Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor weds Sunanda Pushkar at his ancestral home in Elavanchery village at Palakkad district in Kerala on Sunday. PTI Photo

Palakkad (Ker):, Aug 22 (PTI): Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor today tied the knot with Dubai-based entrepreneur Sunanda Pushkar in a typical Malayali wedding ceremony in his ancestral home at Elavanchery village near here.

54-year-old Tharoor, a former UN Under Secretary General and now a Lok Sabha MP, tied the 'thali', symbolising the marital bond as per the Hindu custom, amid playing of 'Nadaswaram' and beating of drums at the auspicious moment shortly before 8.30 am.

While Tharoor was clad in traditional Malayali attire of kurtha and mundu, 48-year-old Sunanda, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, turned up in an off-white 'veshti-mundu set' like any Malayali bride would have preferred on her wedding.

Before the wedding ceremony, the two sought the blessings of gods and elders of the family, who included Tharoor's 94-year-old maternal grandmother Jayasankari Amma.