Bridegroom Dumped Twice in 24 Hrs

KOLAR (India): Brides being dumped at the altar is the stuff soppy movies are made of. But heard of a bridegroom being ditched at the marriage mantap, that too not once but twice inside of 24 hours? Filmi as it may sound, that's what happened in Kolar, 70 km from Bangalore, on Sunday.

Manjunath and Anitha were engaged eight months ago. The March 7 marriage seemed on track with all the pre-marriage rituals going swimmingly well. Just as the groom was preparing to tie the mangalsutra, the bride — a la Kareena Kapoor in 3 Idiots — stunned her family and friends saying she wasn’t willing to go through the marriage as she was in love with Nagaraja, who, incidentally, was present in the wedding hall.

It soon dawned on the guests that the object of Anitha’s affection was amidst them. Unsurprisingly, he and his friends were at the receiving end of blows rained on them by the irate gathering. In the melee, Anitha and Nagaraj escaped and sought police protection, which was promptly given.

Here’s where the drama restarts. The elders figured that an eloping bride was no reason to stop Manjunath’s marriage and they would look for a bride for him from among those present. They settled on Mamatha, a 16-year-old, first-year PU student and a close relative of the brideless Manjunath. Mamatha, playing outside the marriage hall with other children, was brought in and dressed up. She went through the ceremony crying as she had no desire to marry Manjunath.

The twist in the tale starts now. The newly-wed went to Manjunath’s house, but Mamatha left with her brother as she had exams on Monday. Her brother did, indeed, drop her off at the college. However, a couple of hours later, he was horrified to know Mamatha, instead of taking the exam, had eloped with her boyfriend, Anil Kumar.

Shivaswamy, sub-inspector of police of Bangarpet in Kolar pleaded ignorance of Mamatha’s minor status. Manjunath, dumped twice in a day, is left wondering if he will ever find a bride again.

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