MANGALURU: It is common for celebrities to grab all the attention, especially at weddings or other private functions, but at the wedding of Bharath Bangera and Megha, which took place at Udupi, recently, the stars were Padma Shri awardee and Halakki tribal folk artiste Sukri Bommagowda and Padma Shri Tulasi Gowda known as the encyclopedia of the forest, along with a team of Siddi tribals. The team from Uttara Kannada district grabbed everyone’s attention, and guests got selfies taken with these women on their mobile phones, and interacted with them.
Beach cleaning drives brought Bharath Bangera and Megha together. Bharath, an entrepreneur, is also the head of the Clean Kundapur project, a beach cleaning initiative that has completed 85 weeks. The cleanliness drive happens every Sunday. Megha is an architect and conservationist, who collects bottles thrown at Tannirbhavi Beach, and converts them into decorative pieces. Before the pandemic, she used to conduct ‘One step forward’ camps, with a focus on environmental conservation.
Megha told TOI, Halakkis expressed their unconditional love towards us by composing a Shobane song and presented it as our family members were offering an arati, to us as part of a ritual. “The Siddhis have showered their blessings on us. We had invited them personally, and were happy to see all of them. We felt blessed indeed,” she said.
Bharath said, “Our families were happy and supportive of our decision to invite them. We tried our best to see that the three-day wedding celebration, which included a mehendi ceremony, wedding and reception, was an eco-friendly one. No plastic was used by us, and invitations were made from recycled paper with paper seeds of palak plant, that was packed in a jute cover prepared by Megha.”
“We aimed to set an example and reduce waste. We used corn starch cups instead of paper cups, and even for the car decoration, we used straw mats with leaves, and all this was possible because of the support of the Clean Kundapur volunteers. Our only aim was to make a difference by reducing plastic waste, and have genuine environmentalists present,” said Bharath.
Environmentalist Dinesh Holla said Megha shares a special bond with Sukri ajji and Tulasi ajji. Both wanted to be present for her wedding. During the Parisara Sammelana held last year, Sukri Ajji and Tulasi Gowda had stayed in Megha’s house and hence knew her family well.