Jalandhar's Lohian still under water, boats keep baraat afloat

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

Jalandhar, September 24

Kuldeep Kaur (25) while preparing for her wedding had dreamt of her groom on a majestic horse. However, when floods engulfed Dhakka Basti village in Lohian block, Jalandhar, she realised that her dream would not come true as the groom arrived at the venue not on a horse, but on a boat. It was a wedding that took place in a gurudwara at Gatta Mundi Kasu village and the ‘baraat’ and ‘doli’ waded through the flooded village in a boat. For more than two months, the village has remained flooded and there is no other way to Dhakka Basti, but boat.

The groom, Gursevak Singh of Dhakka Basti village, got married to Kuldeep Kaur from Tarn Taran on Saturday. Anxiety gripped everyone as many relatives skipped the functions because of water all around. The villagers also were keeping their fingers crossed.

For the last many days, all arrangements were being made by using a boat. “You name anything. From chairs for guests to sit, tents, big utensils to cook, our attires for the wedding day and furniture for our house, everything was brought by boat,” Gursevak said.

When he set off from his home towards the gurudwara on a boat on Saturday morning, he couldn’t even wear his wedding dress as rain had started in the morning. He then had to get ready in the gurudwara itself.

Gulwinder Singh, paternal uncle of Gursevak, said that their fields were still submerged under 4 feet of water and they had lost the entire paddy crop in the deluge. “Jiddan da socheya si, ohdan da vyah nahee kar paye. Agar sab theek hunda te vadiya tarike naal karde (we couldn’t organise the ceremonies the way we had thought. If everything would have been alright, then we would have organised the marriage in a better way),” he maintained.

One of the villagers, Balwinder Singh, who attended the wedding, said that whenever there was any function, the entire village used to participate. “But this time, it was different. Hardly one family member from every household attended the wedding because of the situation, but we are happy that everything went off peacefully,” he said.