50,000 weddings and a festival

MUMBAI: When Borivli sweet shop owner Kinjal Patel recently received an order for several kilos of pedas to be packed individually in tiny boxes, he knew instantly it was for a wedding ceremony. Indeed it was. Across Mumbai , pedas are being parcelled, mandaps built and mares adorned as the city prepares to host an estimated 50,000 marriages on the auspicious mahurat of Akshay Tritiya over Thursday and Friday.
“Not a single marriage hall, banquet or five-star hotel in the city is available for booking given the annual rush. It is estimated that around 50,000 weddings will be held in Mumbai over Thursday and Friday,” says wedding planner Nitin Bedi. “Even my dholwallahs (drummers) are travelling to Goa for a Sindhi five-star wedding.”
However, sweating most on Friday, besides of course the nervous brides and grooms, will be Bijli. A white mare, Bijli is expected to ferry six bridegrooms on her back on the big day. “I will thrust six slips of paper with addresses marked into the pockets of my workers. They have been instructed to pull down the groom riding the mare and hoist the next one,” jokes Bijli’s owner and event organiser Girish Thapar.