BHUBANESHWAR (India): In a scene which could have come from the Bollywood movie, Hum Dil de Chuke Sanam (I have given you my heart), a husband in the east Indian state of Orissa has allowed his wife to return to her lover, even hosting her second wedding with help from villagers.
The incident happened in the village of Ishwarpur, 150 kilometres east of the state capital Bhubaneshwar, police said.
Niranjan Rout, 28 married a woman called Pinky on July 7 in an arranged match, local police officer Satish Chandra Ray told AFP.
However, she confessed to her new husband that she loved Abhiram Das from the same village but could not marry him because of caste issues. Instead of becoming angry Rout decided to let her live with the man she loved, Ray said.
The story almost mirrors that of the film starring former Miss World Aishwarya Rai who enters an arranged marriage, but loves another man. Her husband decides to take his new bride back to her true love but instead they stay together.
“With the majority of the villagers supporting Pinky to remarry Das, we had not much of a role except to mediate with the concerned families and villagers to pre-empt any sort of violence,” Ray said.
Pinky married Das on July 15 in a local temple in the presence of villagers, family members and a public notary, village elder Yaswant Kumar Jethwa told AFP.
The villagers are now busy looking for a new bride for Rout.—AFP
