Indigo chaos: Newlywed couple unable to make it to their own wedding reception, attend it virtually

Sangram Das from Bhubaneswar and Megha Ksheerasagar of Hubballi got married in Bhubaneswar on November 23 in a small function including close family and friends. They planned to have their wedding reception on December 3 in the bride’s hometown.

While the reception venue was all decked up and the guests started arriving, the couple couldn’t make it in time as the flight disruption left them stranded in Bhubaneswar.

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According to their family members, Sangram and Megha, both of whom work as software engineers in Bengaluru, had booked their tickets on the Bhubaneswar-Bengaluru-Hubballi route for December 2 evening. The flight got delayed for hours and was finally cancelled at around 4 am the following day.

Anil Ksheerasagar, the bride’s father, told The Indian Express over the phone that when he came to know about the flight cancellation early in the morning, he immediately started thinking about alternate arrangements.

“Realising that there was no immediate mode through which my daughter and son-in-law could make it to the reception, we had to come up with a solution. An idea came to my mind — to ensure their presence virtually using technology. It came to mind may be because I regularly join online meetings to connect with my clients in different states,” said Anil, who is a chemist.

The necessary arrangements, including a large screen and high-speed internet, were made within hours. Anil asked the couple to be prepared to attend the programme virtually. “The guests at the reception were also taken aback as they didn’t even think that they could greet and bless the newly-weds virtually,” said Anil.

The couple apologised to the guests for not being present personally at the reception, while Anil and other family members attended to the guests at the venue in Hubballi.

Anil said the couple reached Bengaluru on Friday through a different carrier, from where they are travelling to Hubballi by road.