Karachi to Kolkata, big, fat live-streamed Indo-Pak wedding melts borders
Times of India | 5 January 2024
JAIPUR: When Karachi resident Jaweria Khanum tied the knot with Kolkata businessman Sameer Khan on Thursday, it was not just awinter wedding in the city; it was a knot that tied hearts while melting man-made borders, with yummy food and even a Mercedes-Benz thrown into the big, fat Indo-Pak wedding mix.
Thanks to technology, the band, baaja, baraathappened on both sides of the border. Every detail of the ceremony was live-streamed for the benefit of the bride’s Pakistani relatives, who could not make it to Kolkata. The events — from mehendi and haldi to baraat, nikah and dawat — were live-streamed to allow the bride’s family in Pakistan to join the celebrations virtually.
On Wednesday, the mehendi and haldi ceremonies were followed by a song and dance ritual, in which Jaweria and Sam-eer were joined by Sameer’s father, Ahmad Kamaal, and mother Nusrat. Jaweria’s father Azmat Islam Khan, mother Shaista and her siblings — sisters Sara and Qainat, and brother Taimur — joined in from Karachi.
Bride Jaweria Khanum’s parents, siblings and relatives were unable to attend the ceremony in Kolkata due to visa issues. Though she missed them, she was all smiles, resplendent in a maroon lehenga presented by her mother-in-law.
“I wish my family were here. But my in-laws are my new family, and I am so happy to celebrate this day that we have all been looking forward to for years,” she told TOI.
Jaweria and groom Sameer Khan had to wait almost four years, first for the pandemic and then, visa delays.
The absence of the bride’s family was made up for by the substantial presence of Sameer’s relatives. Over 150 guests, who arrived from UP, checked into three hotels in Park Circus. “My father’s side is from Bahadurgarh near Hapur in UP, while my mother’s is from Meerut.
They are all here — maternal and paternal grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins,” said Sameer, decked up in an off-white sherwani gifted by his mother-in-law.
Ahmad Kamal is in leather goods manufacture and export business, with his sons Sameer and Shaz. Shaz gifted his brother and sisterin-law a Mercedes-Benz C Class.
On Thursday, the guests gorged from a smorgasbord of traditional delicacies: Lucknow tunday kebab, mutton haleem, mutton nehari, fruits, mutton Lucknowi dum biryani, chicken Hyderabadi kacchi biryani and mutton adana kebab among other items.
Sameer had first seen Jaweria’s photo on his mother’s mobile in 2018 and instantly knew he would marry her. Jaweria, daughter of a maternal cousin of Nusrat, agreed to the match and the families consented to the wedding in 2019. As the two families had not met because of visa issues, a meeting was organised in Bangkok in February 2020, just before the pandemic.
The efforts to get the wedding underway resumed in 2021-end but visa issues kept all on tenterhooks. After failing to get visas twice, Jaweria was third-time lucky and crossed the Attari-Wagah border on December 5, flying into Kolkata the same day.
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