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Yes this is possible only in India.Two minor girls both seven year old in a remote village in Tamil
Nadu were married to two frogs from the village pond.During Pongal the annual festival of harvesting this is a regular feature. Reason being to prevent outbreak of mysterious disease in the village.
The two girls Vigneshwari and Masiakali were dressed up like real brides with sarees and gold jewelery and the so called weddings were performed in two different temples with many villagers as guests.
They had regular weddings with vedic chants, garlands and so much so that auspicious time was also decided by the holy books for the weddings.The grooms, Frogs were unable to tie the sacred thread round the necks of their brides so this ceremony was performed by the Temple priests on their behalf.
The whole village divided into two parts for the grand ceremony with Eastern side being from Grooms side and Western being the brides side. The whole ceremony ended with a sumptuous feast for everyone.
It was not very comfortable for the grooms because the whole process in which the grooms side relatives had come to the brides place to fix up this weird wedding, after finalizing the whole details the grooms were fished out of the pond and tied to long sticks with garlands for their marriages.
After the marriage the grooms were unceremoniously thrown into the village pond again,their wives after having their 15 minutes of fame were back leading their normal life and villagers just enjoyed a feast with the waste of money which could have been used for something useful for the community good.
The administration as usual has woken up late to the fact that it will be conducting an inquiry after everything is over and done with.
Religious sentiments of the villagers are in the fore when they say it is a tradition followed through many generations to ward off diseases and evil spirits away from the village.
We are sending A Chandryaan to the moon and at the same time marrying homosapiens the most intelligent species to an amphibian. What a travesty of the so called progress.
Published: January 19, 2009
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