Coronavirus halts Gurugram’s wedding bells

With only a month left for her wedding, Pooja Malik was busy preparing for her big day with her family and friends, but her plans have hit a roadblock due to the

With only a month left for her wedding, Pooja Malik was busy preparing for her big day with her family and friends, but her plans have hit a roadblock due to the coronavirus outbreak. She had to make a difficult decision of postponing her April 14-wedding to a later date.

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“We had to call up all our guests and inform them about the postponed date, which is embarrassing as well as exhaustive. We made advance payments but are doubtful they will be refunded. Right from the decorators and food to bands, choreographers and caterers, we have to convince all of them about requiring their services on a later date,” the 27-year-old, who works with an MNC in the city, said.

She said that she took the decision after witnessing the increase in the number of positive cases. “All of us felt that it’s better to be safe than sorry,” she said.

Her caterer said that over the past few days, the company has seen increasing cases of postponed weddings because of the novel coronavirus. “It’s a scenario that’s increasingly playing out for us, as the couples are rearranging wedding plans amid fears over Covid-19 and travel restrictions. We had a lot of bookings for March-end and the first week of April, but all of them have been postponed,” said Karann Talwar, chef and managing director of Kitchen Kraft Luxury Catering.

He said that people have also stopped ordering non-vegetarian items for events.

The state health department on Sunday notified that under regulations of the Epidemic Disease Act, 1897, all social, cultural, sports, political, religious, academic and mass gatherings of 200 or more people are banned until March 31.

Kishan Dayma, director of Shubh Wedding Place, a tent service based out of Sector 53, said that many clients are postponing or cancelling bookings. “We have, so far, had two weddings postponed. One was to be held on March 25, but the client called up on Monday to shift it to April. Similarly, another wedding party is also considering shifting it from the fixed date of March 30. A lot of people come for these weddings from different parts of the country as well as abroad. There are mass gatherings and shaking of hands,” he said.

However, despite the scare, some people are still braving the virus to attend weddings of their closed ones.

Tracy deSouza, a resident of Mumbai, travelled to the city to attend a former colleague and friend’s wedding on March 15, keeping a strict vigil on her activities and surroundings. “Culturally and emotionally, it is very hard to not show up for someone’s wedding once you have committed to attend it,” she said.

“I wore one set of clothes for travel and immediately upon entering my hotel room, I took a hot shower and folded that set of clothes inside out and set them aside. At the airports, I kept to myself and didn’t touch anything unless necessary, and used my elbows to open doors. At the venues, there was lots of handwashing and everyone had sanitizers,” said deSouza.