Foreigners throng Agra to marry Indian "ishtyle"

Vijay Upadhyay
Agra. Foreign tourists coming to Agra in December and January are especially attracted by the numerous weddings they come across during their stay, particularly the groom dressed as an “Indian Maharajah”.
This coupled with the royal romance of the Taj Mahal pulls millions of love-birds from all over the world, many of whom express their wish to get married in the city of the Taj in “Indian” style, dressed like the Indian royalty.
It is this secret wish that travel agencies in Agra are now trying to encash, deviating from the weather-beaten path of tourism, offering traditional Indian “royal weddings” to foreigners. Honeymoon tour packages launched by tour operators include a “wedding in Agra” as the principal attraction. The success of this innovative approach can be assessed from the fact that in the current season that began last October, several couples have got married in Agra, taking back with them memories of a magical honeymoon in the city of the Taj.
These weddings, complete with a pandit, mandap and mangalsutra, are usually arranged in a five star hotel or private villas in the town, the tour operator offering the kanyadaan on behalf of the bride’s family. At these Indian weddings laddoos” and raita flow instead of cake and wine, the traditional red lehenga replacing the white wedding gown.
An Australian couple here tied the knot on the New Year’s eve in Agra at a five star hotel whose staff played family to the groom and the bride.
On Thursday, a new chapter was written in this trend with an inter-racial wedding for the first time. Taking time out from their busy schedules, two journalists from a UK weekly came to Agra to get married. The groom is a renowned photojournalist while the bride is a columnist with the same newspaper.
Talking to The Pioneer, Sabita Jain, director of Nirvana Tours, the travel operator which organised this “wedding trip”, said both the bride and the groom were British nationals and have intimate links with India. The bride, with a European lineage and an Indian first name and the groom, of African-American blood had several Indian celebrity friends but they preferred to make this wedding a private occasion, not inviting either families or friends.
Their travel operator had organised everything for them, from the wedding and a week long honeymoon in Agra and special trips to the Taj Mahal before and after the wedding. According to Jain, such wedding trips are becoming increasingly popular among foreigners.

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