The coronavirus crisis and the need to maintain social distancing has forced people to postpone their wedding ceremonies, but Indian archers Atanu Das and Deepika Kumari are going ahead with their plans to tie the knot.
But the archery stars will need to follow government guidelines which limits public gatherings to a maximum of 50 people. And it has become an issue with their relatives and friends, with many of them asking for the wedding to be postponed again.
"We are getting married to get the marriage out of the way as we have been engaged for almost two years now. Samajik vivah karna chahte hai bas,” Atanu told The Tribune.
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When they got engaged in 2018, the archers became the latest Indian sporting pair and their original wedding was scheduled last year. But it was shelved after the women's national team failed to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
"There is a government rule that limits the gathering so we are having to think before sending out the invitations," Atanu added. "We are also having to think about how to ensure that the guests wear masks all the time and maintain distance. The people serving food will wear masks and gloves. We have to be safe and keep others safe."
"There have been at least three times when we wanted to speak to our parents about marriage, but a lot of things didn’t go to plan. So when we returned home from national camp, we told our parents that this was the right time,” Atanu explained.
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Deepika had secured an individual quota for India, and they then thought of getting married after the Tokyo Olympics, but the event was postponed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“We were given two muhurat dates, in June and November. We decided to get married now as by November we hope sport would be resuming and we would have to be ready for competitions,” Antanu said.
