A streetcar named 'Just Married': Couple sets off on a tram for happily ever after in Kolkata
Times of India | 19 December 2024
Ahmed and Ayesha pose with the tram after their nikah (left), with family and friends during the wedding inside the vehicle (right) KOLKATA: A Nonapukur tram depot staffer chose the vehicle closest to his heart - a tram - for his brother's nikah, which was performed on Kolkata's streets on Saturday evening. The family's decision and the wedding on wheels come at a time the Calcutta High Court is hearing a PIL opposing the phasing out of trams. The court, in an interim order, has asked Bengal govt to keep existing services running till mid-January, when the case will be heard next.
The state transport department hires out buses and trams for private functions, but this is the first time that someone has hired a tram for a wedding. It cost the family just Rs 3,540 for two hours.
Abdul Razzaque, 50, who has been working as a tram maintenance staff for the past 30 years, planned the unique wedding for his younger brother Ahmed Hussain, 32, a businessman. "My brother and his wife are starting a new life. It is a 12-year love affair that culminated in a grand manner. I decided to send out the message that Kolkata's trams, too, have a life ahead" said Razzaque.
Hussain, the groom, said he instantly supported his brother's idea. "At least, this way we can send a message to preserve the city's heritage," he said.
On Saturday, a yellow tram car called 'Balaka' that once plied on the Nonapukur-Esplanade route but is now rented out on weekends for joyrides was decked out in roses and velvet. Sporting a 'Just Married' board, it rolled out of the Nonapukur depot at 8pm, turning quite a few heads as it trundled down Elliot Road towards Esplanade escorted by a baraat on foot and a popular wedding band from MG Road .
Tram idea came as a surprise, gushes bride
Inside the tram car, around 9 pm, Ahmed Hussain and sweetheart Sweta Rani Rai, alias Ayesha Khatoon, of Mirik said 'Qubool Hai' in the presence of a kazi as 25-odd family members and guests cheered.
"Back home, I often took joyrides with my family on the 'toy train' but a wedding on a tram came as a complete surprise on the day of nikah," said the ecstatic bride, an assistant professor of food science and nutrition management in a Kolkata-based institute. "I think, like DHR, Kolkata's tram should also get heritage status," she added.
Horse-drawn trams were first seen on the streets of 'Calcutta' on Feb 24, 1873. The shift to electricity happened in 1902. In its heydays, more than 450 trams ran on 42 routes from dawn to midnight. Now, however, only eight ply on two routes. State govt seniors have repeatedly advocated closure of all routes except one - the heritage track between Maidan and Esplanade.
Debasish Bhattacharyya, president of Calcutta Tram Users' Association, said the novel wedding spelled out citizens' "involvement with and love for trams."
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