Sushant Ranjan
Patna, 20 April 2021: Many youths will have to wait again for a few months or a year to get married. The pandemic has forced them to postpone their marriage date.

There are about 600 small and large marriage lawns/halls in Patna and nearby areas. So far, 50 percent of the bookings have been cancelled. Not only this, the owners of marriage lawns, hotels and guest houses are returning the booking amount too.

The father of a 26-year-old girl said that her marriage was scheduled for May first week, but due to coronavirus pandemic, now the marriage date has been rescheduled in November.

On condition of anonymity, he said, “We have arranged everything. The marriage hall was booked, the invitation card was about to get printed. But due to the pandemic and night curfew, we are forced to postpone the marriage. We are looking for a new date.”

Not only marriage halls but hotels were booked for marriages are also being cancelled.

Families have been facing a lot of problems since last year for weddings. At the same time, many people have extended marriages till November-December.

From April to June, around 25 to 30 weddings and other ceremonies were scheduled and the marriage gardens were booked, now all of them have been forced to cancel. Last year a large number of marriages were postponed due to the Corona epidemic.

Mukul Sinha, the owner of Sai Decorator and Caterers, located in Gardanibagh, said, “We are facing the same situation as last year. Around 6-7 booking have been cancelled. The date has been rescheduled for November this year. This year many of us were looking for hope but the situation is the same. We are facing a huge revenue loss.”

The owners of the banquet hall, florist, wagger, band, shehnai, caterer and the electricians are in big trouble. Every year from April to June gives them employment but for the last two years, they have been almost jobless.