Gobi: IT professional S. Praveena chose to ride a bullock cart to her wedding on Wednesday. That was her way of demonstrating love for the family roots in farming at nearby Athanikallipatti. The marriage to Kavi Aravind, a mechanical engineer by qualification and farmer by choice, took place at the Amman temple at Pariyur, about 3 km from here.
“This is simply wonderful, such a beautiful experience to ride this bullock cart to our wedding”, gushed Praveena, 25. Her agriculturist father has given the cart to the young couple as part of the wedding gifts and even arranged for a decorated horse carriage for the marriage procession, movie-style.
“From the rush job as an IT professional through three shifts, leading a mechanical life without time even for a proper lunch, this rural life appears so divine”, said the bride.
Groom Aravind, also 25, said it was “an arranged marriage” and the choice to give up her IT job for being a farmer’s wife was “entirely Praveena’s”. She had quit the job a few weeks ago to prepare for the wedding and is all ready now to take up her new role: assisting him in the paddy fields.
Aravind says his bride arrived in the bullet cart gifted by her father from her house at Athanikallipatti to his place at Vellalapalayam — a distance of a little over three km. After that the two rode in that cart to the Amman temple for the wedding before the family deity.
“We went in a grand procession of more than 15 bullock carts”, says Aravind, adding that there was a ride on a horse carriage after the ceremony.
“Both of us are keen that we pursue agriculture and carry forward our family traditions as farmers. I am a graduate in mechanical engineering and Praveena had done her masters in computer applications. That does not matter. The heady smell of mother earth is so endearing”, says Aravind.
