Mother, in hospital with cancer, sees son’s Skype wedding

KOLKATA: A room in Ruby General Hospital on Thursday evening transformed into a wedding venue, when a man decided to fulfil his terminally ill mother’s wish, the last one perhaps. He got married to his bride, who is now overseas, through Skype.
Bhaskar Roy Bardhan (33), an assistant professor of physics in State University of Newark, Geneseo and Chandrima Chatterjee, a Phd student in the US, were to get married on December 15.But time was running out as Bardhan’s mother Bhaswati (61) is at the terminal stage of pancreas cancer. She was admitted about a week now and her condition is deteriorating.

Bride Chandrima Chatterjee seeks blessings from Bhaswati over Skype; the ‘boron dala’ used during the wedding.
“My mother has been on palliative care for quite sometime now. As her condition kept deteriorating she was worried if she would be able to witness her only son’s marriage. We decided not to wait till December 15,” said Bhaskar.
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Since his bride is in the US, they decided to get married through Skype at the hospital. To make sure that his mother doesn’t sense anything, Bardhan told her that his sister, who lives in Canada and is now in Kolkata, was returning to Canada. The hospital arranged a suite so that other patients were not disturbed and shifted the patient there. With a laptop in his hand, the groom told his mother that the wedding ceremony was about to start. Over the Skype, the duo exchanged vows with minimal rituals like boron dalaand sindoor daan.
“My mother was drowsy and too feeble to speak. But I could see a faint smile on her face and tears of joy. This was a blessing for me and the bride,” Bhaskar said. “The patient’s condition is deteriorating and she wanted to see her only son’s wedding. So the hospital made the arrangements,” said Dr Arindam Roy Chowdhuri, consultant internal medicine.