An Indian couple arrived in unusual style for their wedding after sailing the flooded streets of their city in a saucepan after heavy rains devastated the southern state of Kerala.
Footage shared on social media showed the newlyweds being squeezed into the aluminum ship while two men and a photographer paddled the couple down an underwater street.
The couple reportedly borrowed the pot from a local temple, adding that it was “the only option” available at short notice, local PTI news agency reported.
Undeterred by the floods and landslides caused by heavy rains that killed at least 27 people across the state, the pair didn’t want to postpone their big day.
So this couple from the Alappuzha district of Kerala waded through the floods in a large cook ship to get to their wedding venue. Even the wedding venue was flooded but luckily they managed to get married without missing the Muhurtham time 🙂 pic.twitter.com/mqldzgKIkd
– Shilpa (@ Shilpa1308) October 18, 2021
Footage later showed the bride and groom arrive safely and dryly at a small, partially flooded temple in Thalavady, where they exchanged garlands of flowers, a tradition in many Hindu wedding ceremonies.
“It turned out to be a wedding that we never imagined,” the bride told local news channel Asianet.
The two were determined to hold the ceremony despite the extreme weather.
“Should have booked a boat instead of a car …”, a man could be heard in the background of a video, reported the Agence France-Presse.
According to local media reports, husband and wife Akash and Aishwarya both work in health care at a hospital in Chengannur.
Heavy rains have caused severe flooding and deadly landslides across the state in the past four days. Rivers have overflowed, bridges and roads washed away, and sometimes entire cities and villages have been cut off.
Pictures from the area showed cars and buses being flooded by the floods as several houses were washed away in mud and rubble.
Rescuers searched for survivors on Monday as the Army, Navy and Air Force supported relief and rescue operations.
Sheeba George, the senior official in the Idukki district, told local media that dozens of families were evacuated from their homes before the dam opened.
The state government said it had evacuated thousands of people and set up over 100 relief camps.
From October 20, the region will be hit by widespread rainfall, including occasional heavy downpours, for the next two to three days, the state government announced on Monday. In 2018, floods killed nearly 500 people in the worst flood to hit the state in nearly a century.
With Agence France-Presse and Reuters
