Bhubaneswar/Cuttack, Nov. 21: Wedding bells have started ringing, but on a muted note.
The sudden scrapping of high-value notes has hit preparations even as the wedding season starts today. But families are moving heaven and earth to ensure that the weddings in their homes are not ruined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dramatic attack on "black money".
Rakesh Parida's wedding will be held November 23. The 31-year-old finance professional from Khandagiri is struggling to make arrangements for taking his baraat to Puri, where the event will be solemnised.
"We need a car, four SUVs and a bus to travel to Puri for the wedding. But, the travel agents, florists and band party are insisting on cash payments. We need Rs 50,000 for the purpose and so far, I have managed to withdraw only Rs 10,000. I will have to borrow the rest from friends and relatives," said Rakesh.
Thankfully, Rakesh's wedding arrangements had started almost a month ago and he had withdrawn Rs 2 lakh on November 6. Of this amount, Rakesh spent around Rs 50,000 on buying clothes for relatives and family members.
"The demonetisation announcement was a setback as I was left with around Rs 1.5 lakh in old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes. I managed to exchange the old notes with a lot of difficulty. The government may have announced that the banks would give Rs 2.5 lakh for weddings, but bank managers tell us there is no cash and they have only read about the government announcement in the media," he said.
Rakesh said that since everyone arriving at his home for the wedding was aware of the demonetisation chaos, they had tried to make his life easier. "The most embarrassing moment was when a few of my relatives decided to leave. They did not want to put any additional burden on us," he said. The gathering of relatives at his home is lower than expected, Rakesh added.
His father Sarat Chandra Parida said a friend's son is getting married on December 22. "The announcement of allowing Rs 2.5 lakh withdrawal for meeting wedding expenses had cheered him up. But when he approached an SBI branch where he has an account, he was told that the facility is not available yet," Sarat said.
Cuttack businessman Amit Samantray, 38, has also had a hard time making arrangements for his own wedding, which was solemnised today. Organising the ceremony was a challenge for both his and his bride's families following the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.
Though both families had completed purchase of jewellery and other household articles long before the announcement of the demonetisation move, Samantray had to depend on his friends and relatives for getting new currency and notes of smaller denominations to meet daily expenses as well as making payments to the band party and florists.
Father of the groom, Pratap Samantray, 65, a retired employee of the State Road Transport Authority, said: "We asked all our relatives and friends to pitch in and provide us some cash so that the ceremony could be conducted smoothly," he said.
"We wanted to hold the reception at a mandap at Choudhry Bazaar. But now we have decided to shift it to Ganapati Sishumandir," said Ramesh Swain, a relative. He said everything associated with the ceremony had to be scaled down.
Like Amit and Rakesh, other families too are a worried lot. "We are facing many problems in arranging for money for my wedding," said Sukesh Behera, a resident of Alisha Bazaar in Cuttack.
