the Morhabadi area of Ranchi on Tuesday.
“The pandemic has taken the sheen out of my daughter’s wedding, but we are still no less excited with the event,” Deepika’s father Shiv Narayana Mahto said, adding that the biggest challenge was to draw up the guest list. As per the government norms issued in the wake of Covid-19, no more than 50 people are allowed at a wedding ceremony.
As a safety measure, the family has installed two sanitizer dispensers at the entrance of their house. They also plan to distribute masks and other safety kits to the attendees at the marriage venue.
Both Deepika and Atanu have qualified for next year’s Tokyo Olympics and are set to become only the second married couple from India to participate in the quadrennial games. In the 1972 Munich Olympics, Vece Paes and his wife Jennifer Paes became the first Indian couple to take part in the Olympics. Paes is a former hockey player while his wife represented India in basketball.