Love on mountain, marriage in air

PUNE: In a scene straight out of Who Dares Wins and Fear Factor, two mountaineering enthusiasts exchanged wedding garlands, suspended in the air at Duke''s Nose point, Lonavla (2,800-ft above the sea), on Sunday.
Ashirwad Ayre and Bharati Patil of Mumbai glided towards each other along a rope suspended between two cliffs 160 ft apart. Strapped to another rope, priest Sudhir Khare and fellow mountaineer Anil Natekar also descended and helped in the 15-minute airborne ceremony.
The priest chanted wedding hymns (mangalashtaka) over a loudspeaker, as nearly 200 friends, relatives and local villagers, poised along deep valley between the cliffs, cried Ganpati Bappa Morya, Shubhmangal Savdhan and even Appenliebe Lage Raho.The groom, in keeping with traditional Indian coyness, did not kiss the bride in public. Some TV channels broadcast the event across the country.
The mid-air ceremony was preceded by a traditional Maharahstrian wedding at the Shiva shrine atop the Duke''s nose cliff. The mid-air wedding was supported technically by mountaineers from the Dhumketu adventure group, Mulund, Mumbai.
On arriving at Duke''s Nose after the valley crossing, Bharati Patil, holding back tears of joy, said she had no words to describe her joy. "I always wanted to do something different in my life. Dhumketu and Aashirwad have fulfilled my wish. My husband has given me the greatest wedding gift... a camping tent."