Pune: If you thought life after marriage was difficult, then spare a moment for those who had a difficult time getting married on Wednesday, that too on the auspicious day of Akshaya Tritiya.
As many as 60 couples who booked their appointment two months ago at the marriage registrar’s office to get married on this auspicious day, were forced to wait the entire day on Wednesday - first due to power failure, and then because the computer was not functioning properly.
The brides and grooms started arriving at the marriage registrar’s office from 10 am but there was no electricity in the area. The entire process of registering a marriage is now online. Around 17 couples were registered taking help of power back-up.
Computer breakdown
However, in the afternoon, the lone computer in the office stopped working and couples were asked to wait till the problem was fixed.
One of the waiting grooms, who possibly came from a computer education background, even helped the official there to fix the problem.
A young woman from Hadapsar told Sakal Times that she arrived at 10.30 am. “It is 4.30 pm now. We were informed that the computer is not working and one of the other grooms even tried to solve it. We had fixed this date two months ago, but missed the ‘muhurat’ of Akshaya Tritiya.”
Problems galore
The officials claim that due to rain and strong winds on Tuesday, the wires in the area was damaged and the electricity was disrupted since Tuesday evening. However, when electricity supply resumed at around 1.30 pm on Wednesday, the computer stopped working.
The brides and grooms and their family members waited outside in the sun in the afternoon.
A groom arrived from Dhanori at 11 am and was still waiting for his turn at 5 pm, told Sakal Times, “There is no seating arrangement and people are standing in this heat.” His friend had booked a restaurant for lunch for friends and family, but due to delay in marriage, they had to cancel their booking, losing the money paid there in advance.
A bride’s father, fasting till the marriage as per tradition, lamented the fact that they even missed the auspicious muhurat because of terrible planning by officials.
Justification by Marriage Registrar
Marriage Registrar AK Nandkar said, “We managed with power back-up till 1.30 pm but suddenly the computer stopped working. This is an online procedure. We sent the computer for repair to the nearest private shop. The computer was fixed at 7.30 pm.” He said they are committed to complete the process for every couple irrespective how much time it takes.
