Karnataka: Officials turn parents' for govermnent home inmate's big day

Mysuru: Losing her parents in a crowd when she was barely seven years old, Mariyamma has found her “happy ever after” 17 years later.

Raised in a government home for girls in Mysuru, and later lodged in the government state home for women, the girl, now 24, lost her parents, Jnanamma and Jacob, in a crowd on a visit to Bengaluru as a seven-year- old and never imagined she would find happiness again.

But destiny and her new “family,” members of the office of women and child development, led her to Yogesh from Sringeri , a field assistant in organic farming employed with an NGO and the two were married on Thursday.

Dressed in her bridal attire, Mariyamma blushed as she posed for photographs with her husband and his family, while officers of the women and child development department, including its deputy director, Ms Radha and Mysuru Deputy Commissioner, D Randeep, who turned up for the wedding reception in all their finery, stood in for her “relatives.”

Her wedding gift? A Rs 20,000 National Saving Certificate from the department of women and child development handed over by Mr Randeep. Recalling Mariya's story, Ms Veena C, superintendent of the state home for women in Mysuru, said all she remembers about her parents is that they sold pooja items before a temple. “We have not been able to trace them to date. Rescued by the police, Mariya was at the government home for girls in Bengaluru till class VIII and later moved to the Mysuru home where she completed her class X. Later she moved to the Sthree Seva Niketana, the state home for women in Mysuru. She has done BA in psychology and was employed in a firm which she quit after her wedding was fixed,” she said.

Mariya owes her new life to Chaitanya, a former inmate of the government home for girls, who married one Mahesh from Kaanoor near Srigeri in 2008, and now has a son, Rakesh. She introduced her husband’s cousin, Yogesh to Mariya seven months ago and the couple hit it off immediately. After checking his background the department decided to give them its blessings. As Mariya is a Christian and Yogesh, a Brahmin, the two got married at the sub registrar’s office.

They will be married according to Brahmin rites in Sringeri on August 11. The ceremony may have been simple, but the guests were served a sumptuous lunch of Mysuru and Malnad cuisines.

“I have no words to express my happiness,” said an elated Mariya, hardly able to believe her fairytale-like “happy ending.”