Indians love their big fact
traditional weddings - rich in colours, clothes, jewels, noise and food.
And the west is
gradually getting hooked to it.
This is a tale of an extraordinary wedding that has the makings of a pot-boiler with a dash of poignant romance - weaving two cultures spanning two continents.
Conrad Roesky and
Michelle Alexander of South Louisiana in US had been in love for a decade.
They had been together through shine and rain. Conrad nursed Michelle back to health when she was seriously ill and as soon as she recovered, Conrad decided to tie the knot with Michelle.
He asked to marry him, but by then both of them were well in their fifties.
When Michelle agreed, the couple decided that there could be no better place to marry than Agra- the city of Taj Mahal in India, synonymous with the epic love story of Mughal emperor Shah Jahan and his queen Mumtaz Mahal for whom he built the marble mausoleum, said the ITC Mughal, a plush five-star property owned by the ITC hospitality group, in Agra.
The Taj Mahal is one of the seven wonders of the world. The dashing Shah Jahan- prince Khurram as he
was known as in his father Jahangir's court met Mumtaz Mahal dramatically at the Meena Bazar, the exclusive mart for the residents of the 'zenana' (women in the royal household) in Delhi.
The 14-year-old princess- a neice of empress Noor Jahan, Jahangir's wife- was selling beads. He fell in love with her and married five years later after his father married empress Noor Jahan late in life.
Michelle and Conrad wanted their wedding to be a Shah Jahan -Mumtaz Mahal kind of affair. The couple wrote to ITC Mughal to find out if they could organise a
traditional Indian-style wedding for them.
The hotel, which is known for its traditional hospitality and cuisine, rose to the occasion and planned a Hindu marriage. It was solemnized in a flower-bedecked mandap- a wedding enclave - by a pundit (priest).
The hotel staff joined in to make the occasion memorable for the special couple.
“Michelle and Conrad wore traditional Indian outfits and the priest chanted Sanskrit mantras. It was translated for the benefit of the American couple by a special translator. The sindoor ceremony, exchange of rings, the seven pheras (ritual circumnavigation) around the sacred fire and the exchange of garlands, were all done in traditional style,” said a spokesperson for the hotel.
After the wedding, Conrad exclaimed, “Now I feel truly married.”
But the wedding was straight out of the pages of history.
“The couple drove to the Taj Mahal in the hotel’s horse-drawn buggy and in the style of all newly-weds were photographed together with the Taj as a backdrop. On their return to the hotel, they lunched in private in their
Taj-facing luxury suite. By then a photograph of the couple taken during the wedding had been developed and placed in a special frame as a wedding gift from the hotel,” the spokesperson said.
After a short rest, it was time for treatment at the hotel’s award-winning spa, Kaya Kalp – The Royal Spa.
“The couple was led to a Mughal retreat, the special suite for couples, where they were each given a special Kaya Kalp massage with special Indian herbs and then left to bathe in private in a bath full of rose-petals,” the spokesperson said.
It was followed by a romantic candlelight dinner on the roof top.
Michelle and Conrad wined and dined with the shimmering Taj Mahal for company. “It glowed like a pearl and spun its magic. I almost fell like Mumtaz Mahal. The wedding is the culmination of all my dream and I always to marry in the city of Taj,” Michelle, the blushing bride, said describing her Mughal romance.
The hotel, ITC Mughal, is a popular wedding venue because the city of Taj is is one of the most popular wedding tourism destinations in the country, along with Goa and Kerala. Wedding tourism is a multi-million dollar industry in India.
--Madhusree Chatterjee